Earth Dog Conservation

Conservation canine handler, dog trainer and lover of all that nature has to offer. 🦇🦅🐢🐾 #Indiana

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

Jesse and I were featured in this article. Love shedding a little light into the conservation dog world and especially love the highlights about positive training. Thank you so much @sassafraslowrey for writing such a nice piece about us and our friends!

https://t.co/WpMGCoc3Yo

[Decoding Dogs with Dr Dennis @DennisWormald]

Many people I've spoken to have the perception that all working dogs have great lives. They are active all day, so it makes sense they are happy. I thought the same thing too, until I fostered a working sniffer dog puppy for our local quarantine / border force. Here is her story:

Freya was an 8 week old Labrador puppy when I got her. The arrangement was that I would care for her most of the time, and they would take her away for days or weeks now and then to train her up. At the end of her first year, if she was able to work, she would graduate and they would take her away from me forever.

Right at the outset, I was a bit concerned when the whole litter did a puppy class and they were talking about dominance and being the leader (an outdated training philosophy), and also said we weren't allowed to give her belly rubs ever! They encouraged us to walk her heaps on all different surfaces, and to get her to jump up and down off things as this would be part of her job.

When she was about 8 months old, when they had her for a week training her, they called me in a way that I felt like I was being told off. They said she didn't want to jump down off things anymore, and I hadn't been practising this enough. I told them she was fine as far as I knew, and there was no problem. They didn't believe me!

Freya came home the next day, and I saw how she now wouldn't jump down off things. As a vet, I immediately felt her elbows and found bilateral elbow pain. To this day she is fearful to jump onto or off things, a fear she never had before that point. I'm sure she was forced to do things which hurt her, and she's never gotten over it.

Fast forward a few months, and she failed her sniffer dog training, so they tried to match her with the police force instead. She spent 6 weeks there and failed with them too. So at that point they gave her back to me and I got to keep her, which I'm so grateful for. She is an amazing dog. They said she failed because she didn't have enough "working drive".

Shockingly, Freya now gets raised hackles and barks fearfully whenever she sees a police officer in uniform. This is a dog who loves EVERYONE, so I was completely shocked to see she picked up this behaviour after being with them for 6 weeks. She should have been very comfortable.

I don't know what goes on behind their closed doors, but my dog told me that it isn't good. She's living such a good life now, as my followers would see with some of my posts, so she got a happy ending. I can't help but worry about all the other working dogs that are misunderstood and worked despite stress, pain or anxiety. I just don't trust the people running these programs in my area. I'm sure that many working dogs are very happy in work, but I'm also sure that some of them aren't. Thankfully my own unhappy dog failed!

[WWT @WWTworldwide]

We see your Fat Bear Week and we raise you Round Bird Season

[WeRateDogs @dog_rates]

This is Aria. She doesn't understand why you taught her to trade if you didn't want her to become a businesswoman. 12/10

[Josh Trebach, MD @jtrebach]

After taking tons of tests over the years, I have honed a study technique that works well for me.

And hopefully, it works for you too!

A thread on the study technique that got me through med school, residency, fellowship, and one of the hardest board exams I’ve ever taken:🧵📚

[tortured Neuralink test monkey @Zooophagous]

Pet portrait for a client of their good boy, who is a professional scent work dog, and some of his scent targets. I am opening a few slots for pet portraits again now because I owe the hospital money.

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@padraigegan @pet_sense @Binky_2301 You’d be shocked at some of the training advice veterinarians give out.

I’m happy to stay in my lane but I’m dismayed to see a veterinarian be critical of that.

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@padraigegan @Binky_2301 What would you have them do? Just pretend that pain or illness isn’t a potential factor in behavior issues? I’d rather have a vet be the one to rule that out. You can’t treat a medical issue with behavior modification.

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@MollyRainettem @WildlifeGreg @natsabin I’m not super familiar with the bats of Britain, sorry!

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@fearnley_k @Naomi_D_Harvey Why is CBT not appropriate for long Covid? Genuine question

[Slaven Vujic 🇭🇷 🇺🇦 Genius Fool @slaven_vujic]

Refugees during the first days of the invasion were quite easy to talk to as they didn't taste the war fully.
Nowadays we only have refugees who are heavily traumatized. They are unable to make simple decisions, yet everyone ask them tough questions.
I just shut up and hug.

[Kayla Fratt (she/her) @eco_odorologist]

Are you a professional or aspiring conservation detection dog handler? This field can be pretty isolating - most of us work alone all day and many of us are private contractors. (1/2)

[Bat World Sanctuary @batworld]

Cookie hit a little snag with training to self feed. She says she prefers to be hand fed like the queen she is, and did not want to eat from her dish today. She'll stay in training and hopefully be self feeding soon :]

If you can't eat them, join them! -Cookie

[TheVetShopBoys @vet_boys]

🤣🤣🤣🤣 so true…

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@HonkIfUrHoary @MissCurseALot Not a vet but same. I’ve had it on my hands before. Poor dogs. Got advice to put it in a gelatin capsule. Problem solved, now it’s a “pill” and no longer traumatic. Check with your vet (if you’re not one)!

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@OBrienCanine I dont think it indicates anything significant. Its not a conference for your average pet owner with their average dog, its for trainers/behaviorists/whatever who take the worst-of-the-worst cases regularly. I'm pleased to see such an awesome lineup of pros out there educating.

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@selshult It depends! New behavior or something well established? What’s your final goal?

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

@musseldogs Excellent idea! I will check it out. Thank you!

[Earth Dog Conservation @TeamEarthDog]

Looking for papers on working dog welfare, specifically on the topic of "high drive" dogs. Working dogs are often selected for near-constant displays of frantic, over-the-top, obsessive behavior - certainly, someone has looked at this?

[Dogs Trust Research Department 💛 @DTScholars]

Our free, virtual conference for rehoming centres is back on the 27th October! 🐕

Talks will be delivered by our brilliant team members & will cover the full rehoming process & post-adoption support. 🐾

Find the full programme and register here 👉 https://t.co/oxqOnqxLXX

[Give Bats A Break @GiveBatsABreak]

the bats carrying us into autumn like

🎨 Maggie Vandewalle (@mevandewalle)