A Nose for Wild Things

Her hand reached into her backpack and the Belgian Malinois rose slowly to his feet, his butterscotch eyes burning with intensity. As the woman brought out a length of knotted rope and leather, he lunged and snapped his powerful jaws around the tanned hide.

He bared his teeth and began to pull, peddling backward. She set her heels and the two whirled around the Western Montana grassland on this crisp autumn morning in a ferocious game of tug of war.

“This,” said Megan Parker, “is his paycheck.”

The Belgian sheepherder’s name is Pepin. He’s no hunting dog or sporting breed out for fun. He’s a working dog, one of a few dozen highly trained, toy-crazed canines that are changing the way wildlife biologists such as Parker figure out what’s lurking in the woods.