Christchurch earthquake: Once abandoned, now lifesavers

Christchurch doghandlers Tim Drennan, with Boo, and Brenda Woolley, with Boss and Keepa. Photo / Greg Bowker

They were once abandoned at the pound. But in the last two weeks, a highly trained group of dogs have proved invaluable in quake-torn Christchurch.

Boss, a border collie, Keepa, a blue heeler, and Boo, a labrador-cross, are three of the dogs which have been trained to find live people, conscious or unconscious, who can't be seen or reached easily in a disaster.

Christchurch has nine of the 11 live-scent dogs in the country, and many were in action within an hour of the quake on February 22.

Dog handler Tim Drennan said guide dogs had uncovered a large number of survivors in the darkest and smallest spaces, at all major sites of devastation.

"They worked amazingly well in the first few days.

"They are designed to go in first and do a really quick overview of sites. Then we bring the specialist equipment in after that. They can cover a huge amount of area very quickly."

He said survivors struggled to describe the relief of seeing a sign of rescue - panting and barking - when trapped or injured. After making a discovery, the dogs will bark until help arrives.

Most of the dogs were taken from the SPCA, and underwent six months' to two years' training.

They could scent the slightest trace of a person through several storeys.

Dog handler Brenda Woolley said: "When we've trained over the years, we've put somebody in the shaft of a building and they've picked it up at the top of the building."

Whether a person was found depended on airflow within a structure, and also the weather - wind can drag scent away from, or towards the sniffer dogs.

Their smell also differentiates between the search and rescue workers and a stranded body.

Mr Drennan says the dogs are low-cost: "They get a toy [as a reward], have a play - so they're pretty cheap."