Hunting dogs given shock treatment

A hundred hunting dogs underwent electric shock treatment at the weekend as they learned not to attack the country's national bird.

The aim was not to torture the dogs at Waiotama Forest, halfway between Whangarei and Dargaville, but to teach them to leave kiwi alone as increasing numbers of dogs attack and kill the flightless bird each year.

The Carter Holt Harvey-sponsored kiwi dog aversion training day was held on Saturday for the Northland Recreational Pig Hunters Group.

It works by having dummy and dead kiwi next to kiwi faeces and feathers on a track. If the dog touched or sniffed the birds it was given an electric shock.

The theory behind it is that if dogs could learn to avoid dead kiwi, they would avoid live ones.

Carter Holt Harvey Forests environmental planner Ursula Albrecht said that, while most dogs touched or smelled the birds the first time, all left the birds alone the second time for fear of receiving another shock. Dogs which had previously completed training all avoided the kiwi.

Carter Holt Harvey sponsored the Department of Conservation- run programme as a number of its Northland forests have kiwi populations.

Miss Albrecht hoped to hold another kiwi dog aversion training day within the next month.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)