We are thrilled to welcome Holmes and Watson back from their training at the impressive Kuru ‘The Conservation Dog’ School in Arusha, Tanzania. They’re now actively integrating with our dog handlers based at Big Life’s Headquarters in Kenya.

They have spent 11 months under the watchful and expert eyes of Will Powell and his excellent team of trainers and handlers.

As far as Holmes and Watson are concerned, we stink. Human smells are everywhere: in the air, on the ground, and bobbing on stalks of grass. Our dogs have been trained to decipher these smells, cutting through the noise, allowing them to hone in on anything their handlers ask them to.

This means that Kuru-trained dogs have an enormous impact wherever they are stationed. They can sniff out ivory and other illegal wildlife items in shipping containers, detect snares that have been set in the densest bush, and find any human target with ease. The importance of tracker dogs to a conservation organization cannot be understated.

The best part for our rangers is that Holmes and Watson will do all of this with a smile and several wags of their tails. For them, chasing down poachers is a game, and we’re happy to have them on our side.

📽️: Joshua Clay