Cat Warren
Cat Warren is a professor and former journalist with a somewhat unorthodox avocation: she works with cadaver dogs—dogs who search for missing and presumed-dead people. What started as a way to harness the energies of her unruly, smart, German shepherd puppy, Solo, soon became a passion for them both (though Solo thought it was simply a great game, with the reward of a toy at the end). They searched for the missing throughout North Carolina for eight years.
Her New York Times bestselling What the Dog Knows (Simon & Schuster) tells the stories of cadaver dogs, drug and bomb detecting K9s, tracking and apprehension dogs—even dogs who can locate unmarked graves of Civil War soldiers and help find drowning victims more than two hundred feet below the surface of a lake. Working dogs sometimes seem magical, as they distinguish scent, cover territory, and accomplish tasks that no machine is yet capable of. What the Dog Knows reveals the science, the intense training, and the skilled handling that lie behind those abilities—and shows why we keep finding new uses for the wonderful noses of working dogs. A young readers adaptation was recently published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Speaking topic:
ANIMALS/WHAT THE DOG KNOWS
Warren describes her odyssey with her cadaver dog Solo to enter the broader world of scent-detection dogs, revealing the remarkable capabilities of working dogs, their handlers, and their trainers. Taking the audience from crime scenes to training sites and science labs, Warren explains how working dogs can capture the hidden worlds their noses know and translate that arcane knowledge for humans. The fascinating concepts behind the complex capabilities of working dogs emerge as Warren weaves the world of science and dog cognition with her own experiences in the field—all with an unsentimental yet sensitive touch.
Endorsements:
“The topic is truly fascinating. No other presentation of the semester had this kind of magnetic draw. Our audience was mixed – college students, faculty, and community members -- but Cat held everyone’s attention. She made each person feel like she was talking to her or him. She told people what they wanted to know – her bond with her dog, the rigors of training, and excitement of the hunt. We were all mesmerized.”
– Professor Emeritus Larry A. Nielsen, NC State University.
“Because she has actually done the work she writes about, Cat can speak with authority not only of the fascinating world of working dogs as aides in detection, but of how dogs and humans change one another. Her work as a reporter, her appearances on television, and above all her decades of experience in teaching communications skills at the university level have given her public speaking abilities one does not always find in authors.”
– Jan Burke, organizer of Forensic Science Day and co-host of Crime and Science Radio