A USC research project seeking to determine the ideal characteristics of conservation detection dogs needs a few more regular helpful hounds to progress the study.

Local residents have already volunteered about 30 dogs for assessment, but further pooches of varying personalities are required.

USC Science Honours student Tanisha Vidale is leading the research that is testing the dogs for at least four separate one-hour training sessions over three months at a property at Glenview.

Ms Vidale said the project aimed to streamline the selection process of detection dogs and reduce the time and costs of training them.

She said detection dogs were used in conservation work to track rare animals, detect pest species and locate threatened native plants.

Ms Vidale’s project is being supervised by Dr Celine Frere and Dr Romane Cristescu, who run USC’s Detection Dogs for Conservation program.

To volunteer dogs for the study, contact Ms Vidale at tmv001@student.usc.edu.au.