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Some screenshots from a recent online presentation

Some screenshots from a recent online presentation of the yellow crazy ant eradication project at Johnston Atoll, which included the deployment of dog teams in December. The presenter Aisha Rickli-Rahman was not only the K9 project lead and survey bio-shadow, but also the person who spearheaded this very first use of detection dogs in the remote atolls of the Hawaiian islands. We were so honored to be mentioned in the presentation - according to Aisha, the conservation dog symposium that we sponsored at Hawaii Conservation Conference back in 2019 played a huge part in the inspiration for this K9 project. 😃

We hope this Johnston project will be a tipping point for detector dog use in the islands, as there are so many potential applications. 🤞

Photo 1: K9s Solo and Guinness on M/V Imua
Photo 2: YCA survey tracks
Photo 3: Post-survey beach time

Happy Tongue Out Tuesday! Pictured here is Luka, w

Happy Tongue Out Tuesday! Pictured here is Luka, who’s long gone but never forgotten. He was never a working dog, but he was the reason CDH trainer Kyoko got involved with scent work to begin with. Luka was a mellow Golden Retriever that didn’t enjoy “normal” dog activities like swimming, hiking, chasing balls or playing with other dogs. After attending a “nose work” seminar at a pet dog trainer conference, Kyoko decided to try it out with Luka. Lo and behold, he loved it, got really good at it, and even gained confidence through it. In his old age, Luka suddenly lost his eyesight, but he was confident navigating the environment because he was so used to sniffing his way around.

Hoping your Tuesday is as happy as Luka looks!

#tongueouttuesday 👅 #goldenretrieversofinstagram #noseworkdog

We had a fun morning doing search demos for the st

We had a fun morning doing search demos for the students of Hawaii Technology Academy, who are learning about invasive species such as devil weed and Rosy wolfsnails through Army Natural Resource Program. Our group got to talk to the kids about topics like odor imprinting, rewards, and the importance of a dog handler learning how to read their dog’s behaviors in odor.

Mahalo to @htacharter for inviting us, @hawaiiplantationmuseum for hosting us, and the CDH dog teams that participated! @calvinandsusie @sandi.sue1 @tailsticks @h50eddie

Photo 1: Alli, Sandi and Sue with K9s Ruger, Henry and Eddie. No surprise that all dogs are looking at the studio animal trainer-pet photographer Sue!

Photo 2: Alli and Henry doing a rodent search

Photo 3: Sue and Sandi talking to the group

Photo 4: Sue giving a leash handling lesson to student Jack

Photo 5: Group photo!

Our last few posts featured dogs that enjoy workin

Our last few posts featured dogs that enjoy working for their toy, including shepherd mix Kaiao, who will spit out a hot dog and ask for his ball if you try to sneak in a food reward for his find. Some of the other dogs are happy to work for either food or toy, including Koa the black Lab and Qana the devil weed Mal. But many of our other program dogs prefer to, or will only work for, food. If you threw a ball when they found the target, they’d look at you like, Are you kidding me???

We look for a certain level of hunt drive appropriate to the task, but as far as the reward goes, we’re quite flexible. We like to think of toys and food as just different aspects of a dog’s predatory sequence: Search (Orient, Eye); Stalk; Chase; Bite (grab-bite, kill-bite); Dissect; Consume. [Coppinger]

Depending on the task or environment we’re working in, it can even be useful to use food over toy, though we get that food doesn’t have the “cool” factor:

- Nesting birds will startle and flush easily if a dog moves too quickly. In places like Johnston Atoll with an abundance of birds, we were very aware of the fact that a temporarily abandoned egg or chick could die from heat if not protected from the sun by its parent. Food is a great way to reward a dog generously and quietly in a situation like this.
- In a wildlife refuge or other sensitive environment, it’s required or recommended that the dogs wear muzzles. While dogs may be selected for the right temperament or trained on prey avoidance, the muzzle adds an extra layer of safety. A toy reward doesn’t work well with a muzzle but treats can easily be slipped through a muzzle.
- Doing quick repetitions of odor imprinting or training drills is easier with food.
- Environmental conditions such as extreme heat and humidity, combined with toy/play, can exhaust a dog and make him inefficient. At the wind farm where K9 Solo used to work, the dogs were switched from toy to food to conserve their energy during the long and hot work days.

