And that’s a wrap! Season two of detection-dog-led scat collection for diet and genetic research on the Alexander Archipelago Wolf. We ended up with over 600 samples! Barley (black and white) found the majority of our samples in his final year as lead dog on the Island Wolf Project.

Barley the detection dog has been having a fabulous final season on the Island Wolf Project. This week while on a remote coast in Alaska, he found several wolf scats just below high tide line. Next up: metabarcoding and genotyping the scats to learn more about Alexander Archipelago wolves.

Saying goodbye to the SS Soggy Spaniel for 2025! Our Island Wolf Project is moving to our road-based surveys for a few weeks before heading north to Kuiu and surrounding islands on a different research vessel. We’re at 400 wolf scats and counting!

This is the whole point. Yes, the next-generation sequencing is cool. Yes, detection training is my passion. Yes, I love reading and am learning to love data analysis. But this. This is what it’s about. My best guy and me searching the wilderness for scats.

We found a wolf canine last week in Alaska. Look at the size difference in compared to my 50 pound border collie’s canine!

Yesterday we did a 12km search on an island in the Tongass Nat’l Forest looking for wolf scat. Niffler the detection dog stepped near a wolf track, and look at the size difference! Niffler is about 50lb, border collie.

The weather has finally given us a window, and the wolf scat detection dog crew is pushing ahead with 6 days of back to back surveys across 5 islands in southeast Alaska. Pictured: Barley on Warren Island.

Iitooma is our newest K9 recruit. He’s with me in Alaska learning to sniff out wolf scat. His internship is going well!

We're thrilled to be offering our online LIVE handler course for aspiring K9 Conservationists. If you've ever wanted to learn to work in wildlife biology/conservation alongside detection dogs, now's your chance. Please share widely <3

Field gear for 3 people, 3 conservation detection dogs, and 3.5 months. Year 2 of Alaskan island wolf research kicks off this week. We’re stoked!

I'm a published scientist! Along with the teams at Action for Cheetahs in Kenya and K9 Conservationists, I've been working for about 4 years on a project to help cheetah scat detection dogs not alert to leopard and caracal scat. And now we're in Cognition! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

DOGE cuts are potentially hitting our biosecurity dog programs. These dogs are faster and more effective than any other available method, and are vital for protecting our native species and agriculture from pests and disease. Thanks @nbcnews.com for chatting with me about this!

One of my favorite talks at the African Canines in Conservation Conference explored training village dogs as trackers and detection dogs to aid antipoaching units. Importing a dog from Europe is the norm now, which can cost $5,000+. The pups performed well but they’re still refining the process!

It’s been amazing meeting everyone at the African Canines in Conservation Conference. I gave a keynote talk about troubleshooting training. Today’s conference closer is about the Conservation Dog Alliance, a knowledge-sharing group I co-founded. I have no voice and I’m exhausted but I’m so happy!

Last weekend we had a celebration of life for my dear friend and student Sade. The conservation dog community lost two gems when she and Simba left us. They’re sorely missed but it was so healing to get together to laugh, cry, and eat. Be kinder to queer people. Make good trouble. Love your dogs.

Niffler is my younger detection dog. He's on day 4 of learning to detect wolf scat so that he can come sniff out oodles of it for my PhD work and Alaska Department of Fish and Game's research on the Alexander Archipelago Wolves. He's doing so well <3 youtu.be/pL71_-MHyQI

Not exaggerating when I say I would like a personal, handwritten apology from every pundit who barfed out a dozen "the left wants to change the way you talk!" op-eds based on non-mandatory guidelines in obscure PDFs.

Fieldwork is TOUGH. While we love detecting data alongside our dogs… it can get ugly. Today Barley got a horrible eyeful of seed ticks. He is treated with Bravecto, a Seresto collar, AND his work vest is covered in Permethrin.

Hello to all my new friends thanks to @ologies.bsky.social - please let me know if you have lingering Qs after the episode. I’m so excited to meet yall! Yes, we’re hiring - opportunities tab on k9conservationists.org

I am so incredibly excited and grateful to share information about dogs, conservation, and everything that connects the two on @ologies.bsky.social !! open.spotify.com/episode/3jpY...

My cat (an orange demon I found in a ditch) just OPENED THE FRONT DOOR. Please pray for us. Single-event learning is going to ruin my life on this one.

King Barley is killing it in tough conditions searching for ocelot scat in Texas. He’s being handled by my coworker Heather as they help @lisannepetracca.bsky.social ‘s lab out.

