Dr. Jenny Essler: Gobi Fish and Spotted Lantern Fly Detection (Pt. 2)
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
What to listen for:
“We put a lot of effort into how we pick the best dogs. But maybe we should also have some discussion [about] how we pick the best handlers.”
In the second half of the conversation with Dr. Jennifer Essler, our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, discuss her current research and future goals bridging academic science with real-world handler expertise!
At SUNY Cobleskill, Dr. Essler's conservation work demonstrates how detection dogs fill practical niches. Her Round Goby project (tracking invasive fish from the Black and Caspian Seas) uses dogs for water sampling rather than locating individual fish.
This mirrors eDNA methodology but delivers immediate field results instead of days of laboratory processing. Dogs trade some sensitivity for real-time assessment, making them viable alternatives when speed matters. The project's success has attracted government conservation agencies interested in applying dogs to other invasive species like hydrilla plants and certain crawfish.
Her Penn Vet ovarian cancer research revealed the limitations of lab-based detection. While dogs successfully identified cancer in blood plasma, clinical deployment was never the goal. Instead, the objective was helping develop electronic detection systems.
The fundamental problem is that even superstar dogs have off days without visible behavioral indicators explaining poor performance. Unlike field work, where handlers notice changes, lab settings offer no safety net for medical diagnosis. Repetitive scent wheel searches also eventually bored excellent performers into retirement.
That shows all the difference between detection work and examination work.
Dr. Essler's future priorities center on quantifying practitioner expertise. That’s documenting how experienced trainers accurately assess young dogs through seemingly instinctive judgments.
She's passionate about handler bias research and committing to quarterly research reviews, and warns that excellent studies get misinterpreted without proper scientific interpretation.
Key Topics:
Conservation Detection Research Projects (01:11)
Round Goby Invasive Species Work (02:20)
eDNA vs. Dogs: Trade-offs and Applications (11:32)
Ovarian Cancer Detection Research Insights (20:51)
Why Dogs Can't Replace Medical Testing (24:02)
Future Research on Quantifying Handler Expertise (29:15)
Puppy Selection Science and Practitioner Knowledge (35:07)
Quarterly Research Review Plans (42:44)
Understanding Research Sample Size Constraints (44:04)
Wrap-Up (47:54)
Resources:
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