I read recently that detection dogs in Lassen Park picked up the scent of the endangered red fox. They detected about 85 scat that are being tested genetically at UC Davis. This is good news for the rarest animal in all of North America. There is estimated to only be about 18-35 Sierra Nevada Red Fox in existence. Cameras captured actual video of the fox but this has yet to be confirmed. The Detection Dog Team will be in action next summer, too.
We’ve all heard stories about detection dogs sniffing out drugs, explosives, cadavers and disaster survivors. In the mid ’90s, handlers started training them for conservation tasks, such as sniffing out scat from endangered animal species and detecting trafficked ivory. Now their olfactory prowess is being used in the fight against invasive plants and insects. The list of how man’s best friend is helping us just keeps getting longer.
What makes a good detection dog? My friend, Cindy can tell you. She got Koni, a lab, through a good Samaritan who had rescued him as a puppy from a homeless person living in her car. Koni wasn’t abused, just skinny. He has turned out to be a sweet, affectionate, eager-to-please, ball-obsessed dog, and those are the qualities that would make him a good detection dog. He lives for praise.
Although I come across more French broom than Scotch in our area, detection dogs can be trained to sniff out all invasive broom. They’re doing this in New York where Scotch broom is just starting to invade and land managers hope to eradicate it before it becomes widespread like it is here and all along the Pacific Northwest. Broom displaces native plants with thickets impenetrable to wildlife and changes the chemistry of the soil around it so that native plants can’t grow there. Broom grows quickly as it is able to fix nitrogen from the air giving a competitive advantage to other non-native weeds. It poses a serious threat to birds, butterflies and biodiversity. Broom contains a high amount of oil, which is flammable and increases the fire hazard. It’s also toxic to livestock and dogs depending on the amount ingested. And those are just some of the reasons why New York wants to keep broom away.
“Our field in the last 15 years has just exploded,” said Pete Coppolillo, executive director of the nonprofit Working Dogs for Conservation in Bozeman, Mont. The organization partners with government agencies, researchers and nonprofits on five continents to provide trained dogs and handlers for conservation projects. Besides helping to detect New York broom, they have provided trained dogs to find invasive knapweed in Montana, Chinese bush clover in Iowa, yellow thistle in Colorado as well as invasive zebra and quagga mussels on boats here in California.
Working Dogs for Conservation trains shelter dogs for detection work, screening 1,000 dogs for every one they put to work. To make the cut, the dogs have to be not only good sniffers and high-energy, but also seriously obsessed with toys so they’ll stay motivated to work for a reward—the chance to play with a ball.
Because I eat a lot of oranges and lemons, I looked up recent papers to see if dogs were still being used to detect citrus greening disease. Sure enough what started five years ago with just a few dogs has increased dramatically and many dogs are now being trained. Tim Gottwald, a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture plant pathologist, said during a recent presentation in Riverside that dogs in Florida have been 99% accurate in tests, and just a couple years ago in Southern California backyards, they were more than 92% accurate even when distracted by the homeowners. Because dogs can actually smell the bacteria that causes greening disease within a few weeks after infection well before lab tests can confirm, their work is vitally important.
So when you’re petting “man’s best friend” tonight, appreciate all the great things he does for you and for our planet.
Jan Nelson, a landscape designer and California-certified nursery professional, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Email her at ja******@*ol.com, or visit jannelsonlandscapedesign.com.
