Dog from Satchel's Last Resort in training to search out sea turtle nests

When the local animal services picked up Magpie, they thought the pup would be difficult to place with a family, due to her exuberance. 

That was how she ended up at Satchel's Last Resort, a no-kill shelter intended for animals who have nowhere else to go, at the end of October.

However, Magpie ultimately found a place that was even more unusual, which the rescue says is, in fact, one of only three such roles in the country.

She is now in training to help search out sea turtle nests for Sea Turtle Inc., a nonprofit based in South Padre Island, Texas, as the centerpiece of its Project D.U.N.E. (Detection of Unknown Nests and Eggs) initiative. 

"She was definitely kind of a class clown with valedictorian potential," she said Michal Anne Vander Woude, executive director of Satchel's.

According to Wendy Knight, CEO of Sea Turtle Inc., the idea started when the nonprofit began discussing ways to increase the efficiency of its processes for tracking sea turtle nests. 

She says for humans, tracking can take hours, but with the advantage of a dog's scent, it can take minutes. 

"We started talking about how we might be able to be a little more creative in nest detection, and really the conversation started with a discussion about coyotes and and wild hogs and those kind of things find the nest pretty easily, and why can't a dog do it?" she said. 

She said with about 20 employees, and about a hundred nests per year tracked at about two hours per nests, the searching has a significant impact on the nonprofit's resources.

"This is a resource allocation, so this is giving my most experienced and skilled conservationists more time to focus on more technical-minded items," she said. "It give us more hours in a day, and more opportunity to rescue more turtles."

The rescue was connected with Satchel's through Vodka for Dog People, the charitable arm of Tito's Handmade Vodka. Knight says once Magpie's trainer, Pepe Peruyero, visited the shelter, Magpie clearly emerged as the top candidate.

Vander Woude says Magpie is what is known by staff as a "boomerang dog," a dog that is returned by its adoptees due to being difficult to train and manage. 

However, her exuberance proved suited to the purpose that Sea Turtle Inc. had in mind.

Although two other young and active dogs were examined, said Vander Woude, they did not have the same food and toy-driven motivation, or the same ability to focus during training, as Magpie.

Knight said, "We vetted a lot of animals, and Magpie absolutely was the front runner, and the minute that the trainer got his hands and eyes on her, he thought, this is our girl." 

At the end of March, Magpie will be leaving Dunedin, Florida, where she is training with Peruyero, for her new role with Sea Turtle Inc. 

"We're very excited to get to the point where we can sit down and meet with her live," Knight said.