Nick Petry says the time away from family is hard, especially when he and Kora are out all night and he has to miss family meals.
Nick Petry says the time away from family is hard, especially when he and Kora are out all night and he has to miss family meals.
Failing her police training has not stopped 7-year-old German shepherd Kora from saving lives.
Tauranga’s Nick Petry adopted Kora years ago after he recognised her potential to become a successful tracking dog.
After extensive training, she qualified as a search and rescue dog and the pair now work together as24/7 on-call Land Search and Rescue (LandSAR) volunteers.
Kora is the Bay of Plenty region’s only operational search and rescue dog and accompanies Petry on deployments, attending to the lost, missing, and injured.
Petry said this was a stressful time, financially and emotionally.
“We had to be home with her all the time, and she would whine most of the day for the first couple of weeks, which was pretty awful.”
She returned to work in October 2020, after extensive rehabilitation and recovery.
Nick Petry and his search and rescue dog Kora have completed more than 100 deployments together. Photo / Haley Doig
“You have to pay for the dog yourself, pay to raise it, train it, and take time away [from work] for training,” Petry said.
“Once they become operational, we get a little bit of support, but it’s very small.”
He said time away from work affected his income, but he was willing to do it to help those in desperate need.
It also sometimes took him away from his wife, Nadia, and 3-year-old daughter, Millie, for days at a time, or multiple callouts a week.
He said he never forgot the things he saw in the role, but he had a way of detaching himself from the situation.
“It’s the ones where, for whatever reason, we haven’t been called to help and are maybe still unresolved today that I think about quite a bit.”
Petry and Kora recently won an ASB Good as Gold award, receiving $10,000 from ASB and TV programme Seven Sharp in recognition of their dedication and unwavering sacrifice for the community.
Petry said it was not just about the money, and he valued the recognition for the work he and Kora did.
Although he had not decided what he would do with the $10,000, Kora would be getting her fair share.
Kora has been working alongside Nick for years and continues to pass her annual search and rescue certification.
“She needs a couple of new things … toys and treats and maybe a new collar,” Petry told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Petry also wanted to recognise the Tauranga LandSAR group for their efforts and contribution to the community.
“I never go out by myself … It’s always a team effort, and we wouldn’t have had the success we’ve had search-wise without the support from the police as well.”
Katherine Dyer from Tauranga LandSAR said Kora was the only operational search and rescue dog in the Bay of Plenty region, meaning Petry and Kora were invaluable to the team at Tauranga LandSAR.
“Nick and Kora are a huge asset to our group. Having a search dog team means we are often able to locate missing parties much quicker than we could just relying on human field team members, getting them home safely to their families as soon as possible.”
She said training a search and rescue dog was a big time and financial commitment.
“We are so grateful for Nick’s huge contribution.”
Haley Doig is an AUT journalism student interning at the Bay of Plenty Times.
