Otago pair still searching for missing pet dogs Dice and Weed one year on

Alan Funnell and Louisa Andrew have not given up the search for their dogs Dice and Weed, who went missing from their home in Sandymount on Otago Peninsula last year.

A year ago today, Dice and Weed went missing from their home on Otago Peninsula.

Many theories and rumours about what happened to the beloved pets have circulated and while the mystery surrounding what happened to the dogs remains, so does their owners' hope to find them.

Alan Funnell and Louisa Andrew have not stopped searching and do not plan to any time soon.

Signs alerting people that 9-year-old black poodle Dice and 3-year-old terrier Weed are missing have gone up around the country, including as far afield as Kaitaia in the Far North, and close to 18,000 people follow the Facebook page set up for the dogs.

"We are definitely still full-on searching," Funnell said.

"We know they are out there somewhere. We will find them — we are just struggling to do that."

The "huge" amount of support they had received in the past year gave them a better chance of finding the dogs, he said.

"If we get any possible sighting we can put the word out there and get people to look for them anywhere in New Zealand.

"It's huge support — we are humbled by the support we get."

More than $13,000 had been raised on a Givealittle page and they had spent up to $20,000 of their own money on the search.

"[The money] is pretty much used up but we are going to keep going," Funnell said.

Along with the support came plenty of theories and rumours on what could have happened to Dice and Weed.

Dice (right) and Weed went missing from home on the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin on October 17 2019.

One rumour was that the dogs had scared sheep on a neighbouring farm and a farmer had killed them, although Funnell did not think that was likely.

"We have heard different rumours over the last year, but we talked to all our neighbours. We have got no problems with any of them.

"It is highly unlikely."