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 Affects Perceived Accuracy of Scat Detection Dog Surveys.

Covered in this episode:

• What hazards might the dog-handler team be facing in the field? How can these be mitigated or avoided? What levels or types of risk are unacceptable?
• How does the use of CDDs compare to other methods in its level of acceptability to the local community, esp. Indigenous cultures?
• Where are samples going to be sent/analyzed?
• What ancillary data, in addition to detections, should be collected by the handler (e.g., time, weather conditions, related field samples of vegetation or soil)?
• Can the dog teams access the study area to train and/or do risk assessments prior to project start?
• Is there funding secured for the project?
• Are the teams you're hiring experienced enough for this job?
• Consider cross-training dogs on multiple target species
• What is the timeline for this project?
• Have you found the dog team that's the best match for your project?
• Do you need input from the team on project design?
• Have you considered weather/ terrain/ climate/ schedule through the lens of a dog team?
• Will the dog teams work alone or accompanied by a researcher?
• Are dog teams the right choice for your project goals?

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