Wildlife Working Dogs- Scent Detection

[wanderingwoman]

Hello,
I'm back in BC after spending a few years in Alaska. I've spent the last couple of years working and running sled dogs in Alaska, and tracking with cougar hounds in the SW US. So I've decided I want to continue working with dogs. I have a 8 month old accidental puppy that is half border bollie- half southern hunting hound (from my friend's hound yard) and he is all nose and lots of brain- which is perfect for scent detection work.

I'm an ecologist and fisheries and wildlife biologist by trade, and I am hoping to start Rango on some wildlife inventory projects focused on scent detection; namely scat and track detection. Has anyone heard of this type of work being done in BC? If so, by whom? It would be good to connect with people who use working dogs around BC.

Thanks!

[pnbrock]

Now I see why u want to train a dog to find shit!!

[Spokerider]

There was a young woman studying cougar populations and travel patterns on the west coast of Van Isle. Think it was her thesis project at UVic, and there was an article about her printed in a local paper. Anyway, she had enlisted the help of a guy that used a dog for track and scat location. It wasn't a hunting dog, only used it to to find cat scat. I googled her name and found an article about her.........but I have long since forgotten her name...

Anyway, any dog with half a nose and an inherited desire to scent gamey-critters would do the trick. The problem might end up being that your dog wants to do more than just sniff scat and take chase.
Farmers of yesteryear used collie dogs to track cougar, and of course, you already know some hounds do. Your accidental pup may well have that desire. The key will be in your training for such measures.

[835]

Isnt scent tracking a big part of the DD's job? google deutsche drahthaar have a look.what you are asking is not part of my Dogs job,,,, He finds scat fer sure but he has this tendancy to eat it!

I know scent tracking is big in hunting, for finding shot game. If you find how its done in that respect you should then just have to put your "Twist" on it

[Jimsue]

I have never trained for either of these things, but would the find poop not require the dog to sit by it when he finds it like a drug dog?

[wanderingwoman]

Thank you for all of the great advice! Yes, the scent discrimination part can be trained using drug dog techniques, i.e., sitting as soon as finds scat. just like a drug dog. Right now he just sniffs and eventually sits down when I make him but he likes to sniff it. And that's often how he points it out to me as I am hiking behind him. Stuff to work on...

Always lots to work on. Right now, because he is only 8 months old, we are also working on basic instant recall and trying to calm his instinct to chase but encourage his same instict to pick up scent and track. It's a rather difficult, but this shock collar I bought, combined with a clicker tool, seems to be keeping the training moving along.

Any insight anyone has along the way to share would be appreciated! Thanks!!

Alyson

[Foxton Gundogs]

It should be no diffrent than any other type of training. I have sold dogs for security scent training at airports, trained dogs for man tracking and also upland birds and what I have observed is that all training is pretty much rooted in the same place with specialized twists. In your case I would think a good solid obedience base followed/coupled by scent trackinng focused on whatever it is you want tracked would be a good place to start. Not much diffrent than blood tracking as I see it just a new twist on an old game. Study the other forms of tracking then addapt them and make them your own.