Food reward in some circles means the dog only gets fed when working, such as with arson dogs and ATF dogs. The dogs we’re training are treat reward...and so far it’s working out well. 😃

We've been immersed in podcasts lately, so thought

We've been immersed in podcasts lately, so thought we'd share a few fun episodes that are relevant to conservation dogs, and some that are not directly relevant but are very interesting and informative about detection dog training, field work, breed tendencies, etc. You're probably familiar with K9s Talking Scents and the new Conservation K9s podcasts. The others listed below mainly focus on topics such as bite work, hunting dogs or pet dog behavior, but have excellent episodes about conservation dogs and detection dogs. These are just a few that we've enjoyed but there are many more out there. Feel free to comment below to share one you like!
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Working Dog Radio with hosts Ted Summers and Eric Stanbro
~ Episode 67 with Don Blair about detection dog training and troubleshooting
~ Episode 110 with Melissa Morgan about her disaster and cadaver dog experience
~ Episode 118 with Pete Copilillo of @workingdogsforconservation about anti-poaching dogs
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Controlled Aggression with host Jerry Bradshaw of @tarheelk9
~ Episode 36 Direct v. Indirect Detection Protocols
~ Episode 74 Detection Training - Known, Single and Double Blind
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Dog Talk with host Nick Benger
~ Episode 69 with Simon Gadbois on fish and reptile olfaction, dogs detecting underwater turtles, and much more
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Canine Conservations with hosts Kayla Fratt and Ursa Acree
~ Episode 59 with Ken Ramirez on wildlife training and conservation dog training
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The Hunting Dog Podcast with host Ron Boehme
~ Episode 3/3/2021 with Jay Crafter of @invictusk9 on anti-poaching dogs in Africa
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Conservation K9s Podcast with host James Davis, featuring many of the major players in the conservation dog world such as @roguedetectionteams and @conservationk9uk
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K9s Talking Scents podcast with host Cameron Ford, dedicated to scent detection
~ Episode 32 with Sonja Nordstrom, SAR and HRD dog trainer
~ Episode 42 with Bill Gaskins of @integritynoseworx
~ Episode 37 with NYPD K9 unit
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If you'd like a list of links to the podcasts and episodes, please send us a DM with your email address.

@working_dog_radio @nickbengerdogtrainer @ken_ramirez_kpct @conservationk9podcast @cameronfordk9 @ted_summers @vanessk9

We don’t have photos of our dogs with bunny ears

We don’t have photos of our dogs with bunny ears, so we thought we’d say Happy Aloha Friday instead!

#wilddogofwaialua #rainbowstateofmind #alohafriday

Kaiao is one of our green dogs that is currently t

Kaiao is one of our green dogs that is currently training towards field work. Because many of our dogs are volunteer pet dogs, we typically start them out by having them search for their primary reward, be it toy or food, in order to 1) build independence from their handlers, 2) enhance their hunt drive, and 3) develop their odor-sourcing skills.

Based on the behaviors that Kaiao is displaying and the areas he is covering, can you guess where the hide is, and how much wind there might be, before you get to the end of this 20-second video clip? The clip has been fast-forwarded because we realize most of you are not dog behavior or scent detection geeks. 😁

#detectiondogtraining #KaiaoKamae

We had a productive devil weed survey today, with

We had a productive devil weed survey today, with no rain and great weather conditions. After Qana finds a target, we typically let her run around the area with her frisbee to see if she finds any other plants. If she drops the frisbee, then we would know she’s caught odor again. 😄 In this video she had detected a large plant from over 60 meters away, and by the time we got to the plant, we were on an adjacent trail!

In the second video, the humans visually spotted some seedlings, but we let Qana find them afterwards too, just for fun and also as another reward opportunity.

Mahalo to @northshorecommunitylandtrust for your assistance today with trail access!

