Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Anti-poaching dog! A little long...

I guess the Africa forum is the place for this....

One of our program dogs last year showed such promise in scent work that I called colleagues at Working Dogs for Conservation : www.workingdogsforconservation.org
as I knew they were working on an anti-poaching project in Africa, and they needed dogs to sniff out contraband ivory, rhino horn, bush meat and the like.
They took the dog, who already knew how to search, courtesy of a star student of mine,and taught him the ropes with ivory, horn, and all the accoutrements-weapons, ammo, powder etc used in poaching. They flew him to Zambia with two trainers to train the handlers, and set him up in a super facility, complete with armed guards 24/7 for him and the other dog involved. This is 'our' dog,and his name is "Ruger"....





Training is bering conducted and is ongoing but has progressed far enough to take the dog out on his first roadblock, where he searched a van full of people and luggage...




He found a piece of luggage that he indicated on, and when searched, he indicated on a match box inside the luggage...




Inside the matchbox was a single percussion cap, illegal to possess as muzzle loaders and all they entail are common poachers tools. The owner already had a record for poaching, so his day could have gone better...


This is the first ever effort of its kind, but obviously it shows hope as a tool for future anti-poaching efforts. To say that I, my star student, and my friends at Working Dogs are proud and excited about this is an understatement.
This will give non-dog people a bit of insight into what exactly the olfactory capabilities of a dog are.
Proud to sign off on this one...Ingwe.