Using Dogs to Count Critically Endangered African Rabbits with Esther Matthew

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

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