Artistic rendition of Ollie’s non-professional nose
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or so said Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. But sometimes they stay the same in ways that never occurred to us before, at least when it comes to dogs on the farm. One way is the increased use of dogs trained to help farmers in highly specific ways. Just as dogs can sniff out diseases in people , they also can detect diseases in plants. Although technology also can detect these same conditions, in some cases the dog can do it faster and, in some cases, more economically. The use of dogs trained to locate invasive weeds (sometimes before they even emerge from the ground) for conservation purposes also interests farmers with their own invasive weed problems.
Some biologists have speculated that, if one mammal were to survive a planetary disaster, it most likely would be the rats because of their intelligence and adaptability. Fortunately for farmers plagued by these creatures, certain kinds of dogs can address this problem in an energy-efficient and nontoxic way too.
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