Saving The Planet One Sniff At A Time With Conservation Dogs Collective

Labrador retrievers Ernie and Betty White love their jobs in scent detection. They are excited and focused, ready to zip across prairies and trot through woodlands, always rewarded for finding their target scents with a treat or favorite toy.

But Ernie and Betty White aren’t helping law enforcement or search and rescue efforts; they’re locating bumblebee nests and tiny snails. Conservation Dogs Collective (CDCI), formerly Midwest Conservation Dogs, uses scent detection to find invasive, endangered and elusive species. 

Dogs have 300 million scent receptors compared to a human’s six million, and they can smell on both inhales and exhales. They’re naturally equipped to quickly and efficiently find most things that have a smell – drugs, diseases and wildlife species.

If a conservationist or scientific researcher needs to protect an endangered species, study an elusive one or remove an invader, dogs can help. 

Founded in 2017, the Wisconsin-based organization launched its new brand and website this past Earth Day, ready to expand beyond the region. A new logo design features a drawing of a bright green dog sniffing for a bee, and an orange one following a turtle, two species that CDCI dogs have trained to detect. The new organization name reflects a goal to involve more than professional scientists or dog trainers and teach everyone about wildlife detection dogs.  

“We’re bringing people into this more collective-type mindset,” said Executive Director Laura Holder. “Everything is interconnected. We’re all in this together.” 

Holder is a certified nose work instructor and certified professional dog trainer. She helped Mequon Nature Preserve train Tilia, the first on-staff conservation dog in Wisconsin. With conservation scent work growing as a promising field, Holder used her background experience to create CDCI. 

The new website includes dog profiles of six conservation dogs, or “finders.” One can meet Alva, a rottweiler and labrador mix who loves hamburgers, or Jesse, a Belgain tervuren who enjoys playing with his rabbit skin tug. Every finder lives with their handler, or “keeper.” The finder/keeper terminology reflects CDCI’s principle that the human and dog are equals, working as a team; each must train and learn communication just as much as the other. 

According to Holder, a puppy or grown dog can begin scent-work training at any time. Depending on when foundation training begins, a finder could be ready for field work after 6-18 months. Each dog can learn up to 20 scents, and they’ll target all of them on any given search. 

Some dog characteristics suit conservation work better than others. For example, a 40-70 pound dog is best suited for both navigating various terrains and reaching small spaces. Motivation is also key; dogs make great finders if they’re eager to work for food or toy rewards. 

“A dog is born with an incredible sense of smell, so they’re detection dogs at birth really,” said Holder. 

When the pandemic arrived last year, working remotely was nothing new to CDCI – training usually happens at a keeper’s home or public park. For a recent project, partners like the Wisconsin DNR and Upper Sugar River Watershed Association sent wildlife samples to teams for initial training. 

CDCI keepers typically focus their expertise on all things dogs and dog training. They rely on professionals from partner organizations to help with the scientific details of conservation work. Holder says there’s a learning curve for every project. 

“I want my keepers to be incredible dog nerds, scent-work nerds,” said Holder. “We can always work with biologists who can help us with particulars for a project.”

Ellen Voss from River Alliance of Wisconsin is one of those scientists. In spring of 2020, she saw Holder present about CDCI at the virtual Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Convention. 

“It’s hard to get people to care about invasive species,” said Voss. “The fact that there’s a dog that can do scent detection work for that is really interesting. It’s a good hook for getting people to care about something they might not know is a problem.” 

As the aquatic invasive species program director at River Alliance, Voss has since been working with Holder, Ernie and Betty White in the testing stage of a project aiming to track the invasive New Zealand mud snail.

Scientists first detected the snail in Wisconsin in 2012, and Voss worries about it spreading to trout creeks in the Driftless Area. Unlike similar invasives like zebra mussels or quagga mussels, each snail is only the size of a grain of rice, making them difficult for humans to find. 

“If you take away the slowness of human detection and replace it with dogs, you can literally get an immediate answer to whether or not your stream has New Zealand mud snails, just with the sniff of a dog’s nose,” said Voss.

