3 days ago
Red passes the stick to next generation
A Search and Rescue dog with almost a decade of in-the-field experience has ended his career with one final win.
About a week ago, 10-year-old Red, a kelpie, retired after almost nine years of service as a LandSAR search dog.
Just a couple of weeks beforehand, he went on his last search, which was a success when he located a missing person in the Dunedin Botanic Garden. Now, he gets to kick up his paws and relax.
His owner, LandSAR dog handler Barry Dougherty, said retiring Red had been a "hard decision".
"This is his ninth year being a search dog. He's getting older and slowing down — it was a little bit emotional to be honest, making that decision.
"I'm retiring Red fit and healthy, so he's got the next five years to lie in the sun, chase cats and do the things he likes."
Mr Dougherty said Red was "one of the better dogs" he ever had in relation to search work.
While Red now gets to relax all day long, the torch has been passed to Mr Dougherty's junior dogs.
Black Labrador Jeffrey was now his only dog sent out to searches, but Mr Dougherty was training up vizsla-cross Bindi to join the team.
He had already got a start on training Jeffrey's eventual replacement, Jeffrey's son, Labrador-pointer Macca.
"None of this would have been possible without other people's help ... my family have given up a lot for Red to be a search dog; my employer and colleagues at BGIS have allowed me to be ready and available at short notice and at their expense, and LandSAR Dogs have given me guidance, opportunities and knowledge."
For years, Mr Dougherty had been taking Red and Jeffrey to work with him, so if a call came in they could leave straight away.
It was "strange" not to have Red in the car with him.
"I take Jeffrey and I'll take Bindi because she's the next dog. It just gives me the opportunity to go and train her," he said.
Red and Jeffrey have been partners for the past five years "working as a team".
"Red has done most things dogs don't do ... jet boating on the Clutha River at 2am in the morning or dropped off in the Waitaki River by a jet boat to search the wee islands, getting winched out of helicopters — he likes biscuiting, gotta fight him off."
Jeffrey was Dunedin's only operational dog.
However, alongside Mr Dougherty other teams in the area were being trained.
After more than 25 years spent volunteering with LandSAR, and all the other names it had been called over that timeframe, Mr Dougherty anticipated this would be his last cohort of LandSAR dogs.
"In 10 years I'm going to be 65. Surely it'll be time. It is getting harder now. Surely it's going to be really hard by then, so I'll leave it for the younger guys."
