Super Sniffers

Eba the dog catches the scent of whale poop nearby. She runs to the side of the speedboat and wags her tail. The crew turns the boat to follow. Eba sniffs the air again. They’re getting closer.

A moment later, Eba gets so excited that she starts wriggling like a fish. Her handler peers over the edge, spots whale poop floating in the water, and nods. The handler tosses Eba her favorite ball, which she catches in her mouth. It’s her reward for a job well done.

Eba is one of the more than 50 dogs that have worked at Conservation Canines over the years. Based at the University of Washington in Seattle, this program trains dogs to use their super sense of smell to help scientists study endangered species, locate invasive plants, identify areas contaminated with pollution, and more.

Eba’s specialty is whale poop. Poop, or “scat” as scientists call it, contains a lot of information about the animal that produced it. Is the animal stressed? What is it eating? Is it eating enough? Scientists can learn all that—and more—from scat. Studying scat allows biologists to learn more about wildlife without capturing the animals.

But finding scat can be difficult for humans. That’s where dogs like Eba come in. Dogs have about 40 times as many smell receptors as humans. Eba can smell whale poop up to half a mile away! “With our work on whales, we estimate that [we get] at least five times more samples from the dogs than what people could get,” says Samuel Wasser, a conservation biologist at the University of Washington.

Eba the dog catches a scent she recognizes. It’s whale poop! And it’s nearby. Eba runs to the side of the boat and wags her tail. The crew turns the boat toward that side. Eba sniffs the air again. They’re getting closer.

A moment later, Eba starts wiggling excitedly. Her handler looks over the edge of the boat.  Whale poop is floating in the water! The handler throws Eba her favorite ball. It’s Eba’s reward for a job well done.

Eba works for a program called Conservation Canines. It’s based at the University of Washington in Seattle. Conservation Canines trains dogs to use their noses to help scientists. The pups can sniff out endangered animals, invasive plants, pollution, and more. The program has trained more than 50 dogs over the years.

Eba’s specialty is whale poop. Scientists call it “scat.” Scat can tell scientists a lot about the animal that produced it. Is the animal stressed? What is it eating? Is it eating enough? Scat holds clues to all that—and more. Studying it allows biologists to learn about wild animals without capturing them.

But finding scat in the wild can be difficult. That’s where dogs like Eba come in. Dogs’ sense of smell is about 40 times stronger than ours. Eba can smell whale poop up to half a mile away! Dogs help scientists find at least five times more whale scat samples than people could alone, says Samuel Wasser. He’s a conservation biologist at the University of Washington.

In 1997, Wasser started Conservation Canines. He has spent his career researching wild animals to understand and protect them. After meeting a dog handler who trained hunting dogs to track cougars and wolves, Wasser realized that canines—with their excellent sense of smell—might be helpful for his research, too.

For nearly 30 years, the dogs from Conservation Canines have worked around the world, tracking tigers in Cambodia, caribou in Canada, and more.

But not just any dog can work for Conservation Canines. The dogs have to be extremely high energy, with a strong desire to play. “They typically drive their owners crazy,” says Wasser. “In fact, nearly all the dogs in our program are adopted from shelters.”

To train a dog, the handler has it smell many samples of the target substance. Then the handler sets out multiple containers. One container has the substance inside it. When the dog identifies the correct container, the handler rewards the dog with its favorite ball.

In the field, they repeat the process. The dog is trained to signal when it locates the sample, most often by sitting near it. Then the handler gives the dog the ball as a reward. “There’s a very strong bond between the handler and the dog,” says Wasser.

Wasser’s job is to learn about wild animals and how to protect them. He started Conservation Canines in 1997. He got the idea after meeting someone who had trained hunting dogs to track cougars and wolves. Wasser realized that dogs and their super sense of smell might be able to help him, too.

That was almost 30 years ago. Since then, the dogs from Conservation Canines have worked around the world. They’ve tracked everything from tigers in Cambodia to caribou in Canada.

But not just any dog can work for Conservation Canines. There’s a certain type that does the job best. These dogs have a lot of energy and a strong need to play. “They typically drive their owners crazy,” says Wasser. “In fact, nearly all the dogs in our program are adopted from shelters.”

Human handlers train the dogs to recognize scents like whale scat. First, the handler gives the dog many samples of the scat to smell. Then the handler sets out multiple containers. Only one has the scat inside. The dog has to find the right container. When it does, the handler gives it a prize: its favorite ball!

In the field, they repeat the process. When the dog sniffs out the scent it was trained on, it gives the handler a signal. This usually means sitting near the sample. Then the handler gives the dog the ball. “There’s a very strong bond between the handler and the dog,” says Wasser.