HOME

OUR DOGS

PROJECTS

PUBLICATIONS

PRESS REPORTS

FOUNDERS

DONATIONS/LINKS

NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP

CONTACT US

• Anne Carlson
• Aimee Hurt
• Kyran Kunkel
• Megan Parker
• Deborah Smith
• Sara Thompson
• Pat Tucker
• Alice Whitelaw

Aimee Hurt

Aimee received a B.A. from University of Montana in biology, where her studies emphasized zoology, ecology, and entomology and she received a fellowship and endowment for studying the ability of dogs to differentiate the scats of two closely related species (black bears and grizzly bears). Her nine years of handling and training dogs has focused on conservation dogs. Her professional interests include understanding the potential and limitations of canine olfaction, perfecting laboratory discrimination experiments on various scents and ensuring that dog/handler teams in this field of detection remain highly trained, consistent tools.

Megan Parker

Megan grew up in Montana, where she was inspired to a career in conservation. She received her B.A. from Middlebury College in Vermont and her M.S. from Boise State University in raptor ecology, studying falcons in Guatemala. She has worked as a biologist in many states in the U.S., Canada, Central America, Asia and Africa. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Montana, researching scent marking behavior and chemistry for conservation of African wild dogs in northern Botswana. She helped develop the methods for detection dogs in conservation beginning in 1996 while working with wolves in Idaho. Megan has been involved in dog training since childhood with a focus in obedience and search and rescue disciplines. She is interested in the international application of working dogs in conservation to help developing countries and under funded projects acquire excellent samples and reduce costs.

Deborah Smith

Deborah received her B.S. in biology from Saint Mary's College of California, her M.S. in integrative biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in wildlife science from the University of Washington, Seattle. Since 1991, she has been active in mammalian research and carnivore conservation, worked with numerous threatened and endangered species, and explored genetic issues of wild populations. The majority of her field experience has centered on canid biology and behavior throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her Ph.D. research focused on San Joaquin kit fox conservation, and non-invasive monitoring methods for rare species using specialized detection dogs. Deborah has been a professional dog trainer for 17 years, and has worked with conservation dogs for the past eight years. She is also a co-founder and senior trainer/handler of Rising Star K-9 Consultants (California).

Alice Whitelaw

Alice received a B.A. in Biology from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina and a A.A.Sc. in Veterinary Medical Technology from Central Carolina Community College. She has worked as a field biologist for universities, NGO's and state and federal agencies for over 18 years and has participated in wildlife research throughout the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Russia. She has been involved in dog training for over 21 years and has focused on detection dog disciplines since 1998. Her professional interests include disease aspects of wildlife, carnivore behavior, particularly canids, endangered species restoration and refining the training and use of detection dogs in wildlife research and monitoring.