Melanie Zoe Chiavarotti

Dog trainer – ENCI sez.3

Melanie is a dog trainer with over 10 years of experience in canine education. Her passion for scent work began with recreational activities, then evolved into sports and eventually operational detection. For the past two years, Melanie and her dog Kos have been working as a wildlife detection unit in a national project to contain African Swine Fever (ASF).

Lara Tarnold

Dog trainer – ENCI Sez. 1 & 3

As well as being a certified dog trainer specialised in wildlife detection dogs, Lara holds a Master’s degree in Natural Systems Science from the University of Genoa.

Her field experience includes both participation in and coordination of various conservation projects with her detection dogs trained to locate a wide range of targets, from roe deer droppings, to otter scat, wild boar carcasses, and tortoise nests.

Kos

Australian kelpie- 2018

Kos has a wonderfully controlled and calm energy. No matter the difficulties of the environment he will get the job done with intensity and precision. Together with Melanie, Kos has been busy helping to contain the spread of African Swine Fever by spending many hours deep in the woods searching for boar carcasses (a Project lead by the Italian National Kennel Club-ENCI).

Edith

German Shorthaired Pointer- 2020

Agile and tireless, she loves working in the woods but is equally focused during lab sessions.

Initially trained to search for Kong, she later worked with Lara on projecting detecting otter scat and marsh turtle nests.

Kappa

Greyster- 2023

One of the youngsters of the team, Kappa showed an enourmous amount of patience in the lab whilst working on the Parkinson Project with Giulia, but his long legs need to stretch out in the big wide world. He is currently honing his outdoor search strategies in preparation for new projects.

Falco

English setter- 2018

Falco knows and loves his job which he just does whether a human is around or not ! He is certified by the Italian National Kennel Club (ENCI) for monitoring programmes of Alpine feathered game.

Tabù

English Working Cocker Spaniel- 2022

The whirlwind kid of the group, with enough enthusiasm for his job to tire any human out! He has been Sarah’s research assistant on a wolf project, helping to collect scats for DNA sampling and enjoys a truffle hunt when no other project is available.

Olivia

Rhodesian Ridgeback- 2020

Olivia is a surprise! Despite some reactivity issues she has turned out to be one of those dogs who excels at whatever we ask her to do. Together with Giulia she participated in a long and difficult project working in the lab, and her persistence in the task was remarkable!

Ingrid

Springer Spaniel- 2023

Ingrid is the baby of our team, but she is a fast learner! She has officially joined the carcass detection team on the ENCI-lead African Swine Fever project in spring 2025, and is in-training for turtle nests.  

Zeta

Australian cattle dog- 2015

Our line up queen! Strong, determined, and precise—she never tires of her tasks. Perfect for lab work! She can work flawlessly through 20 rounds of line ups and still be eager to go again.

Formerly an obedience competition dog and later a detection dog, together with Melanie she was certified in ASF carcass detection and took part in a Parkinson’s disease detection project.

Viktor

Jagdterrier mix- 2012

Now retired from detection work, he took part in numerous projects, including the search for roe deer fawns, wild boar carcasses, and otter scat. Reliable, cooperative, and a hard worker—he was perfect for all types of fieldwork.