From sniffing out bed bugs and identifying rare and endangered species to helping protect bird and bat habitats around wind turbines and eradicating predators from Rathlin Island – it’s all in a day’s work for Conservation Detection Dogs NI (CDDNI).
Depending on the breed or type a dog’s sense of smell is around 10,000-100,000 times better than us humans.
Conservation detection dogs work similarly to bomb, drug, or search and rescue dogs — but instead of searching for accelerants, drugs or missing people, they are specially trained to sniff out odours that help scientists find evidence to help protect wildlife and the environment.
Derry-born Dr Caroline Finlay has been working in conservation for over 15 years, studying a wide variety of habitats, from howler monkeys in the Honduran rainforest to red squirrels in forests in Northern Ireland.
“The only limit to the use of these dogs in conservation is our own imagination,” enthuses the 36-year-old, revealing that there is even a dog in America trained to identify if a polar bear is pregnant.
Caroline first witnessed the “outstanding ability” of conservation dogs in 2019, when she was working on a project involving red squirrels.
“I met a group in England that had trained a dog to help them find red squirrels. I thought that would be so good here, because we had a terrible squirrel pox outbreak in Tollymore Forest Park that year,” she explains.
An animal lover from a young age, Caroline had a springer spaniel rescue dog, Rufus, at the time. She had him assessed and Rufus, alongside Caroline, became the first team to complete accreditation with Lantra, the land-based industries training body. Caroline has since become a Lantra trainer and assessor, and established CDDNI.
The only limit to the use of these dogs in conservation is our own imagination
— Dr Caroline Finlay
Much of their work recently has been surveying the impact of wind turbines and wind farms on surrounding wildlife.
“One of the best renewable energy sources we have in Ireland is wind, but we need to make sure that when we do put wind turbines up, that they aren’t detrimental to our bat and bird populations,” explains Caroline.
“We use the dogs to find injured or carcasses of bats and birds and are seeing real results. We can get the injured bats into rehab or put mitigating measures in place immediately, such as only turning on the turbine at certain times and weather conditions.”
As thick vegetation doesn’t affect a dog’s ability to search for evidence, a recent Spanish research paper found canines to be 60% more effective at the work than humans.
Caroline’s talented four-legged team are springer spaniels Monty, Jasper and Hugo and German shorthaired pointer Ziba, who she explains is a career-change dog.
“Ziba was an explosives dog in the Netherlands, but every time she went into season, she got anxious.”
Caroline heard about Ziba and thought she “would be perfect” for their work in identifying curlew nests.
Over the last 40 years, the number of breeding curlews has decreased by 97% in Ireland, so finding and protecting their ground-nests is crucial for the breed’s survival.
“Ziba got spayed, retrained for conservation and has been an absolute superstar. She’s got the best nose of the team,” says a proud Caroline.
Adamant that her dogs “must enjoy their job”, Caroline makes training and work fun, associating various balls and toys with particular scents.
“We also train them to have indication, which means that they don’t lift or lick any of the species, instead sit, stare and wait for me to come along and reward them with their toy.
“Other training is more specific, like with the sea bird project we had to teach the dogs to search down burrows.”
The ability of the dogs still “continuously amazes” Caroline. “We were searching a massive hillside last summer for a curlew nest and the dog found it within 10 minutes. Human searchers had been looking for days.”
Last year Caroline’s dogs helped identify the extremely rare cloudberry plant, which is believed to only be present on one hillside in Ireland, in the Sperrins.
Having quickly proved the dogs can find it, CDDNI are going to progress the research to see if the cloudberry is present in other areas of Ireland.
“We want to discover if it’s just a case that it’s so hard for human eyes to find, they have simply missed it and it’s everywhere. If that’s not the case, we need to better protect it, so it doesn’t disappear from our island.”
The impact of detection dogs is also being seen in Rathlin Island, through the Life Raft project, which aims to restore seabird colonies on the island.
Ferrets and rats pose a grave risk to puffins and other seabirds who breed on Rathlin every year, by eating their eggs and infants.
Caroline is mentoring the team there to eradicate the invasive species, and now that the ferret population has been controlled, Woody the fox red Labrador will be coming to her base in Comber to get trained in rodent odour.
“It’s going to make a big difference to the bird population and there’s a real possibility of new species coming,” she enthuses.
Occasionally, CDDNI’s work brings them indoors. Partnering with North West Pest Control, Caroline and her springer Monty have tackled bed bug outbreaks throughout Ireland, in hotels and housing association homes.
“It’s target treatment, so that businesses aren’t spending a ridiculous amount of money getting all their rooms treated. We then bring the dog back later to make sure the treatment has worked.”
The use of conservation detection dogs is a growing sector worldwide, especially America, Australia and New Zealand, whose dogs are all regulated by a government programme.
Caroline is a member of the Ecology Detection Dog Britain and Ireland Working Group, who are promoting high standards and providing guidance documents on the responsible adoption of detection dogs.
She is excited about the possibilities the dogs can offer and is collaborating with handlers in Finland and Canada on new research opportunities.
Her hope for the future is that whenever a new conservation project is proposed the first question asked is “could a dog be useful for this?”.
The only limit to the use of these dogs in conservation is our own imagination
— Caroline Finlay
A true pioneer in the conservation detection dog industry, in July 2024, at the age of 10, Rufus sadly passed away after a sudden cancer diagnosis.
CDDNI have set up The Rufus Foundation in his honour, with an aim of offering charities, not-for-profit organisations and PhD students the opportunity to enable research projects by using her detection dog teams at a significantly reduced rate.
“There’s so many areas where dogs can improve conservation projects, we just need to open our eyes to opportunities,” she enthuses.
Bovine tuberculosis is a significant problem in Ireland, with rates of infection rising in recent years despite efforts to eradicate it. Caroline believes that detection dogs could be used to help find a solution.
“The TB test on cattle isn’t 100% reliable, so perhaps our dogs could be trained to detect it on them,” she says. “Also, badgers deposit their faeces in latrines and the dogs could easily search their scat for smells of TB. It’s such a big problem though, so funding will be an issue.”
Caroline is looking forward to taking part in the Discover Dogs event as part of the NI Science Festival in Derry’s St Columb’s Park House on Saturday February 15.
During this doggy day out, experts, trainers, vets and researchers will share insights on everything from dog nutrition and health to the various fascinating roles dogs have.
Caroline will be giving a talk and demonstrating about her work and discussing how she selects dogs for conservation work.
While she personally prefers to work with gundogs, Caroline says she has seen conservation handlers use collies, spitz, terriers, German Shepherds and Malinois.
“Many breeds can be used, as long as the dog has the right drive and ability.”
Discover Dogs on February 15 is free to attend, but some events require registration. Full event and festival information at Nisciencefestival.com.
To find out more about the work of CDDNI visit Cddni.com
