Working dogs..

Graces7

Off my feet a lot just now and watching all kinds of youtube

A series re UK Customs has me riveted. I knew there were sniffer dogs but had no idea how varied and skilled their abilities were...

Finding drugs, cigarettes, humans stowing away in trucks... meat products..all with such zeal and delight.

Wonderful workers..

Any other roles I had not thought of?

Nody

Well you missed the whole farm side of things (i.e. herding cattle between locations, protection against prey if you look more towards Eastern Europe etc.), hunting (roles depending on type of hunting), sledding, assist dogs to mention a few that comes directly to mind.

Choc Chip

I came across conservation dogs the other day - have a google! I think it's fascinating.

baby and crumble

Medical detection dogs are fascinating too, being trained to detect cancers, can alert their owners to the impending onset of a seizure...

I actually also think the landmine detection rats they use are amazing. They're so light they don't set off the mines but they can smell them and alert workers so they can be safely dug up and decommissioned.

Graces7

baby and crumble wrote: »

Medical detection dogs are fascinating too, being trained to detect cancers, can alert their owners to the impending onset of a seizure...

I actually also think the landmine detection rats they use are amazing. They're so light they don't set off the mines but they can smell them and alert workers so they can be safely dug up and decommissioned.

Awesome; and they used to take canaries into mines for air quality testing

baby and crumble

Graces7 wrote: »

Awesome; and they used to take canaries into mines for air quality testing

Well yes but that wasn't really "working" the canaries, it was just if it died the humans needed to get out, right? :pac:

Alun

baby and crumble wrote: »

Well yes but that wasn't really "working" the canaries, it was just if it died the humans needed to get out, right? :pac:

Yes, not a lot of "training" required there

Graces7

baby and crumble wrote: »

Well yes but that wasn't really "working" the canaries, it was just if it died the humans needed to get out, right? :pac:

Not quite...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/30/newsid_2547000/2547587.stm

I come from Lancashire mining stock and those men loved the canaries. As soon as they showed distress by stopping singing?

Graces7

Alun wrote: »

Yes, not a lot of "training" required there

me
Using natural features, same as rats and dogs..

Alun

Graces7 wrote: »

Using natural features, same as rats and dogs..

Not quite. As pointed out canaries merely stop singing as a sign that they're in distress due to dangerous gasses, they don't have to be taught to do so.

Sniffer and search dogs, although they're using their natural abilities to sniff out drugs/money/explosives or find missing persons, still have to be trained, or more accurately conditioned, by their human handlers to indicate their finds to their owners. Sniffer dogs are relatively quick to train, maybe 6 months or so, air scenting search dogs can take up to 2 years to train. (I know, I help to train them:) )

DaDoRonRonRon

Fantastic noses on them alright. The Lagotto Romagnolo breed are trained from an early age to sniff out truffles earning potentially thousands of euro per find. My dogs have only ever cost me money