Short, sharp lessons save kiwi from deadly dog encounters

Thursday, 11 March 2021

Training sessions teach dogs to avoid getting close to kiwi or their smell.

It can take just seconds for a dog to kill a kiwi, yet in the same brief time, the animals can learn to give the endangered birds a wide berth.

From 1990 to 2018, the Department of Conservation recorded 345 kiwi killed by dogs in the North Island alone, with a further 86 likely to have been killed by dogs.

“That’s just the ones we know about, a lot more will just have been hidden away,” Taranaki DOC ranger Joe Carson said.

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Stuff reporter Catherine Groenestein watches her dog Java take a wide berth around a taxidermied Kiwi during the training.

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Bee the fox terrier leaps in fright during training to teach her to avoid kiwi and their smell, as Christian Mills, 6, and Dex Dodunski, 8, take her through a course at Waitara with taxidermied kiwi as bait.

Going by those numbers, Carson has potentially saved dozens of kiwi in the past 10 years, as she’s put several hundred dogs through aversion training sessions.

Kiwi have no breastbone, so they’re very fragile and even a nudge from a curious dog can be fatal, even if the animal doesn't bite, she said.

Recent studies have shown dogs and ferrets are the main predator of adult kiwi around the country said Jess Scrimgeour, who oversees DOC’s Kiwi Recovery Group.

Stuff reporter Catherine Groenestein with her dog Java and DOC ranger Joe Carson, after the training.

Free avian aversion training sessions are held around New Zealand for dogs that will be taken to places where they could encounter kiwi, and dogs that live on land near kiwi habitats.

“The better we are doing with predator control, the more contact there will be between kiwi and domestic pets,” Carson said.

Hunting and working dogs have been the mainstay of the aversion training programme, but increasing numbers of recreational walkers are now turning up with their pets.

“It’s definitely picked up lately, there is a lot more interest in it. It buys you access to a lot of cool places,” she said.

Learning the ropes

I’m keen to take my two pet dogs out on family tramps into DOC land in Eastern and Northern Taranaki, so I’ve brought them to the Manukorihi Reserve, Waitara, on a sunny afternoon for the training they’ll need to get a permit.

Java the huntaway leaps over sticks to avoid going close to a taxidermied Kiwi.

I reckon they’d agree the short shock they’re about to get is a fair trade-off for the adventures to come.

Huntaway Java is excited to be free, and bounds up the bush track, where Carson has set up a course with three taxidermied kiwi.

Fresh nesting material, droppings and feathers gathered from live birds in the Rotokare Scenic Reserve sanctuary are scattered around the stuffed birds, so there’s a strong scent as well as the visual lure.

Trish Lowe's dobermans Tyson and Porsche showed no interest in the kiwi smell during their retest at the avian training session.

He catches the unique kiwi odour, and is immediately intrigued.

Like most dogs, he has never encountered kiwi, so what comes next makes an instant impression.

As soon as the dog locks in on the scent, Carson presses a button on her transmitter and delivers a short, sharp shock via the electronic collar he’s wearing.

Java yelps and leaps away.

Bee the fox terrier follows Dex Dodunski, 8, and Christian Mills, 6, towards a taxidermied kiwi during kiwi aversion training, followed by DOC ranger Joe Carson.

“It’s basically teaching the dog that the kiwi will bite you, it gives them an aversion to that scent,” Carson said.

“When it is used here, the dog associates the shock directly with the kiwi smell. There’s nothing else that would deliver that immediate lesson.”

When we get close to the second kiwi, then the third bird, he dodges dramatically off the track to give them a wide berth.

The training remains effective, as the dogs who are back for a refresher session this afternoon demonstrate.

They all remember to dodge around the ‘bad bird’ smell, and none of them get a shock.

Barry Meuli from Bell Block took his dog Fliss through the kiwi aversion training, so she can go deer-hunting on DOC land.

“If we want to take our dogs out into nature, this is the way. I love seeing owners take their dogs through this, every dog that passes, I think, that dog is safe in the bush now,” Carson said.

The electronic collars used for the training are somewhat controversial, but used correctly, are an effective deterrent.

Hunters and farmers tend to accept the idea of using the collars more easily than pet owners, Carson said.

“The dog is not their fur baby, it’s one of their tools, and they understand how scent works.”

Carson's partner Tristan Dodunski brought his nine-month-old fox terrier Bee along for aversion training ahead of a hunting trip into the Whirinaki forest.

“I’m taking my older son out, hoping he will get his first deer,” he said.

The plucky pup dashes into the bush behind eight-year-old Dex Dodunski and his mate Christian Mills, 6, while Carson follows with the transmitter, watching for the instant the dog locks in to the kiwi scent.

Bee shrieks and leaps into the air when the shock comes, and doesn’t go anywhere near the next two kiwi.

The little foxy is exactly the sort of dog that would have dived into a kiwi burrow if she wasn't trained, Carson said.

“People forget that their dog might look little and cute, but they lock on to that scent, and they just want to chase.”