K9 Detection Collaborative

By Stacy Barnett, Robin Greubel

Candid conversations about the reality of training, deploying, or competing with a canine partner. Each episode is a cross pollination from the professional and sport canine camps, exploring how we

... more

4.8

4545 ratings

FAQs about K9 Detection Collaborative:

How many episodes does K9 Detection Collaborative have?

The podcast currently has 173 episodes available.

Best of K9 Detection Collaborative

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Liberal Spaniels, Conservative Pointers: Matching Dog Type to Detection Job With Paul Bunker
“Don't trust your dog. Trust your training.” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, sit down with Paul Bunker of Chiron K9. His path from an English farm to British military explosives work eventually led him into conservation detection projects around the globe. Deemed too short for the London police, Paul joined the British military in 1982 and was later tasked, after a fatal minefield accident, with training dogs to clear a safe path to stranded casualties. It was thanks to that project that he coined the “donut effect”, where buried mines leak odor sideways through rainwater rather than straight up. This means dogs must be taught to fringe-sit at the edge of that ring rather than push toward the source. Decades later, that same science shaped his work locating buried Anegada rock iguana nests. Reconnaissance showed the eggs sit in a chamber up to a meter underground, meaning the dog could never be trained on the eggs themselves. Instead, they can learn to detect the filtered headspace odor that actually reaches the surface, built using island sand that Paul smuggled home in Ziploc bags (which nearly got him detained at customs!). Paul illustrates the physics behind the donut effect. Using the example of a coffee filter, he shows that crude oil, once diluted into water, still smells like oil even though it looks crystal clear. That principle underlies nearly everything he trains for, from truffles to human remains, and demands dogs that hunt with intense, ground-level sniffing rather than casual air-scenting. Trusting a dog, Paul argues, starts with trusting the training built behind it. Key Topics:From English Farm Boy to British Army Dog Handler (02:55)A Fatal Minefield Accident and the Birth of a Rescue-Dog Program (11:14)The "Donut Effect": How Buried Mines Leak Odor (15:08)Beyond Landmines: Truffles, Oil, Tobacco, and Water Leaks (22:09)Training Pena for Anegada's Iguana Nests (23:56)The Coffee-Filter Trick: Understanding Diluted Molecules (38:19)Ground Sniffing vs. Air Scenting for Historical Remains (44:31)Liberal vs. Conservative Dogs and Clicker Training (51:12) Resources:Chiron K9: https://chiron-k9.com/The Detection Dog Lab Skool: https://www.skool.com/the-detection-dog-lab-7184/aboutThe Detection of Buried Targets by Canines (book): https://books.by/chiron-k9s-bookstore/the-detection-of-buried-targPublications: https://chiron-k9.com/publications/Texas Tech Canine Olfaction Lab: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/afs/people/nathan-hall/CanineOlfactionLab/index.phpJoint Symposium for Working K9s: https://www.jswk9.com/ We want to hear from you:Check out the K9 Detection Collaborative FB page and comment on the episode post!K9Sensus Detection Dog Trainer AcademyK9Sensus Foundation can be found on Facebook and Instagram. We have a Trainer’s Group on Facebook!Scentsabilities Nosework is also on Facebook. Here is a Facebook group you should join!You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies, and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.And don’t forget to check out the YouTube Channel! Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man
September 08, 20261h
Number 2: Water Leak Detection Dogs with Lolita Shaffer (pt 2)
What to listen for: "The future of leak detection isn't one technology replacing another. It's collaborating with this whole process and working together to save our water." In this second half of their conversation, our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, talk with Lolita Shaffer to move past the why of water leak detection dogs and into the how. A Cherokee Nation–funded study sent two golden retrievers across 30 miles of pipe in five days, flagging areas where acoustic crews later confirmed a leak 100% of the time, totaling roughly 4 million gallons lost. A dog "hitting" an odor pool isn't a pin on a map. Rather, it's a dome of scent that has to be read, triangulated, and cross-checked. This is the same skill Robin brings from human-remains work, where handlers report behavior, not conclusions. That craft of analyzing that dome of scent, Lolita insists, has to be built and licensed like any trade. Handlers calibrate dogs to a district's specific chemical signature, as chlorine and fluorine sit close enough on the periodic table to complicate a reading. They drill leash discipline, since losing a leash near traffic means losing a thousand-pound risk. And they finish an Operational Readiness Training Evaluation, which is a week embedded with water operators, capped by a double-blind test