DARPA Maps the Brains of Working Dogs

The Defense Department is interested in identifying what in the brain makes a good working dog.  What makes a good bomb sniffing dog?  What do the brains of good service dogs have in common?

The Military Times carries the story.

The military funding — provided through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — is designed to identify markers in canine brain activity to determine which dogs are better suited to act as service companions or perform specialized military tasks.

For troops on the battlefield, that includes dogs detecting explosives, sniffing out drugs and assisting on security patrols. A Belgian Malinois named Cairo was honored at the White House in 2011 for his role in Seal Team 6's raid of Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

For veterans, the service dogs include guide dogs for the blind, assistance dogs for wounded warriors who lost limbs, and therapy animals for individuals struggling with post-traumatic stress.

Currently, about a third of the dogs that go into training programs for that kind of work work end up becoming functional service animals. But putting each through the training programs costs upward of $50,000.

“If we can improve that success rate from one in three to even one in two, we’re talking about the potential of dramatic savings,” Berns said.

Recent work on the project has included baseline brain scans of 50 golden retrievers and Labradors, all scheduled for service dog training. Researchers are matching key markers in the medical data to the dogs’ performance, with the hope of finding patterns.

Berns said the results so far have been promising.

“A lot of what a dog does is hard-wired in the genes,” he said. “Bad training can screw a dog up, sure, but you need the right raw materials in the dog to do the task at hand. If it works out, I would hope these biological markers get incorporated into the selection process as early as possible.” 

 

Color me a bit skeptical but not skeptical enough to not think it isn't an idea worth testing.

If the cost is truly kept at one million dollars, even if it was a million dollars a year for five years, this could be a great investment.  You only need to avoid training 20 washout dogs to recoup each year of expenditure.

I am a small government guy.  I do believe there is a lot of waste in the system but this is an example of the punch line driving the narrative.  "Pentagon Puppy Study" makes a rationale investment with large potential savings sound ridiculous.  People being what they are, rarely take time to question a headline that confirms their preconceived notion.

Modern Working Dog

Talk about earning your kibble.

American Working Terriers

If you're in to working your terriers, if you're just in to terriers and want to gain insight into the original purpose for their breeding, consider becoming a member of the American Working Terriers Association.  The quarterly magazine alone is well worth the $20 annual membership.

When you do, drop me a note if you live within a few hundred miles of Menomonie, WI.  I'll be looking for some people to go hunting with in the year to come.

A Good Dog's Pedigree

"Stoic the Vast"

Boston Terrier x Chihuahua

A friend has a four-month old Boston Terrier x French Bulldog mix and that let to some late night googling "Boston Terrier Mix."  Scrolling through the images and I come across an apparent doppelganger for our own Stoic.

I know very little about Boston Terriers and even less about Chihuahuas but the mix would account for the size and structure we see in him.

Ultimately the whole breed game is just that: a game.  It makes for interesting speculation but that is about it.  Stoic is an excellent rat killer.  He will make a fine therapy dog (he tests in two weeks).  In the months to come, I'll see if he can be turned on to tracking wounded game.

He is a bit barrel chested, "spannable" but just barely.  In the spring I will set up some dummy burrows to have him work through to kill mice and rats.  Given his prey drive and nose, I'm convinced he could master the go-to-ground sports but that chest might be too much for actual go-to-ground work.

My experience is pretty limited, but next summer the initial plan is to spend some time in Minnesota's public hunting grounds searching for groundhogs (groundhogs are protected in Wisconsin) and give Sparta a chance to explore and work real burrows and me a chance to see if I really can work a Deben Terrier Locator.  If circumstances allow I'll decide then to whether or not it seems safe to test him on some larger burrows.

My larger point is this, Stoic has all the promise to be a great dog, a working dog, a sporting dog, and a companion dog.  It matters a whit not the the pedigree (or not) of the bitch that whelped him or the stud that sired him.  If you're looking for a dog to do a specific thing (terrier work, tracking wounded game) it probably is a good idea to talk to a breeder who serves that kind of hunter, most of us, however, can be well served by a dog of proper skill set but unknown origin.

Tired Pup

An evening of trick-or-treating with the family, followed by an evening therapy dog visit, a less than ideal night's sleep away from home, and a three hour track the following morning.

Someone is a tired pup.

Work 'em hard.  Treat 'em like heroes.