The Munchkin and the Piglet

The Munchkin has a friend - a little Munchkin, or a Piglet as she snorts and groans and talks when she is sleeping, playing or cuddling. So now we have the Munchkin and the Piglet. As everyone knows, the Munchkin's purpose is to be a "kick-ass" Search and Rescue (SAR) dog. The Piglet's purpose, on the other hand, is to be a "kick-ass" / awesome snare detection dog.

Why can't the Munchkin be a snare detection dog as well as an SAR dog? Surely it's better to feed one dog rather than 2 dogs? Yes, it is better to feed one dog rather than 2 dogs, but while the training is similar, there is a different end goal. The Munchkin finds people and, therefore, thinks that all people she comes across in the bush / wilderness are friendly and are her victims. She will bark and come and find me and shuttle between the victim and myself until she leads me to the victim. It's known as a "find/refind" technique.

The Piglet, on the other hand, will also use human scent to find animal snares. She will also come back to me, with the aim of leading me to where she has found snares. It is also a "find/refind" process. The difference is that the Piglet is essentially working as an anti-poaching dog and if she finds strangers in the bush, we assume that they are poachers and we get out of the area very quickly while the game rangers/police deal with the people.

Now that we have the differences between the two dogs out of the way, it's time to rush out and train dogs. I will keep you posted.
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