Turtles and dogs are fascinating creatures, so I am pleased to answer the following question about the two.

Q. I recently read about a dog in Florida trained to find some kind of rare turtle. I know dog breeds have been taught to home in on certain animals, for example, Labrador retrievers and ducks; dachshunds and badgers. But that takes generations of breeding. Can regular dogs learn to find turtles?

A. Absolutely. In fact, based on my experience dogs can be trained to do about anything they are physically capable of. With a sense of smell far superior to ours, seeking out a specific scent is like a walk in the park, especially when a treat follows a find. The dog you are referring to is being trained to find gopher tortoises, which are found in all coastal southeastern states from South Carolina to Louisiana. Gopher tortoises are not all that rare but being terrestrial and living in underground burrows, their colonies are being displaced at an alarming rate due to habitat loss from commercial overdevelopment. The dog training is part of a project designed to locate tortoises before their homes are destroyed so they can be moved to other sites.

I have seen dogs that were trained to be virtual turtle-seeking missiles when eastern box turtles were the target. John Byrd and colleagues in North Carolina do research on box turtles, which can be common in forested areas but difficult to find. A dog owner from Montana contracted with the researchers to bring his dogs, Boykin spaniels, to find their turtles. John and I once watched a pair of these dogs emerge from their owner’s pickup truck at the edge of a wooded area and run around in ever-widening circles. A hundred feet from where we stood, both barked within 5 minutes. Each had found a box turtle. We retrieved the two turtles, and the dogs were off again. After 30 minutes of this wild ride, the two dogs had found 11 box turtles. They could pick up the scent of a box turtle and had been trained by a reward system of vocal praise and loving pats to do so on command. Nowadays John Byrd and his team have no trouble finding the turtles they seek: The researchers simply attach a transmitter to each turtle’s shell so they can track it without the dogs.

Based on personal observations, I suspect many dogs could be trained to find turtles. One day our next-door neighbors came into our backyard and handed me a box turtle their dog, Clarence, had found in the woods behind our houses. Ten minutes later they handed me another one. And then a few minutes later another. I was amazed. Clarence, a poodle, was only about 6 months old and was still in the puppy stage. He had not been taught how to find a box turtle. Nonetheless, he gently picked up each turtle and brought it to his owners. I was telling a friend about the incident whereupon she whipped out her cell phone and showed me a suite of box turtle photos with a white mutt staring at them. “Harry has found dozens on our daily walks through the woods,” she said. “Always pulls on the leash for me to come and see what I missed.”

I think we may also have a turtle retriever in the family. My son and I were walking in our swamp with his dog, Marsh, who was making short side trips then circling back to be sure we weren’t lost. On one of his excursions he began barking. We pushed through the brush to see what the excitement was all about. Marsh was looking at a box turtle about 5 feet away; it was placidly eating a mushroom. He has since found several box turtles at other locations. Marsh, Clarence and Harry are clearly candidates for enlisting into a turtle-finding program. Maybe the searchers in Florida need assistance.

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