@qanagator @betabitzer #malinoisofinstagram #NW4C #devilweed #chromolaenaodorata #conservationdogs #DemolishTheDevilWeed

This is our second post featuring a dog-handler te

This is our second post featuring a dog-handler team we are training at Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge.
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Marcia has always had an affinity for birds, so when she and her husband first established themselves on Kaua‘i in 2004 as a part-year resident, she started volunteering at Kīlauea Point Refuge. More recently in 2020, she began volunteering with visual surveillance for avian botulism at Hanalei Refuge.
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Not realizing she'd eventually volunteer with her dog at the refuge, she unintentionally set her dog up to be a great candidate for the K9 program. Marcia started training Koa, a field Lab, as a puppy on bird avoidance because their Kaua‘i property was being established as habitat for albatrosses. At 3 years of age now, Koa has tons of hunt drive, but no prey drive towards birds. Marcia had also started "nose work" classes with Koa in Washington state a few years ago. She liked the idea that it could be a fun activity for Koa rather than a competitive sport.
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Soon after, she heard that Hanalei Refuge was starting a new K9 program. She knew how much Koa enjoyed scent work, and felt that the K9 program would be an opportunity where they could learn to do something together, while making a positive contribution to the island.
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When asked what the most interesting and most fun aspects of the botulism surveillance dog training process are, Marcia says:
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"The most interesting part about training Koa for this work is my increasing awareness of what my dog is doing - his behaviors, what he is responding to, and what decisions he is making based on what is going on in the environment. I am finding that as I understand him better, he seems to understand me better too. The other thing that is incredibly fun is the opportunity to be in a position where my dog knows better than I. I have to trust my dog and assume he knows what he is doing. It is fun to see how dedicated he is to this work."
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Marcia and Koa - We wish you the best in your training and future surveillance!

#labradorsofinstagram #labradorretriever #conservationdogs #hanaleinationalwildliferefuge #kauaiwildliferefuge #avianbotulism #kokuaforkoloa @usfws

Friday Fun Fact on the green sea turtle or honu: W

Friday Fun Fact on the green sea turtle or honu: With lungs two thirds as long as its shell or carapace, the green sea turtle can hold its breath for several hours underwater.
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We haven’t done any sea turtle nest detection with our dogs (yet!), but you can check out others that are, or have done it, including @k9s4conservation in Texas, Captain Ron the Beagle of @disneyconservation in Florida, @thepoopfinder and K9 Hera in Greece, and Australian cattle dog mix Tauzer who now helps with beach cleanups for Maui’s @sharkastics
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Happy Aloha Friday!

Photo by @tor.johnson.photography of honu swimming near Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park, originally called City of Refuge. @hawaiipacificparks
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#greenseaturtle #puuhonuaohonaunau #nationalhistoricpark #wildlifephotography #underwaterphotography

And that’s a wrap! We successfully completed our

And that’s a wrap! We successfully completed our training and odor recognitions tests for the melon fly proof-of-concept project. The dogs and handlers did very well, and the results will be detailed in Morgan‘s study. As part of teaching the dogs to recognize the target odor, we made sure they were not alerting on artificially injured but non-infested control zucchinis, which also give off certain plant volatiles.
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Thinking back to the initial days of training last year makes us laugh. Not knowing what size and type of containers would be best suited for the training aids and corresponding odor availability, we started out with wide open glass jars. We quickly realized that those wouldn’t work. We nicknamed a few of the dogs Lickey, Drooley, and Bitey, to give you an idea of what happened. We soon switched to Y-shaped PVC pipes, which allowed the dogs to sniff the zucchinis up close but without contaminating them.
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Mahalo to entomologist @morgan.e.pugh for this unique opportunity! We look forward to hearing the results of the VOC analysis of the infected vs injured zucchinis, and comparisons with other fruits.
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Photos by Baylor

#melonfly #BactroceraCucurbitae #agriculturalpest #plantvolatiles #mitigatethemelonflies #NW4C #caninesforconservationists #gsdofinstagram #weimaranersofinstagram

Polar bear spotted swimming with Aqua Kong! Just k

Polar bear spotted swimming with Aqua Kong! Just kidding of course, but the polar bear’s Latin name, Ursus maritimus, means “sea bear” because it spends much of its life in or around the ocean.
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Happy Aloha Friday, and we hope all of you in Hawai’i stay safe and dry!
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@kongcompany #wilddogofwaialua #aquakong #waterdog #labradorsofinstagram
📸 @tor.johnson.photography

Dead Ducks, Disease, and Detective Dogs: We Know W

Dead Ducks, Disease, and Detective Dogs: We Know Whodunnit, but Need to Find the Bodies!

