Wildlife Detection Dogs Conference

Wildlife Detection Dogs Online Conference

The Wildlife Detection Dogs Conference from Conservation K9 Consultancy will bring together students, handlers, ecologists and researchers to find out more about the use of wildlife detection dogs in conservation, wildlife monitoring, research and ecology. 
Our goal is to improve our collective understanding of how dogs can be used to help improve conservation.
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The Wildlife Detection Dogs Conference is Hosted by Conservation K9 Consultancy & Wildlifetek

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OUR CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

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LOUISE WILSON

CONSERVATION K9 CONSULTANCY
Louise is the Head of Conservation K9 Consultancy, the first standalone freelance consultancy which uses dogs to detect an assortment of scents in a variety of wildlife detection roles. She has 18 years in detection, handling and instructing on hundreds of projects worldwide, and has a wide range of experience working on projects from hedgehog and scat detection, to detecting animal products in Africa. 
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KAREN DEMATTEO

GOT SCAT
Karen uses a variety of approaches to research concepts related to behavioral ecology, physiological ecology, reproductive physiology, general ecology, ecological genetics and ecological niche modelling. She has conducted field research in several Neotropical countries and regions of the US. The majority of these field studies have been focused on understanding the community structure of carnivores and developing regional conservation strategies.
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PAUL BUNKER

CHIRON K9
Author of 'Imprint Your Detection Dog in 15 Days', Paul is a canine consultant and trainer specialising in detection, focused on environmental and conservation surveys. After working with dogs in various capacities with the military and forces, he established Chiron K9 in 2017, a canine consulting company that supports academic research and proof of concept field trials and deployments.
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HEATH SMITH

ROGUE DETECTION TEAMS

"Twenty years ago I met a dog named Gator who convinced me to work alongside him and set me on a path I never expected to walk. Since then, my journey has provided me the opportunities to learn from some of the most amazing dogs and people."

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FIONA JACKSON & TRACY LYTEN

SKYLOS ECOLOGY PTY LTD
With 20 years’ experience in dog training & handling, Fiona & Tracy of Skylos Ecology work across various conservation projects in Australia. Tracy’s experience is a certified urban search & rescue dog handler. Fiona has an academic background in conservation dogs, researching the effects of dog handlers on trained detection dogs for her Masters thesis.
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LAURA HOLDER

CONSERVATION DOGS COLLECTIVE 
(Photo by Lindsay Hayward)
Curious how dogs can be utilized to locate bumblebee nests? Join Laura Holder for a quick overview of the learning from the 2021 training and field work season, as she worked alongside her Canine Keepers, Ernie & Betty White.
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DR NATHANIEL HALL

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY

Nathaniel Hall is the Assistant Professor of Companion Animal Science at Texas Tech University, & Director of the Canine Olfaction Research and Education Lab. He earned his PhD in 2015, where he researched fruit bats, dogs, & wolves. 

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VICKI HUDSON

CAPE NATURE
Vicki is a Landscape Conservation Intelligence Manager for the provincial government and started the organisation's conservation detection dog project. Her previous career was in dog sports. Today, she has combined both these careers and been blessed with the most fabulous dogs!
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ANNEGRET GRIMM-SEYFARTH

HELMHOLTZ-CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 

Annegret has a PhD in Ecology from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Since 2010, she has worked with wildlife detection dogs researching the use and efficacy of detection dogs for wildlife population monitoring across Europe and Australia.  

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DR SAMANTHA GAINES

RSPCA

Dr Gaines is a dog welfare specialist & Head of the Companion Animals Science & Policy Department at the RSPCA. Sam studied the effects of housing and husbandry of the welfare of kennelled dogs for her PhD, reviewing military working dog welfare for the RAF & MOD Police.

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MEGAN PARKER

CENTRE FOR LARGE LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION
Megan was part of a team that first developed training methods for conservation detection dogs. Working with drug detection dogs, they started dogs on scat targets and worked dogs in the field on bear scat. From there, they trained dogs to detect target odors from plants, snares, wildlife contraband & disease.
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SIMONE MUELLER

WILDLIFE DETECTION DOGS E.V. 

Simone is a certified dog trainer, dog behaviour consultant and owner of the Training4Paws Dog School near Heidelberg, Germany, specialising in force-free anti-predation training and is the author of the two books of the Predation Substitute Training series “Hunting Together” and “Rocket Recall”.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

DAY 1: Saturday Jan 29


9:30 - Conference Welcome ~ Louise Wilson & Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams

10:00 - Understanding and meeting the welfare needs of wildlife detection dogs ~ Sam Gaines

10:30 - The reality of being a conservation detection dog handler ~ Rachael Flavell

10:45 - Great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) detection dogs ~ Nikki Glover

11:00 - How many hogs can a hog dog find if a hog dog could find hogs? ~ Lucy Bearman-Brown

11:30 - The Foundations of Interactive Toy Play ~ Craig Ogilvie

12.30 - Questions, Discussion & Session Close ~ Louise Wilson & Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams


15:00 - Is there a manual for training conservation detection dogs? ~ Karen DeMatteo

16:00 - Sniffing out Bumblebee Nests: Learnings from the Field ~ Laura Holder

16:30 - Evaluating Canine Detection of Invasive Mussel Veligers ~ Nathaniel Hall

17:30 - Keep it simple ~ Heath Smith

18:30 - Questions, Discussion & Session Close ~ Louise Wilson & Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams


20:30 - Panel sessions

22:00 - End of day 1

DAY 2: Sunday Jan 30


9:30 - Conference Welcome ~ Louise Wilson & Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams

10:00 - Dogs From Down Under: An overview on use of conservation dogs in Australia ~ Fiona/Tracy Skylos Ecology

10:30 - Tapping into a Tortoise’s eau de Toilette: the use of Conservation Detection Dogs for mark recapture research on the Geometric Tortoise (Psammobates geometricus) in South Africa ~ Vicki Hudson

11:00 - Detection dogs in conservation projects – a review ~ Annegret Grimm-Seyfarth

11:30 - The use of conservation detection dogs in consultancy ~ Luke Gorman

11:45 - Harness your Hunter through Predation Substitute Training ~ Simone Mueller

12.30 - Questions, Discussion & Session Close ~ Louise Wilson & Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams


15:00 - Working Dogs in South Georgia ~ Megan Vick/Ross James/Naomi Cordeiro

15:30 - From Imprinting to Field Deployed - Lessons Learnt from Training to Surveys ~ Paul Bunker

16:00 - The process of managing a conservation detection dog study – stories from the field, the office and everything in between ~ Denise Karp

16:30 - The field of conservation detection dogs, where we started and where we can go ~ Megan Parker

17:30 - Questions, Discussion & Session Close ~ Louise Wilson & Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams

18:30 - End of day 2

CONFERENCE REPLAY TICKETS

Did you miss it live? You can catch the replay now!

STANDARD

£47

Includes:

  • 30 day access to over 12 hours of conference recordings
  • Easy access on your desktop, laptop or tablet via our password-protected site or on the go via your smartphone in our app.
  • Conference Resource Pack
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