About

Bart grew up with working dogs of several types, including gundogs and herding dogs. He began working with dogs professionally in 2009, and has since trained dogs for various working roles including explosives detection, ecological conservation, and service/therapy. Bart has professional experience in all aspects of selecting and preparing detection dogs including selection of breeders, early development and socialization, detection training, and vending.

Resume

Explosives detection

Bart has been developing and training explosives detection dogs, and instructing handler courses, for 10 years. Bart specializes in the foundational training of green dogs for explosives detection. He has successfully trained hundreds of explosives detection dogs for groups including VWK9, ATF, Department of Justice, and others.

Wildlife conservation

Bart has trained and deployed dogs for ecological conservation of:

    • Eastern striped and Eastern spotted skunk
    • Black bear
    • Burmese and North African rock pythons in the Florida Everglades
    • Bonneted bat
    • Protected sport fish species (developed and implemented first Illegal Fish Filet Detection dog program for the Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement Department)

Biological detection

In addition to training dogs for operational services Bart has also been involved in training dogs for olfactory detection research of biological targets, including the first dogs trained to detect a live virus (publication below).

Animal-assisted therapy

Bart has trained service and assistance dogs for the Veterans Administration, and trained the first therapy dog for Auburn University's Student Counseling Services.

Continuing Education

  • August 2018: AKC US Detection Dog Conference attendee
  • April 2018: Penn Vet Working Dog Conference. Attended seminar "Assessing puppy aptitudes across ontogeny and breed"
  • October 2016: Auburn University Canine Critical Care in Operational Environments
  • January 2012: Holston International Training and Consulting Instructor Development Course Participant
  • August 2011: Auburn University Canine Detection Training Center Canine Explosives Detection Training Course

Publications

Krichbaum, S., Rogers, B., Cox, E., Waggoner, L.P., Katz, J. (2020). Odor span task in dogs (Canis familiaris). Animal Cognition.

Lazarowski, L., Rogers, B., Waggoner, L.P., Katz, J.S. (2019) When the nose knows: ontogenetic changes in detection dogs’ (Canis familiaris) responsiveness to social and olfactory cues. Animal Behaviour.

Lazarowski, L., Haney, P. S., Brock, J., Fischer, T., Rogers, B., Angle, C., Katz, J. S., Waggoner, L. P. (2018). Investigation of the Behavioral Characteristics of Dogs Purpose-Bred and Prepared to Perform Vapor Wake® Detection of Person-Borne Explosives. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 5, 50.

Angle, T. C., Passler, T., Waggoner, P. L., Fischer, T. D., Rogers, B., Galik, P. K., and Maxwell, H. S., (2016). Real-Time Detection of a Virus Using Detection Dogs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science.