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| Pacifica Police Officer with his canine officer (not part of this program). |
Maybe you’ve seen one before: a shelter dog with a wild streak, jumping, spinning, barking, and swirling around with as much energy as the Tasmanian Devil. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to find a home for these kind of dogs that are nearly unmanageable.
However, these hyper hounds make the perfect candidates for Working Dogs For Conservation (WD4C), where their focused fixation and boundless energy are put to good use.
Described as “the world’s leading conservation detection dog organization” on their site, this group trains canines to sniff out clues that solve crimes, bust criminals, and enhance conservation.
These dogs can detect a multitude of scents: narcotics, cadavers, people who need rescuing, illegal snares, endangered animals and plants, noxious weeds, aquatic life, and more.
Because of the intensity of this work, with lives and species at stake, this organization seeks out to recruit the most strong-willed pups they can find; often, the “unadoptables.”
“Great conservation detection dogs have an obsessive play drive and an unrelenting toy focus. Their never-quit attitude makes them nearly impossible to keep in a family home, but perfect members of the WD4C family,” explains the website.
Partnering with International Fund for Animal Welfare, these two organizations formed the Rescues 2 the Rescue program, educating shelter staff to identify solid WD4C candidates, and helping to recruit the best pack possible.
This means that not only is wildlife saved, but the dogs who are trained to do the work are rescues as well, having faced the fate of almost certain euthanasia.
Read more about this great program at the IHeartDogs website!