The Hanalei wildlife refuge detector dog program that we are currently helping to develop, was made possible by an efficacy study that was conducted by @usgs and @usfws back in 2017-2018. CDH was not involved in the study but our K9 trainer Kyoko participated in it, along with staff and volunteers from USGS and FWS. While dogs are widely used for bird carcass detection, this is a new application in an unusual environment. We are so excited to see the study finally being published today. Dr. Michelle Reynolds, formerly of USGS, was the study's PI, and describes the project below:

"We tested a new method using scent detection canines for avian botulism surveillance on Kaua'i island. Hawai'i's endangered ducks have die-offs caused by ingestion of prey that accumulated a neurotoxin produced by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium botulinum (avian botulism; Type C). During surveillance to find and remove waterbird carcasses and a randomized double-blind field trial, trained detector canines with experienced field handlers improved carcass detection, especially in dense vegetation. Detector canines could be combined with conventional surveillance for carcass removal and are a useful tool to reduce risks of the initiation and propagation of avian botulism."

Link to study is in our bio or here: https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/csp2.397

📸 #1 by @tor.johnson.photography of K9 Bodhi at Hanalei NWR

📸#2 of @kyokster @michelle.reynolds.142 and K9 Panda preparing for a blind trial

#wildwahineowaimea #avianbotulism #koloamaoli #hanaleinationalwildliferefuge #conservationdogs

Someone is excited about her turn to sniff! Border

Someone is excited about her turn to sniff! Border Collie Winnie leads her handler and melon fly project lead @morgan.e.pugh through the search area. It has been a treat to see the dogs picking up on the target odor, and to see the humans figuring out the best way to run their individual dogs for success.
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#melonfly #BactroceraCucurbitae #agriculturalpest #plantvolatiles #mitigatethemelonflies #NW4C #caninesforconservationists #bordercolliesofinstagram

Today we’d like to introduce one of the awesome

Today we’d like to introduce one of the awesome dog handlers we are training as part of Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge’s new K9 program. We’ll let Debra Gochros tell you more in her own words...
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“K9s Luna, Xena and I are excited to be a part of the Hanalei K9 Team. Searching for endangered birds affected by avian botulism is essential in saving the Koloa duck population. With over 90% of the worldʻs population of Koloa duck found on the north shore of Kauaʻi, itʻs imperative to find any deceased birds and remove them from the loʻi (taro farm unit).”
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“Iʻve been volunteering with the Kauaʻi refuges since the 80s but since Iʻve retired, volunteering has become an even bigger and more important part of my life. Iʻve served as a wildlife interpreter and a lighthouse tour guide at Kīlauea Point and a bird surveyor around the taro fields in Hanalei.”
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“I started working with the Kauaʻi K9 Search and Rescue Team in 2005, certifying with my dog Astro through the National Association of Search and Rescue, and have remained active up until the time I started with the Hanalei K9 program.”
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“Currently I have been training with my 2 dogs Luna and Xena who are both Australian Shepherds that love this work! Iʻm looking forward to growing our team and reducing the botulism threat in Hanalei. Thank you to @usfws for this opportunity.”
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Go Team Gochros!

#australianshepherdsofinstagram #conservationdogs #hanaleinationalwildliferefuge #kauaiwildliferefuge #avianbotulism #kokuaforkoloa

During a freediving session off the east coast of

During a freediving session off the east coast of Johnston Atoll on a break between invasive ant surveys, the red footed boobies swooped down to check out the black blobs on the surface of the water. These boobies seemed very curious in general; we even had one of them hover a foot above a dog to investigate it.

Why are wildlife encounters so exciting? Perhaps it’s the awe we feel towards these majestic animals that seem so well adapted to their environments. Or perhaps we feel validated when a wild animal takes interest in us at all (which brings to mind the scene from the movie “Meet the Parents” where Robert Deniro asks Ben Stiller if he likes dogs over cats because he needs that kind of validation 😆).

