History of Working dogs

• Dogs have been used for grouse detection and data collection in Europe since the 1950’s

• Data from dogs used to determine animal populations, distributions, and demographics (age & sex)

• Dogs can be used to find species of concern that either have small populations or are hard to find

Choosing Dogs for Working

• Certain breeds do better than others with bird detection and livestock.

• Setters and pointers are best for distance sampling and finding hens with their broods

• Livestock protection dogs (LPD) live with livestock and protect them. Offers non-lethal predator control

  • Ranchers in the Western US use sheep dogs to protect their sheep flocks grazing in the mountains during the summer

• LPD have been used for almost 5,000 years, the Great Pyrenees is the most common breed used

Using Dogs for Birds

• When dogs are used to find nests and broods, the entire brood can usually be found within 10 minutes after the hen or first chick is found. Chicks up to 4 weeks old can be handled

• When dogs are not used, the brood size can be underestimated greatly by human researchers

• Dogs can be used to find unknown lekking locations. The dogs flush out a large number of male grouse in a small area during the day then the site is revisited during display times (this is normally in the morning)