Errors, Mistakes, and Failure in Conservation Dog Training

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla talks about mistakes, failure, and errors.  This week’s science highlight: You Are Not My Handler! Impact of Changing Handlers on Dogs’ Behaviours and Detection Performance. Sign up for our fundraising trivia night here or make a plain old donation here. Everything is just data; …

What to Know Before Hiring a Conservation Detection Dog Team, Part 2

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla is back for part two with Kyoko Johnson from Conservation Dog Hawaii and Jennifer Hartman from Rogue Detection Teams to continue their talk about things to know before hiring a conservation detection dog team.  This week’s science highlight: How Behavior of Nontarget Species …

What to Know Before Hiring a Conservation Detection Dog Team, Part 1

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla talks with Kyoko Johnson from Conservation Dog Hawaii and Jennifer Hartman from Rogue Detection Teams about things to know before hiring a conservation detection dog team.  What are some things scientists should consider before hiring a conservation detection dog team? Lower density finds …

Fringe Alerts with Stacy Barnett

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla talks to Stacy Barnett about fringe alerts in detection dogs.  Episode suggestion: Get up and go for a little walk! What is fringing? When a dog alerts to odor outside of the preferred range of where the indication should be, aka too far …

Quick Questions About National Geographic’s Called to the Wild

Where Was Called to the Wild Filmed? Filming took place in the northwoods of Maine. How Were Contestants Selected? Contestants had to compile video applications to send to casting producers. They were then vetted on survival skills, psychological health, and had to pass a background check. Dogs and humans had …

Bats and Wind Farms with Dr. Merlin Tuttle

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla talks to Dr. Merlin Tuttle about bats and wind farms. Episode suggestion: Come to conversations ready to learn and ready to be curious.  Merlin started his bat career as a teenager, has done field research on every continent where bats live, photographed hundreds …

Barley and Kayla Were Called to the Wild

My breath clouded around my face in the cold air as I paused outside the Missoula airport. I paused to put my mask on and readjusted my backpack before leading Barley into the airport. Barley was happy and confident, unaware of what we were in for. Pre-pandemic, we traveled all …

Books to Read for Conservation Detection Dog Handlers

Getting into the field of conservation detection dog work can be incredibly difficult. There simply aren’t many jobs, and the jobs that do exist are highly competitive. We have discussed ways to enter the conservation detection dog field in podcast episodes including “Making It as a Conservation Dog Handler” and …

Amphibians and Charismatic MiniFauna with Dr. Erim Gomez

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla talks to Dr. Erim Gomez. They nerd out about amphibians, diversity, and academia. Episode suggestion: Try something new, even if it’s small! Call to action: Update your Amazon Smile to benefit K9 Conservationist!  How could dogs help with amphibian research? Humans can’t see …

“Making It” as a Conservation Detection Dog Handler

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla talks about her experience and advice on how to “make it” as a K9 Conservationists handler. Let’s be honest: the past year or so of this career has NOT been easy. In this episode, Kayla goes into some of the realities of tough …