According to Holder, the training process starts with classical conditioning: a keeper wants their finder to recognize that the target scent pairs with their reward, similar to how a leash might signal going for a walk. To accomplish this, they place the finder’s reward (a treat or toy) on top of a vented container holding the target scent. Next comes operant learning: a keeper rewards their finder after sniffing the target scent if they notice the dog changes their behavior. Behavior changes like turning their body around, or even subtle shifts in head position indicate recognition of the target scent. 

As the dogs learn, detection training progresses in difficulty until it closely matches a real field-work scenario. For the snail project, finders eventually need to distinguish between the New Zealand mud snail and native Wisconsin snails, or find the target scent mixed in with other micro-invertebrates like mayflies. 

After at least eight weeks of training, the Wisconsin DNR and River Alliance of Wisconsin tested Holder with Betty White and Ernie. It was a blind run, meaning that Holder didn’t know which containers held the New Zealand mud snails. The dogs succeeded with 75-80% accuracy, a promising result as they begin phase two of testing. 

“Every minute gives you a heads up in preventing the spread [of invasives] any further,” said Voss. “The potential that dogs can do something much faster and cheaper than humans is a huge asset.”

Smell can often detect what sight cannot. According to Voss, conservation efforts can potentially benefit the most from dogs when it comes to species that are difficult for the human eye to notice at a glance, even microscopic ones. Or, species might be experts at blending in with their surroundings, such as the wood turtle.  

“It’s a tool in a toolbox, so it’s appropriate in certain situations but not necessarily as useful in others,” said Voss. 

Nearing two years old, Betty White can now identify two target scents. She will eagerly start a detection run at the command “search” from Holder. Betty White loves to dart quickly from tree to tree in a free search, a method in which the keeper follows their finder without adhering to any particular pattern or boundary.

Ernie is four years old and can identify six to seven target scents at his search command, “google.” He searches at more of a trot, and patiently awaits his reward when he finds a target scent. Although dogs may enjoy searching freely, they also need to train with their keeper for grid searching. With this method, Holder guides them through transects (a fixed path) along a grid pattern in a given environment.

Beyond highlighting wildlife detection dogs, CDCI offers resources for the average pet owner. These include literature suggestions for bond building and canine enrichment, frequently asked “what’s wrong with my dog?” questions, even dog memes and dog-themed giveaway contests. 

“Millions of people know what it’s like to share a life with a dog, and that special bond that is created,” said Holder. “We want to communicate that message because it’s very much at the core of how we run our organization.”

CDCI has also developed a detection project themselves, partnering with UW-Madison’s Gratton Lab. Rather than invasive, this target scent is endangered: bumblebees. Ernie and Betty White are training with Holder to find nests of bumblebee species in Wisconsin – no easy task for humans. The bees often build nests out of sight in abandoned buildings or rodent burrows, and they travel up to 18 miles from their nest for pollination. 

Locating nests, especially for endangered species like the rusty patched bumblebee, is crucial to science and conservation. Researchers can study the bees’ behavior and work to protect pollinator habitats. Holder also hopes the project will help raise public awareness of the importance of bumblebees as pollinators.

For successful scent-work training, Holder must vary every element she can: time of day, weather conditions, training locations, even deciding whether Betty White or Ernie gets to search first during a session. She keeps record of environmental factors while training and in field work. 

“Factors like wind, temperature and humidity have a huge impact on the dogs,” said Holder. 

Holder also varies the scent concentration in each container, as well as the “cook time” – a target scent might sit hidden beneath a tree or in a prairie for anywhere from a few minutes to several days. Companies like Getxent manufacture training aids, such as tubes that absorb odor molecules and continuously disperse a scent around the environment. 

Countries like New Zealand have used conservation dogs for decades, but the first organization didn’t appear in the U.S. until about 20 years ago. Wildlife detection dogs are gaining both public and scientific attention, including a database of their world-wide use. 

Since the pandemic started, most project interactions with partners have been virtual, or brief when in-person. But that hasn’t stopped CDCI from training and looking to an ambitious future. 

“It’s been very positive,” said Voss. “This is one of my favorite projects. They’re great people, and I’m really looking forward to the day when we can all meet in-person and pet the dogs.”