He was taken out of the streets at three-months old. Immediately they started training him for a canine anti-poaching unit. He even has that serious puppy power look in his eyes.
He will be working along two German Shepherds in tracking down poachers and traffickers. They are trained to distinguish certain smells such as ivory, weapons, pangolin and human tracks to be able to catch illegal hunters.
Usually are used for training breeds like German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois for this kind of programs. So this tiny fellow here is the first on his kind to become part of these unit.
His breed, “canis africanis” are used informally as guard dogs by the locals. They are able to walk up to 30 miles without water, food or breaks, so there is no reason they can not be trained as professionals as well.
One of the locals was convinced they were just as good as other the two other breeds for that kind of job, that is why he went around villages recruiting puppies to train. After selecting 33 that were seen as suitable, eventually only 2 puppies made the cut. And one of those two that made it is this buddy here.
Their main goal is to save african elephants since there are barely remaining 450000.
There are several regions were canine units are still rare. But spending time with the dogs and seeing the work they do the handlers start to respect and create a bond with them.
And they really put themselves out there in the field, both of them risking their lives daily.
Above all other arguments these local dogs are more tolerant to heat and definitely more resistant to local disease. Plus it is much cheaper to train them than import dogs and maintain their health throughout the whole process.
Their success is when they are able to save baby elephants like this one here working together as a team.
