Our Team
Meet Our Dogs
K9 Newt
Newton Hoffmann-McConnell is a truely remarkable dog. He is a Fox Red Labrador Retriever from a Pointing Lab lineage out of Radar Kennel in Ohio, USA. Newt came home with Kris and her husband as a puppy in 2019 and immediately began learning the sound of a training clicker means treats. He joined Kris at St. Lawrence University and grew up in the classroom. He partnered with many undergraduate handlers on research projects and class activities, though he was generally "too much dog" to help students relax as the college's Doggy De-Stress events.
Enthusiastic and constantly over-the-top, Newt stands out from other dogs as a high-drive sniffing machine. We’ve been told that he has more drive than both bite-sport Malinois (a.k.a. Mal-i-gators) and the average police dog - and we believe it! He's got enough attitude to metaphorically say "No, human, you're wrong! The scent it over here." He also has the muscle to match that energy, and has only ever met one dog that he couldn't outrun.
Newt is simply amazing. He can tell us if a site has old turtle scent or if there is no lingering turtle smell and therefore no population. He knows what vegetation wood turtles will use but box turtles will avoid. He remembers where there was scent last visit and will return in case the turtle is still there. He can find turtles in holes deep into the river bank and has alerted on hibernaculi. He is never wrong in the field.
Newt is happiest when working, and only acts like a normal dog at home after a long day of searching. Outside of field season he bosses us around by shoving and barking, and insists on daily hikes, practice searches, early mornings, and lots of peanut butter. Food motivated but absolutely obsessed with retrieving, Newt would rather fetch than eat.
Newt has experience finding eastern spadefoot toads (Scaphiopus holbrookii), wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta), spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata), eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina), gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows , yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus), and porcelain berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata). He has worked on the occasional missing pet tortoise case, and is the ONLY dog in the world trained to find GPS collars years after they fell off fishers (Pekania pennanti).
Stories about K9 Newt have been published by PEOPLE, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, and NewsDay. See our press page to read more about him.
He is also, uh, loud. Very loud.
K9 April Showers
Born in December 2024, Katalyst’s April Showers Bring Salamanders is our young prodigy and research partner. She comes from a Connecticut, USA, kennel that specializes in working dogs for detection and agility. We’re so glad Kate let us be part of the Katalyst Kennel family!
April has amazing drive and is insistent when she is near the target - she jumped up a pine tree once to get to a source hung 5 ft off the ground! She's taught us a lot about odor concentration, from pools of intense odor gliding upstream across the top of the water to the tiny scent plume of insect eggs laid on a single blade of grass. When she turned a year old we had to reduce the surface area of our practice scent targets because she was finding them too quickly.
Dedicated and intelligent, April is a fast learns new tasks with few repetitions. She taught herself to open all the doors in Dr. Hoffmann's house before she was 6 months old.
In the field April quarters energetically, and encounters scent before other dogs. Her endurance surpasses that of the human crew, and she doesn't quit until she's back at the vehicles. In one survey this spring, Dr. Hoffmann hiked 6 miles and April hike 16 miles - that's a lot of area covered and sniffed!
April loves getting attention, and is quick to climb into a stranger's lap or sit on their feet. We use a retriever dummy (also known as a bumper) as her reward in the field. She knows when the dummy comes out that our attention will be solely on her, which sends her into jumps of joy that would make a kangaroo jealous. Her absolute favorite things to do are pester K9 Newt and snuggle under a blanket with her human friends.
April has experience finding wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta), eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina), gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows, and yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus).
Meet Our Bipeds
Dr. Kristine Hoffmann
Kris is a herpetologist with a soft spot for Spotted Turtles and Mole Salamanders. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from The University of Massachusetts, a Masters of Science in Wildlife Ecology & Conservation from the University of Florida, and a PhD and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Maine in Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology.
Kris has worked as faculty for the University of Virginia’s College at Wise and St. Lawrence University, and as adjunct faculty at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Kris is an active member of the Conservation Dog Alliance and leads Turtle Detection Boot Camp.
Bram McConnell
Bram is our kennel manager, web guru, and head chef. Bram has a degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Maine and works full time as a computer engineer. K9 April makes it a point to sit on his lap when ever she has the opportunity.