Whatever the reason, it is exciting to have a wildlife encounter, and it inspires us to do more for the animals we meet.

Happy #WildlifeWednesday and #WorldWildlifeDay2021 🦆🦋🦎🐞🐢🐋

📸 @tor.johnson.photography

#redfootedbooby #wildlifeencounters #womenwhofreedive

It’s gratifying when the dogs find target devil

It’s gratifying when the dogs find target devil weed plants that are not visible from the main trail due to thick vegetation or distance. With devil weed in particular, we think that the methods of human visual surveys and canine-assisted olfactory surveys complement each other by yielding different types of finds. On this day K9 Qana showed significant changes of behavior at the trail, then found two mature and three immature plants about 28 meters off trail. Good job Team @qanagator @betabitzer 👏

#malinoisofinstagram #NW4C #devilweed #chromolaenaodorata #conservationdogs #DemolishTheDevilWeed

Our melon fly agricultural pest detection proof-of

Our melon fly agricultural pest detection proof-of-concept project is going smoothly. We’ve been training 2-3 short sessions per week, and the dogs are almost ready for the final tests. Yesterday we had an incident of human error during our first training round. GSD Kendo kept alerting on a particular control zucchini, and we wondered why he was so confused. We decided to pull out that zuke and examine it, just in case. You can probably guess what we discovered (scroll right) - we had accidentally put out a target (infested), thinking it was a control (non-infested). Oops! Despite being careful with handling our training aids, these things sometimes happen, and it’s a good thing the dogs are resilient!

📸 of Kendo by @chipperton_photography

#melonfly #BactroceraCucurbitae #agriculturalpest #plantvolatiles #mitigatethemelonflies #NW4C #caninesforconservationists #gsdofinstagram

K9s Brock and Toad, along with their handler @tail

K9s Brock and Toad, along with their handler @tailsticks Sue, have just completed their blind search assessments for devil weed, and are now officially in the field crew. They’ve already started surveying some of the priority trails that are on our list.

In addition to doing scent detection, Brock the Mal-GSD works on film and photo productions as a studio dog. The second photo was from a shoot for Photonis night vision goggles. ( 📸 by @ricnoyle )

Toad the Blue Heeler is 10 months old and a “typical ranch dog” according to her dog mom - loves muddy puddles, herding cattle and running around like a maniac! If you can’t tell from the photos, she is the cutest thing ever. And a natural at scent work. We’re grateful to have both dogs and their handler in our team.

We plan to feature more of our devil weed dogs in the coming posts. Please stay tuned!

All photos by @chipperton_photography unless specified otherwise

#malinoisofinstagram #blueheelersofinstagram #NW4C #devilweed #chromolaenaodorata #conservationdogs

We had a productive and fun several days at Hanale

We had a productive and fun several days at Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, training and assessing the dog-handler teams for their new K9 program. Below is background information on what the dogs are being trained for.
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Avian botulism is a paralytic food poisoning disease that affects endemic and migratory waterbirds in the Hawaiian islands. When factors such as heat, anaerobic conditions, and a carcass come together, the naturally occurring bacteria Clostridium botulinum produces a toxin that can concentrate in the invertebrates that the birds eat. Once a bird ingests enough toxin-filled invertebrates, it becomes paralyzed, then drowns or starves. When a bird carcass is not detected and removed from the environment in a timely manner, flies lay eggs on it and perpetuate the botulism cycle by providing toxic maggots as food for other birds.
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The 2017-2018 study led by our now science advisor @michelle.reynolds.142 indicated that the combined methods of visual and olfactory canine-assisted surveys yielded higher detection rates than one method alone. Not surprisingly, the dogs do well sniffing out targets in thickly vegetated areas. This detector dog program is still in its early stages, but we look forward to it preventing or curbing avian botulism among the native birds, especially with more frequently occurring outbreaks of the disease due to the warming climate.
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Photo 1: Debra G and K9 Xena; Photo 2: Marcia H and K9 Koa
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#hanaleinationalwildliferefuge #kokuaforkoloa #avianbotulism #conservationdogs #beautifulkauai #gardenisland

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