Wildlife conservation: Dogs to the fore

A passion for wildlife conservation and a love for dogs has led to the creation of a non-profit organisation that trains puppies to protect endangered species.

Dogs4Wildlife, based in Carmarthen, supports frontline conservation efforts across sub-Saharan Africa.

Founders Darren Priddle and Jacqui Law train and develop specialist conservation dogs to support anti-poaching rangers.

“There is no better feeling on this planet than to know that our dogs are saving lives,” said Jacqui.

Darren and Jacqui are professional dog trainers and have been developing operational working dogs for 15 years.

Darren said: “Our love for dogs and our commitment to developing them for specialist work helped us to decide ‘why not?’

“If we are able to train dogs to track people in this country, then why can we not train dogs to help protect our wildlife all across Africa and that’s where Dogs4Wildlife was born.”

The dogs are bred in-house and go through “extensive and advanced training” and a development programme that starts from as early as two days old.

“Relationship is key when deploying a dog to work with anti-poaching rangers,” Darren added.

“We do a lot of relationship building, a lot of conditioning in terms of the patterns of behaviour we want from the dog.

“Whether that be human scent tracking, specialist detection work or operating in a control base on a wildlife reserve.”

The team then “impart all of that knowledge and experience” to the rangers once the dogs have been deployed to a wildlife reserve.

The team has trained and deployed 15 operation dogs to five sub-Saharan African countries including Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique.

They also provide consultancy and specialist training to different organisations, including the Akashinga, an anti-poaching group in Zimbabwe.

In October, one of their dogs Shinga tracked a poacher 4.5 km (2.8 miles) straight to his front door after a warthog was killed in Zimbabwe.

The team’s work in Africa not only supports the anti-poaching rangers but also communities in the area.

The aim of the programme is to inspire the future generations “to love and support the natural world that surrounds them”, said Darren.

“Whether that be human scent tracking, specialist detection work or operating in a control base on a wildlife reserve.”

The team then “impart all of that knowledge and experience” to the rangers once the dogs have been deployed to a wildlife reserve.

Sunil Dharmabandhu 

Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK