Dogs in Conservation

Although one of the greatest threats to wildlife at the global level are domestic animals, among which the dog stands out, today they play an important role in conservation. They allow us to work with different approaches and methods in diverse conservation strategies.

The domestic dog, thanks to its powerful sense of smell, can distinguish an infinite number of odors at minimum concentrations and learn to indicate them to humans as it is trained. Several studies have shown that a dog can cover 5 times the distance that a human could cover in 70% of the time, with a detection efficiency 2 to 4 times higher. Through systematic training, the possibility of impact on native wildlife and the environment is minimized. In addition, its gregarious behavior has transformed it into an important ally for the protection of specific animal groups such as livestock.

We are working with, and training Search Dogs to locate elusive species or species whose populations occur at very low densities, for example individuals of endangered species and the presence of invasive species in early stages. Our objective is to complement the American Mink control systems and train dogs for huillin detection. By increasing the number of dogs trained by our team, we seek to expand the number and variety of actions in which these dogs can be conservation actors.

At the same time, together with specialized institutions such as INTA and local producers, we are contributing to the development of the Livestock Protection Dogs project. This project aims to reduce the use of traditional techniques (toxic baits and hunting) to control livestock predators (foxes and pumas). We propose alternative tools that favor the coexistence between native carnivores and livestock, thus reducing the high collateral impact of traditional strategies on wildlife in general.