People return family pets to the shelter for so many reasons.

They will tell the shelter workers that they don’t have the time to care for them. That the animals are too much work. They have too much energy.

So back the animals go. Left on the streets or caged in the shelters.

But one organization is hoping to change that by recruiting the dogs no one else wants for a conservation program.

‘Working Dogs for Conversation (WD4C)’ aims to take those dogs who need homes and train them to help in conservation efforts all across the world.

“There are lots of great dogs in shelters that don’t need to be there,” said Pete Coppolillo, the executive director of WD4C.

One of WD4C’s rescues, Tigee, was put into the shelter for being too aggressive. At 7, the shepherd mix was forced to spend several weeks in isolation.

But, Coppolillo and other WD4C members knew the dog was smart and extremely attached to his toys. All things that made him a perfect “conservation canine.”

Now Tigee lives in Zambia. He uses his nose to collect details on wildlife in the South Luangwa National Park, as well as protect the animals, including pangolins which are an endangered species.

His reward? Toys and treats.

“It’s not easy work. We ask these dogs to do very difficult tasks,” Coppolillo said.

The closer the dog and the handler are, the better a team they’re going to be.”

While the work can be arduous, the pups and their handlers have fun on the job.

“They love each other, and they want to spend time together,” Coppolillo said. “It’s a nice life.”

Fenton is a conservation canine with Working Dogs for Conservation. Photo by WD4C

Nine-year-old Tobias, a Labrador retriever, was found in Helena, Mont. A hyper dog, he had trouble finding any one that would take on his exuberant personality. But for WD4C, it was a perfect match. He spends his days sniffing out zebras and quagga mussels in Montana’s Glacier National Park. Toys and treats are his rewards.

Coppolillo said they often look for dogs that are highly motivated by toys, tons of energy and a strong work ethic. The dogs they find are paired with a human handler, and together they work on training and on field work.

 “Everything about them architecturally and physiologically is built for filtering, identifying and processing scents,” said Megan Parker, a biologist and a co-founder of WD4C.

Dogs have a part of their brain that enables them to scent out even the faintest smell and can tell the difference between odors, Parker said. What makes dogs stand out from other animals that have a good sense of smell is that they are quick to learn new things, and tend to listen better to directions from someone they trust.

“They’re trained to find their target odor, and they will run around a landscape and look for it,” Coppolillo said. “Dogs are evolutionarily predisposed to find it.”

And in this case, their goal is feces. The fecal matter of animals can tell scientists what animals are in a specific area, what their eating habits are, as well as if they have been exposed to toxins.

The target odor, in most cases, is feces.

“The amount of information you can get from scat is always increasing because of fancier labs,” Coppolillo said.

Zoey, a shepherd mix, went from being a stray dog on the streets of Texas to tracking wild cats in Missoula, Mont. WD4C

If scientists need to find where a specific bear lives, for example, “we don’t have to see or catch a bear,” Coppolillo said.

We just let the dog go out and find their poop.”

The dogs even have crimefighter on their resumes. They are trained to combat wildlife crimes by detecting ammunition and guns, as well as tracking poachers.

Coppolillo and Parker both think this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the dogs will be able to do.

“People are getting more and more sophisticated about the questions that they ask dogs,” said Parker. “There’s going to be incredible questions that people can ask of dogs, and they’ll be blown away when they get the right answer.”

“The truly exceptional thing about a dog is their relationship with us,” Coppolillo said. “It’s the relationship with us, with humans, that makes them so special.”

Watch below to see these dogs in action.

Source: Washington Post