over a live leak field. There are some pretty big stakes to justify this rigor. Digging up a suspected leak can run $3,000 an hour, so a utility needs confidence and not just “educated guesses”. With up to half the water workforce retiring within five years, and dogs now being asked about lead-pipe detection, it’s clearly a crucial, credentialed profession. It’s one that turns a good nose and a good handler into a real, benefits-earning career. Key Topics:Dogs and Acoustics in Tandem (01:14)Reading the "Odor Dome" (09:53)A Retiring Workforce and a New Career Pipeline (21:30)Calibrating the Nose to Chlorine (and Fluorine) (24:48)Leash Handling as a Safety Requirement (26:49)The ORTE: A Week-Long, Double-Blind Field Test (29:08)The $3,000-an-Hour Dig (32:01)Not Every Job Needs a Ferrari: Matching Dog to Deployment (32:54)Key Takeaways (39:43) Resources:K9 Pipeline Detection Association (K9PDA) https://www.k9pda.org/K9 Water Leak Detection University (K9WLDU) https://www.k9waterleakdetectionuniversity.com/Water Leak Detection Dogs on FB https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551098070706Water Professionals International https://gowpi.org/American Water Works Association (AWWA) https://www.awwa.org We want to hear from you:Check out the K9 Detection Collaborative FB page and comment on the episode post!K9Sensus Detection Dog Trainer AcademyK9Sensus Foundation can be found on Facebook and Instagram. We have a Trainer’s Group on Facebook!Scentsabilities Nosework is also on Facebook. Here is a Facebook group you should join!You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies, and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.And don’t forget to check out the YouTube Channel! Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man
August 25, 202645min
Number 3: Water Leak Detection Dogs with Lolita Shaffer (pt 1)
What to listen for: “The certification isn't about proving that the dog can find a leak. It's about giving utilities confidence that the professional team can perform consistently, safely, ethically, and competently.” Lolita Shaffer joins our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, in this two-part conversation to talk all things water leak detection! It’s a growing niche in the dog training world, but a pretty important one. After all, America's water utilities maintain 2.2 million miles of drinking-water pipe, enough to circle the globe 88 times, and industry estimates put coming rate hikes sharply higher as aging, "non-revenue" leaks go unfound. Acoustic listening equipment, the current industry standard, can hear a hissing pipe but also every earthworm, bug, and passing car, leaving handlers to triangulate blind. Dogs, calibrated on-site to a utility's own water before every job, can generalize across leaks ranging from a quarter-gallon a minute to tens of thousands, including one Florida job under an interstate that was gushing 70,000 gallons a minute. Lolita traces her own path into the work back to hunting-dog trials and a sister already doing human remains detection. It’s a lineage that Robin, coming from cadaver-dog work herself, recognizes immediately in how hydrology carries odor whether the "victim" is a body or a busted water main. Lolita has worked with Water Professionals International to build credentialing that treats handler-and-dog teams the way plumbers or engineers are licensed, and is portable across state lines. She has a five-year goal of turning "detection dog" into a real, benefits-earning career. Stay tuned for the next episode of K9 Detection Collaborative, which will be part two of the conversation! Key Topics:What Are the Dogs Actually Smelling? (01:29)A Retiring Workforce and the AWWA/WPI Alphabet Soup (04:24)Heavier Than Air: Why Chlorine Gas Rises to the Surface (07:46)Acoustics, the Delsar, and the Limits of Listening Equipment (20:01)2.2 Million Miles of Pipe (and Four Trips to the Moon) (23:45)The Florida Interstate Leak (28:01)From Hunting Dogs to Water Leaks (33:39)Building WPI Credentialing Into a Five-Year Career (35:54) Resources:K9 Pipeline Detection Association (K9PDA) https://www.k9pda.org/K9 Water Leak Detection University (K9WLDU) https://www.k9waterleakdetectionuniversity.com/Water Leak Detection Dogs on FB https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551098070706Water Professionals International https://gowpi.org/American Water Works Association (AWWA) https://www.awwa.org We want to hear from you:Check out the K9 Detection Collaborative FB page and comment on the episode post!K9Sensus Detection Dog Trainer AcademyK9Sensus Foundation can be found on Facebook and Instagram. We have a Trainer’s Group on Facebook!Scentsabilities Nosework is also on Facebook. Here is a Facebook group you should join!You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies, and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.And don’t forget to check out the YouTube Channel! Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man
August 11, 202644min
Number 4: Intentional Handling and Hide Setting Workshop Hot Wash with Bob Deeds
