The Nose Knows: Working Dogs in Conservation

Name: The Nose Knows: Working Dogs in Conservation
Start: 2025-10-26T15:00:00-07:00
Location: Downtown Bend Library | 601 NW Wall Street, Bend

Schedule

Sun, 26 Oct, 2025 at 03:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Downtown Bend Library | 601 NW Wall Street, Bend | Bend, OR

Learn more about how conservation detection dogs work to protect wildlife and wild places.
As the lead trainer for Working Dogs for Conservation in Missoula, Montana (wd4c.org), Amanda Ott partners with wildlife partners around the world to train dogs for detection, tracking and discrimination to address urgent ecological issues. She will talk about how her dogs detect weeds before they break the surface, animals that live below ground and organisms invisible to the human eye, whether diseases, or microscopic larvae. As a bonus, she will demo her own detection dog’s skills during the presentation.
About the Presenter:
Amanda received her BS in Animal Science from Texas A&M University. She has been in dog sports, training and medicine since she was 16, including work with exotics where she became passionate about science- based animal training. She has twelve years of experience in canine search and rescue running dogs in many disciplines. Amanda obtained the title of Certified Professional Dog Trainer and opened her own dog training business before moving to Montana to take the position of Canine Team Training Coordinator for WD4C. Amanda’s professional interests are in the science behind dog training, canine cognition and how best to give clear communication between canine and human.