Whaling dogs?

Recently, I was conversing with several acquaintances while wearing a jacket with our VSMR logo. During a lull in the conversation, an older gentleman who had seemed distracted by the logo asked with some incredulity, “Do dogs play sports?!” Perhaps he was trying to envision a beagle catching a baseball or a rottweiler tackling the quarterback!

It occurred to me that there are many people – even dog lovers – who don’t realize the many sports that dogs do play… not to mention the array of jobs that working dogs perform!

I thought I would list all of the different types of dogs, but I quickly realized that dogs play so many roles and I would undoubtedly offend someone by omitting their dog’s very important line of work – or play.

Maybe it’s best to focus on one thing at a time… Dogs have long been used to track other animals, but now they are being used to track whales. Yes, orcas .. ‘killer whales’… in the ocean. Apparently this is not new, but I only recently heard the story of Tucker on NPR. The dogs are trained to identify whale feces by smell, in order to locate them and enable the researchers to study them more effectively.

A whale-sniffing dog … what an invaluable addition to the whale research team!

To hear the story on Tucker, go to NPR’s All Things Considered.

And for more information on the canine training program, visit the University of Washington, Center for Conservation Biology – Conservation Canines.