What to listen for: “You can still support your dog, but you do not have to step in and solve [the problem].” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, sit down with returning guest Bob Deeds to unpack a week of Intentional Handling and Hide Setting, the detection camp the two hosts built years ago and this year expanded to fifteen students running six searches a day! Held on Robin's working farm, the course throws teams (Papillons alongside Malinois, cadaver handlers alongside sport dog people) into barns full of donkey dung, hay fields, and wind that Bob, fresh from Texas, learns shifts hourly in Iowa. Hides "misbehave": they migrate, vanish with the moving sun, or disappear when a tractor pulls away from a scent pool. Rather than solving the problem for their dogs, handlers are coached to read arousal. The dog owns exactly one job, the trained behavior; the handler owns everything else. By week's end, students are setting their own hides, and handling that once looked frantic becomes nearly invisible. That’s proof, Bob argues, that intentional handling builds teamwork rather than dependence. Homework matters as much as class time, too. Students now film their runs and coaching, and by day four they're self-correcting before anyone says a word. There’s been so much success this year that Robin, Stacy, and Bob are already looking toward next year's version of the course! Key Topics:A Bigger, Reimagined Intentional Handling and Hide Setting Week (01:39)Building Systematic Toughness (04:56)When Hides Misbehave: Wind, Sun, and a Living Working Farm (10:50)Trainer Ethics and Why Students Should Design Their Own Hides (18:49)The Bowling Alley Analogy and a Live Lesson in Canine Stress Signals (25:23)The Wagon Wheel, Heads-Up Display, and Handler Challenges (30:50)The Donut of Effectiveness and Cyclical "Spinning Plates" Training (40:34)Key Takeaways (44:02) We want to hear from you:Check out the K9 Detection Collaborative FB page and comment on the episode post!K9Sensus Detection Dog Trainer AcademyK9Sensus Foundation can be found on Facebook and Instagram. We have a Trainer’s Group on Facebook!Scentsabilities Nosework is also on Facebook. Here is a Facebook group you should join!You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies, and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.And don’t forget to check out the YouTube Channel! Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man
July 28, 202649min
Number 5: Bark Alerts: Handle With Care
What to listen for: “Barking should be under stimulus control. It only happens when I cue it – or when the dog finds target odor – and nothing else.” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, unpack the reality behind bark alerts in detection work. They challenge the idea that a barking dog is always impressive or useful, and ask the critical question: can we train a bark alert versus should we? Drawing on real-world deployment experience, they explain when bark alerts are truly required (such as FEMA USAR) and when they can create unnecessary risks, public misinterpretation, and extra maintenance for both dog and handler. They break down bark alerts as complex behavior chains involving position at source, duration, distance, and continuous barking, and show how easily “criteria creep” leads to dogs leaving odor, orienting to the handler, or only offering a token bark. Using the “dog’s wallet” behavior-economics metaphor, they connect heat, terrain, fatigue, and stress to whether the dog has enough “budget” left to bark at all. The discussion also covers demand versus arousal barking, why barking must stay under tight stimulus control, and why for many teams, a solid stationary response may be a smarter, more sustainable choice than chasing a bark alert that is often easy to improperly train and hard to properly maintain. Key Topics: • Why a Barking Dog Isn’t Always Sexy (00:00) • Bark Alert as a Complex Behavior of Duration and Distance (02:31) • Can We Versus Should We When Choosing a Bark Alert (10:23) • When Bark Alerts Are Required Versus When They Are Not (11:19) • Placement of Reinforcement and The Mouse Hole Barrel Setup (14:02) • Criteria Creep and Dogs Leaving Source or Orienting to Handler (18:36) • Behavior Economics and The Five Dollar Dog Wallet Metaphor (31:03) • Demand Barking, Arousal Barking, and Stimulus Control of Barking (25:30) • Real World Limits: Heat, Fatigue, Terrain, and When Dogs Have No Gas Left to Bark (36:25) • Why Bark Alerts Are Easy to Train Badly And Hard to Maintain Well (34:30) Resources: • Link to training an Area Search Dog, which includes the module on a bark alert (and has a worksheet!) https://k9sensusacademy.thinkific.com/products/courses/areasearchdog We want to hear from you:Check out the K9 Detection Collaborative FB page and comment on the episode post!K9Sensus Detection Dog Trainer AcademyK9Sensus Foundation can be found on Facebook and Instagram. We have a Trainer’s Group on Facebook!Scentsabilities Nosework is also on Facebook. Here is a Facebook group you should join!You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies, and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.And don’t forget to check out the YouTube Channel!
July 14, 202647min