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“Just the way that we respond to dogs intuitively as humans actually can end up really reinforcing the very behaviors that we’re trying to help the dog work out of,” Forbes said.

Conservation detection dog work is often supported by collaborations between state and federal agencies and tribal governments, private landowners, and various other stakeholders, but funding is still hard to come by, and training, handling, deploying, and caring for the dogs are all expensive.

A toy that makes a dog work for a treat may buy you enough time for an emergency virtual meeting, but marking the boundary between work and play involves teaching your old dog a new trick: how to “settle”.

“We will be doing some cadaver dog work on some suspected graves that we found last year working with the park archaeologist,” Eichhorst said.

“I could make time if I wanted to, but I love watching that dog work. I love finding deer for people.”