Over the holidays my mom and I climbed the tallest mountain in North Africa/the Arabic world. I got serious frostbite and am wheelchair bound while my feet recover. But I’m keeping all my toes! 7/10 experience, will improve gear list next time. In all seriousness, I’ve spent a lot of my life…

I’m looking for my summer field crew - detection dog based wolf research in Alaska. Details below. Please share! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The world lost an amazing conservationist and dog trainer this week. We - their loved ones and mentors and chosen family - are all crushed. Gone way too young. They’ll be missed.

Roasting my family for not knowing what a marten is. “Yall haven’t heard of the orange tree ferrets that eat berries in the sand dunes of Oregon? You need to study up on your Wild Kingdom.”

Barley is all packed! He is heading to Texas without me for a VERY important job sniffing out ocelot scats in partnership with @lisannepetracca.bsky.social and @tamu.bsky.social. I’ll miss him over the next few months, but I love knowing that he’s having fun and doing good work.

Niffler cannot get his heart rate up during his 5-month heartworm treatment, but he can still do yoga! This exercise builds balance, hip strength/flexibility, shoulder strength, and core strength. I’m using reward placement and body pressure to encourage good posture. He’s such a good boy.

If you see anyone talking about how the Amazon strike could disrupt the flow of packages:

In which my roommate and I drink a bottle of wine and talk about fecal metabarcoding open.spotify.com/episode/5oIR...

Asking the real questions

Please enjoy Barley’s daily stick. 4/10 today, too thin and actually a thorny blackberry stick. Try again tomorrow, Bud.

Every time I open QGIS I sing "Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map, find me a figure, catch me a..." and then I get stuck. The pink line shows how much more ground Barley covers than me (yellow) and how he works inside the forest while I walk on the beach. Check out all those wolf scats (blue dots)!

Barley and I headed out to a study site this week to help prepare him for a side gig he's picking up next summer sniffing out a super-secretive Oregon resident. My lab-mate is learning to handle him in a tricky environment and I'm so excited for both of them!

Dogs can detect powdery mildew in grapevine leaves - another fantastic bit of work from one of my favorite detection dog labs. "Dogs were able to detect PM and discriminate it from other fungi with sensitivity and specificity greater than 90%." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"Niffler lives for speed. An all-out outrun around the park is what makes his heart sing. He is also my younger working dog; Barley is 11 and is circling towards retirement. Niffler is supposed to be taking up Barley’s mantle; this is supposed to be his year." k9conservationists.org/niffler-has-...

Look, I know it's not important. But the Bartesian cocktail mixer ads fill me with rage. There's something so upsetting to me about pressing a button and getting a "craft cocktail" like it's a soda machine. The Chumba Casino ads genuinely bother me less.

Last summer while conducting wolf scat surveys, my conservation detection dog noticed his first whale. He was VERY excited. Please enjoy his joy. Ecologists, know that this dog has been trained to recall away from bears/sea lions/snakes/etc and I take wildlife interactions VERY seriously.

Note to self: Play with your cat. Spend time with your cat. You aren't only their family. You are their ENTIRE WORLD.

If you’re curious what fitness training for a detection dog looks like when you can’t get their HR up, this is ~ 1/8 of Niff’s workout today. I’m working on shoulder/spine flexibility in the bow, and the stretch forward is hip opener + core. Those skin twitches on his back? That tells me it’s hard.

I am a graduate student paid about $2,100/month. Rent for a 390 foot STUDIO apartment in Corvallis, OR (where Oregon State University is located) is about $1,500/month. I am 30 years old and run a nonprofit on the side (which brings my income to $2,600/month).

I love my PhD program. I'm funded via the GRFP, but I'm an RA this year. But with 2 dogs and a cat, I can't afford rent in Corvallis. Most places limit to two pets and studios go for $900/month. So I live in a van without a working engine. Today it's 33*F and I learned that my heater isn't working.

Free Leonard Peltier.

This is my niece Momo. She is an example of how nice cats can be if you don’t pull screaming orange Tom-kittens out of a ditch in the prairie. She is perfect. Norberto “Ditch” Bonilla de Escobar, my cat, is actually wanted in 7 countries. He is not perfect.

I’ve been really missing living in a van in El Salvador lately. Grad school is pretty hard in comparison 🥲

This article is a great overview of dogs in conservation. And isn't the graphic up top amazing? Thanks for the interview! www.midstory.org/dogs-are-mor...

Hey scicomm friends, have any of you gotten TV training? I feel confident in written and audio formats but am lacking in video!

I’ve been pretty overwhelmed with the CGE strike, normal PhD work, and caring for Niffler as he starts heartworm treatment. I’m feeling super grateful for friends who take my dogs ok spooky hikes so I can catch up on all the rest.

The Oregon State grad students are *still* on strike.

Lobos polinizadores, gente.