Mice detection dog success for MITIE

We trained a specialist detection dog for MITIE Pest Control and we are delighted to hear he is continuing to be successful.- the project was innovative and Pioneers and wagtail UK ltd and conservation dogs are proud to be part of it. We regularly see Archie and we can not believe how proud he has made us.

below are details taken from MITIE website regarding Archie and the solutions called CARE.

http://www.mitie.com/services/specialist-services/pest-control/rodent-control/care

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CARE PROJECT

Studies have shown that mice are developing behavioural and chemical resistance to common methods of extermination which include traps and rodenticides. We have labelled these as 'super mice'.

One of our solutions is called CARE, which stands for Canine Assisted Rodent Eradication, or other words, Archie.  Archie is a specially-trained sniffer dog who has been trained to indicate exactly where a mouse enters and exits a building, and to identify specific areas of high use, such as regularly-used mouse ‘runs’. When Archie finds current mouse infestations, he will indicate by pointing his nose and standing very still in the exact location of the mice. 

This method allows our rodent control technicians to place traps and rodenticides much more accurately, avoiding any guesswork. This reduces the quantity of toxic poisons, and can significantly reduce the time required to achieve eradication.
Ultimately you get a clearer view of where the infestation lies and the extent of the mice infestation.
Archie is able to:

• Identify and specifically locate active mouse infestations with a high level of     accuracy compared with other methods;
• Ignore old infestations and focus only on current activity;
• Ignore the scents of other types of rodents and sniff out only mice.

FOR MORE DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT MITIE:-

http://www.mitie.com/contact-us

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POSITION FILLED

Thanks to everyone whom applied for the position of handler/trainer for our Africa project. We have been inundated and we have been spoilt for choice. We have not successfully employed our new member of staff whom is delighted to be on our team now, especially during this very exciting project/task.

We also have new dog in training now and he is amazing and really impressing us every day. He is motivated, excitable, focused and has amazing high drive and is very willing to please.
He is just the perfect dog for this project.

Conservation dogs attend Hydrotherapy

Twister at Hydrotherapy- yes our bat ddetection dogs loves visiting hydrotherapy. He is like a duck to water, the only problem is he doesn't like to get out. We try to visit regularly as now Twister is getting older its always best to maintain his fitness and well being using different methods. We always supplement the dogs with vitamins, but hydrotherapy is great.

Twister enjoying his exercise at hydrotherapy.

We want to thank Beachin hydrotherapy for all the help and guidance they give us when we visit, especially as we have brought many dogs, that have many problems also from behavioural problems to health issues. they are such a great help and hydrotherapy is vital for the well being of our dogs....especially as they love it.

http://www.dogtherapypool.co.uk/

Pine marten sighting in Wales

Jenny from The Vincent Wildlife Trust contacted me regarding some Pine Marten Sighting in Aberystwyth over the last weekend of Septmeber. Two individual sightings that where very accurate had been reported and therefore a quick accurate and efficient method of scat searching was needed.

The weather was horrendous and very wet and rainy... this makes the chances of finding a scat in tact, and not washed away very unlikely so we needed to act quick to hopefully find anything that would be of interest.

Luna did wonderfully again, despite the rain the wind and the mist. as well as poor Luna cut her foot also whilst searching but this was only that evening that I saw her foot after doing a health check on her- she didn't let it affect her work though. as a result I did have to reduce our hydrotherapy trips until her foot was healed.

BIOBLITZ presentation Shropshire Mammal Group

I was kindly asked to attend Shropshire BIOBLITZ at Walford College in September to demonstrate Luna's capabilities as well as show a presentation about Conservation dogs and what we do.
The turn out was fantastic and myself and Luna and my other dogs where all made to feel very welcome.

Luna's demonstration went well "OK" as it was typical Luna was so excited she didn't want to cover the small demonstration area I had laid out, but she wanted to cover the huge area. So firstly trying to pin her down to a smaller area took some effort but eventually she located the scat and indicated for all the audience to see. But she did do a great job in the end and showed how much quicker and more accurate a dog can detect Scats in comparison to humans.

We were very please to be involved in this years BIOBLITZ and want to thank all involved. Luna and the rest of the dogs enjoyed themselves. I hope everyone enjoyed the demonstration and keep watching out for more demonstrations soon.

I was also honoured to meet Mr Johnny Birks, Chairman of the Mammal Society. After hearing alot about Johnny as well as reading his books it was great to finally meet him.

We will be working with Shropshire Mammal group again very soon, as we have been hired to conduct Pine Marten Scats which is very exciting.

Watch this space.....

Ireland Filming for "Living the Wildlife" Series.

After my trip to Ireland with Luna, Emma Sheehy told me of a wildlife documentary that where very interested in filming Luna in action, so after speaking with the presenter Colin Stafford-Johnson I arranged to travel back to Ireland a couple of weeks later.

The filming was conducted over a day period in the same woods that we had searches a few weeks early. Luna did absolutely wonderful, she was fabulous in front of the camera.



Luna with her own microphone on.



Luna with her own Go Pro Camera

Luna With Film Crew Behind her

We had a wonderful day with Colin and the rest of his Crew as well as with Emma again, it was such a great experience and Luna was such a star. She was very accomodating to the camera man and sound crew and we hope to work together again with conservation dogs.

Living the Wildlife will be aired next year in Ireland so keep an eye out.

Ireland Searches September 2012

Over the last few years I have been in contact with a PHD student from Ireland whom is researching Squirrel activity. Emma Sheehy has been interested in using Pine Marten scat dogs for a while now as she needed to know more about the Pine Marten diet- for example are Pine Marten partial to a bit of Grey Squirrel for tea? So the best way to find this out is to find Pine Marten Scat and run tests on the scat.

Over the 6 months Emma has been relentlessly searching for scat she has been successful in collecting 16 samples. However she was in desperate need to increase her sample size. So Luna and myself where asked to visit Ireland and to search three large forests.

We had two days of very successfully searches with Luna in the first 3 minutes of being off the lead found a pine marten scat immediately which we would have simply walked past. Luna covered miles of ground and was so eager to find as many scats as possible. The weather was rather warm and little breeze but Luna's motivation and enthusiasm never falters and always makes me proud.

Luna Found a scat here that was disgusted by Pheasant Droppings.

Over the two days Luna was successful in detection 8 pine marten scats. This was amazing and we didn't expect her to find as many as she did. Luna was always enthusiastic about continuing to search once we collected a scat, sometimes it was rather hard to keep up with her.

Over the two days Luna possibly worked 12 hours which looking back was rather ambitious. She didn't  look sad or need motivating but really from an energy point of view 3-4 hours searching a day is the maximum a conservation dog should do. Due to the terrain the dogs work in, the area the dog covers, the agility required to cover the area sufficiently and ultimately that olfaction takes considerably more energy than merely walking a dog around, so 3-4 hours should be maximum time worked.

A scat being taken to be DNA Sampled.

Luna also had difficult terrain to deal with, as well as many people attending to help with searching which could have been a distraction to Luna but she didn't seemed bothered in the slightest. Also we had to transport Luna on the back seat of a 4 x 4 which she loved. no problem with.

Me and Luna on our final day in Ireland.