By Laine Priestley for the Otago Daily Times
LandSAR dog handler Barry Dougherty plays with his two search dogs Jeffrey and Red. Photo: PETER MCINTOSH / ODT
A Dunedin builder's canines are work site companions by day and skateboarding search and rescue dogs by night.
Dunedin dogs Jeffrey and Red are two of only three South Island LandSAR search dogs and are often called out to scour the island's varied terrain and trails for missing people.
Their owner, LandSAR dog handler Barry Dougherty, said together the trio covered the lower South Island, from Stewart Island to the West Coast.
Riding a biscuit behind a boat, getting packed on to their owner's motorbike and even learning to skateboard were all part of the dogs' years of training, Dougherty said.
"They have to be prepared to want to do just about anything, because we don't know if we're going to be on a helicopter, on a jetboat, in someone else's car, or even on the back of a quad bike to get to where we need to go - we want a confident dog."
Dougherty has spent the past 25 years training search and rescue dogs for LandSAR, and Red and Jeff are his fifth and sixth dogs to keep the South Island safe.
"For the dogs it's not always about who we find, it's about clearing areas and saying there's actually nothing there."
Learning to skateboard is all part of kelpie Red's LandSAR training. Photo: Otago Daily Times
The dogs' "day jobs" were the same as their owner, and because they accompanied him to work every day, they were always close at hand in case of a callout, Dougherty said.
When a call came in, the three did a "drop and run", and his wife drove out to meet the trio with the gear they needed.
Red, a nine-year-old kelpie, was an old pro, who had many career highlights, Dougherty said.
Black Labrador Jeff, five, newer to the job, had fewer rescues under his belt, but had helped teams locate an Alexandra teenager who had been missing for four days.
There were three types of search and rescue dogs: tracking dogs, article search dogs and area search dogs, Dougherty said.
Area search dogs, such as Jeffrey and Red, followed wind-borne scents.
Another Dunedin-based LandSAR man, Richard Warrington, is training the South Island's fourth area search dog, which is expected to be on duty by May.
LandSAR's search dogs were just one tool when looking for missing people, and the organisation was always looking for human volunteers, Dougherty said.
Its annual intake was in September every year, he said.
- This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times.
