Te Awamutu: Helping man's best friend to protect the kiwi

Te Awamutu's Alisha Hobbs.

Dogs may be a man's best friend, but they don't mix well with the native kiwi.

Te Awamutu's Alisha Hobbs, 22, is hoping to decrease the number of kiwi fatalities by dogs.

She's combining her love of animals and science in a research project on kiwi aversion training.

As part of her Master of Science at the University of Waikato she is assessing dog preference to kiwi-related materials.

"It's a big issue when dogs enter areas where kiwi are present," she says.

Kiwi aversion training was developed by the Department of Conservation and Kiwis for Kiwi.

As part of the training, dogs are walked past a few different props — things such as a stuffed kiwi or kiwi nesting material.

If the dog shows an interest it gets a short sharp shock and learns to stay away from the native bird.

"Kiwi aversion training is completed by many different contractors," she says.

"But they all use different tools and stimuli. I want to find out which tool is most effective, increase the efficacy of the process and decrease the number of kiwi fatalities by dogs."

She also wants to eventually develop a shock-free training method.

Two-year-old Preston is one of around 100 dogs to be tested as part of Mrs Hobbs' research.

In 90-minute sessions she will present dogs with scent-based items like kiwi carcasses, faeces, feathers, nesting material and taxidermy.

The dogs will be videoed and their heart rates measured.

A range of ages and breeds, both male and female, will be tested. There will be a mixture of untrained pet dogs, kiwi aversion dogs and kiwi locating dogs.

"I hope to find out which aspect of the stimuli used is most salient to the dog. This will allow contractors to know which tools are most effective.

"I have always loved animals — especially the ones that need a little more help than others."

"The kiwi is so special. It's our native icon."

Alisha wants to hear from anyone with a kiwi aversion-trained dog. Email alisha.hobbz@gmail.com