Whanganui's Bushy Park Tarapuruhi managers had to call in the dogs after a rodent scare.
In February park volunteers found what they suspected to be a family of rats in the driveway area of the park below the homestead, forest manager Mandy Brooke said.
The rats were caught and trapped relatively quickly and, for the next three weeks, there was no further sign of rodents in the park's traps or tracking tunnels.
However, to be sure the park and its native wildlife were free of pests, they needed the expert nose of rodent dogs. Certified Department of Conservation (DoC) dogs are the only dogs allowed into the fenced area of the sanctuary.
DoC ranger Miriam Ritchie and her rodent dogs Will and Ahu flew in from Auckland on March 22.