Since then, a rotating cast of 17 lucky dogs has spent their days in Washington's 4,300-acre Pack Forest with nine handlers. Conservation Canines (CC) looks for dogs with tireless energy and a need for stimulation — traits that prevented them from finding homes, but which makes them ideal scent detectives. They are taught to approach scent detection as a game, where they are rewarded for learning how to track the scents of dozens of species' feces.

With their exceptional olfactory abilities, scent dogs are 19 times more efficient and 153 percent more accurate than humans at hunting down species-specific scat. Data gleaned by CC and its trainers gets funneled into worldwide research programs that study everything from identifying the range of endangered caribou to tracking Orca scat by boat.

The work is important: Scat samples provide significantly more data than hair snares, camera traps, and other animal-monitoring services. Photos, for instance, show only an animal's presence and movements. Scat can also reveal information about its diet and overall health. And by using non-invasive dog tracking to do this, scientists can explore human impacts on animal populations over large swaths of land with minimal interference.

For the past four years, wildlife photographer Jaymi Heimbuch has shot and designed a CC calendar to raise funds for the nonprofit, and share exactly what it means to be a shelter-dog-turned-"Conservation K9" (CK9).

All photos credited to Jaymi Heimbuch.