K9 Conservationists

Using Dogs to Count Critically Endangered African Rabbits with Esther Matthew

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Today I have the joy of talking to Esther Matthew about training conservation dogs for a critically endangered South African lagomorph: the riverine rabbit.

Questions answered by Ester: :

  • What was the goal of this study?
  • What other measures had been attempted?
  • Why did you have to use roadkill?
  • How did you measure specificity?
  • Can you describe the 3 phases of the study?
  • Some other trainers hesitate to use off-target species in proofing for training, which always seemed odd to me. You decided to use negative targets in training here. Can you explain why and what results you got?
  • You didn’t reward on unconfirmed hides. Did you do any training to help prepare the dog for the variable reinforcement? How did the dog respond?

    • Where to find Esther Matthew:

    Youtube:   Jessie’s Story

    Facebook:  Jessie the Border collie

    Instagram:  jessiethebc | estherexplorer

    You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists.

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    K9 ConservationistsBy Kayla Fratt
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