Shaka-laka-boom! NRC on track to receive its first-ever professional working possum dog

A friendly, fit-for-purpose canine is set to become Northland Regional Council’s (NRC) first-ever Certified Possum Detection Dog (CPDD), after passing its NZ Conservation Dogs Programme interim certification last month.

‘Shaka’ - an almost two-year-old Hungarian Vizsla x German Short Haired Pointer (GSP) - has been undergoing the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) Conservation Dogs Programme since he was four–months old and is now on track to becoming a fully certified pest detection dog specialising in possums.

If successful in gaining full certification, Shaka and his handler/trainer Gaelyn Dewhurst, NRC’s Predator Free 2050 Limited (PF2050) Biosecurity Officer, will become the council’s first certified dog handler team and Shaka, one of only a handful of CPDD in the country.

Dewhurst says the lead up to interim certification (likened to a provisional driver's licence) had been focused on obedience training and understanding Shaka’s motivation to work, with a key focus on whether he had shown an interest in birds, including kiwi.

With the interim certificate now under their belt, Dewhurst says the goal is to get out into selected areas around Whangārei Heads and to strengthen Shaka’s scent training to master possum detection.

“Shaka is bred to use his nose and is already showing he knows what he’s doing, so his training moving forward will be to refine that, and for me to learn to read him and work on shaping his natural indication and pointing behaviour,” Dewhurst says.

“In order for Shaka to gain the full certification, I’ll have to show he can follow my commands and his ability to pick up possum scent without getting distracted by other scents.”

The introduction of Shaka as a possum eradication tool comes after three years of planning and discussion with community groups as part of the Predator Free Whangārei Possum Elimination project.

The project aims to remove possums from more than 9000 hectares across the Whangārei Heads peninsula, with the use of a CPDD set to become increasingly important when building possum ‘proof of absence’ and responding quickly to incursions.

In addition to eradicating possums, the project also supports decades of conservation efforts from locals to bolster the Kiwi population, which has grown from 80 to 1185 at Whangārei Heads.

Given Northland’s high kiwi population, Dewhurst says choosing the right breed of dog had been a critical and carefully considered process, guided by discussions between NRC and a local Dog Advisory Group (DAG).

She says because the Hungarian Vizsla x GSP is a non-aggressive breed that will stop, point or ‘indicate’ with its head towards the direction of a possum (as opposed to actively hunting it down), this made Shaka the right type of dog for the role.

“Where uncontrolled, domestic dogs pose a risk to ground-dwelling wildlife, such as kiwi, correctly trained and professionally handled dogs like Shaka can be a highly valuable and specialised conservation asset,” Dewhurst said.

“As part of Shaka’s certification standards, he will be required to wear a muzzle and conservation vest when out working in the field.”

In terms of the elimination process, when a possum scent is found, Dewhurst will drop a dog symbol on a GPS field map, rating the indication as either low, medium or high.

Shaka indicating a possum up a tree, for example, would be considered high, and depending on the location, either the field team or Dewhurst would leave a trap to capture the possum.

Regional councillor Jack Craw, who chairs the council’s Biosecurity and Biodiversity Working Party, says eliminating that many possums would be no easy feat, but having a tool like Shaka would be hugely advantageous for Northland, with many areas carrying out possum elimination projects.

“We acknowledge the community has worked very hard with kiwi recovery in the Whangārei Heads, so Shaka has been selected and is being trained to be able to work in this sensitive environment,” Cr Craw says.

“The elimination project works with the various conservation groups in the Whangārei Heads and has an overwhelming amount of support from landowners.

“Having a CPDD has become an in-demand resource, so building the internal capacity for NRC will be cost and time efficient for both the project and the region.”

The use of conservation pest detection dogs in biosecurity and biodiversity has proven to be a highly useful tool in supporting conservation outcomes, with each dog specialising in a target species.