Shilah's fun and games have a serious side

MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard

ROVER TO RESCUE: Border collie Shilah finds 'lost' Palmerston North woman Royce Mills while training at Bledisloe Park. Handler and owner Christine Scott observes her work.

She is playful, partial to a cheerio and loves biting rubber milking teats, but border collie Shilah is fast becoming a skilled search and rescue dog.

The 16-month-old canine is being trained by Aokautere woman Christine Scott to become just the third Land Search and Rescue (Landsar) dog in the North Island.

The two other North Island Landsar dogs are in Wellington and Auckland. There are 10 in the South Island, and 12 avalanche-trained dogs nationwide.

Mrs Scott, a Landsar member for eight years, bought Shilah at seven weeks old from an Otaki breeder.

"We always had the idea to train her in mind," she said.

"For the first 10 or 11 months the training got her being mad keen on toys and getting her to bark for toys.

"They then think that someone lost in the bush has a toy, so it's all a game for them."

Shilah's toys include rubber teats, used for milking cows, while frozen cheerios rank as one of her favourite treats.

She has natural tracking abilities, which enable her to track along the ground and visually, but Mrs Scott wants her to be able to track by scent.

"They can pick up someone's scent 50 metres away or more. In a real search the person can be out there so long that there will not be anything to track [on the ground].

"But once they pick up an air scent, they'll go for that."

Most Landsar dogs are two to four years old before they qualify, but Mrs Scott hopes Shilah is advanced enough to be one of the few that qualify at a younger age.

"There's is an accreditation camp in Waiouru in May this year. I'm hoping to get on that. She's really, really close to getting ready for assessment."

Mrs Scott, who trains with Shilah at least three times a week, said she also needed to improve her handling skills.

"I've got to work out the wind direction, terrain, vegetation and decide how I'm going to search [the area]. She'll range 50 to 75 metres around me, depending on the bush. If it's deep tussock she tends to stay behind me."

Shilah had been on three 30- to 40-minute training searches but would have to learn to search for up to a day, Mrs Scott said.

She excelled at two recent training camps, her ability to track targets pleasantly surprising Mrs Scott.

"It was so cool. It's such a good feeling seeing her just take off."

And on top of her obvious tracking skills, Shilah is a great dog.

"Border collies are very super active dogs. They are dogs you've got to put a lot into and she always wants to play."

- © Fairfax NZ News