[meteorite-list] Could Dogs be trained to recover meteorites?

From: wahlperry at aol.com <wahlperry_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:15:06 -0400
Message-ID: <8CBF7AC8DE521AD-36C8-12E37_at_webmail-m068.sysops.aol.com>

Hi List,

I wonder what triggered Hopper to pick up and move the freshly fallen
Ash Creek meteorite. Was it the sound of the meteorites falling to the
ground or was it the strange smell that the meteorite produced? Could a
dog be trained to aid in recovering meteorites from a fresh fall? What
the heck, anything is possible. I decided to give it a try with my own
dog. My dog is a 16 month old German Shepherd that is worked on the
average of 45 minutes a day in some aspects of his training. The
majority of his training is obedience and some scent tracking etc. Once
Brix has the scent of the object you can hide it or throw it and he
usually finds the object within minutes.

The true test would be to arrive on a fresh fall and put his nose to
the test (like that's going to happen). The next best thing to use
would be meteorites from a fresh fall. The only problem would be the
scent from everyone that has held the meteorites. I know what you are
thinking, take a couple of Ash Creek meteorites and wash them off with
a little detergent and water and place them in the yard. I decided to
just wipe the meteorites off and place them in the yard. This sounded
like the next best thing to a fresh strewn field. The only problem was
that the neighbors cat decided to run across the strewn field at the
time of the test.
Brix (having all of his training in obedience) decided to chase the cat
. Once I finally caught Brix and he was over the excitement of chasing
the cat I could retry this theory. The second test went ok, Brix was
able to find the meteorites with little difficulty.

You have to wonder if Brix was still picking up my scent on the
meteorites or my scent walking through the yard. I will keep you posted
on the results.

P.S. Anyone looking to purchase some slightly used meteorites? Just
kidding!

Sonny


www.nevadameteorites.com
Received on Sun 30 Aug 2009 01:15:06 PM PDT