Most dogs who end up at Cootamundra Pound get a happy ending, but few get an adventure quite like Archie.
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The young kelpie/labrador/beagle stray is every bit as energetic as his strange blend of breeds would suggest- so energetic, in fact, that he’s not suitable for rescue as a pet.
It was with this in mind that volunteer Hannah Orr reached out to renowned dog trainer Gary Jackson to see if he had use for a 12-18 month old bundle of pure excitement.
Gary has been a dog trainer for 31 years and in that time has trained some famous animals, including Migaloo the archaeology dog and Chance the breast cancer detection dog.
For the past ten years Gary has been training environmental detection dogs for a variety of purposes, including safely tracking water dragon eggs, quolls and pygmy blue tongue lizards.
Gary gave Hannah a few tests to run with Archie, which he passed “with flying colours”.
“If a dog is ball-obsessed they can be trained to do anything, and Archie definitely is,” Hannah said.
As it turns out, Archie will join the growing number of dogs trained to help researchers directly locate koalas.
[CORRECTION: the article originally stated Archie was the first dog trained for this specific task. OWAD Environment director Olivia Woosnam says there are at least four other dogs in training or currently performing this role.]
Biologists from the University of the Sunshine Coast conservation department have been using a border collie x named Maya to locate isolated pockets of endangered koalas by sniffing out their scat.
Gary believes Archie can be trained to directly locate the koalas by smell and sit at the base of the tree, effectively leading researchers straight to them.
Archie was chosen from over 40 rescue dogs around Australia to receive the training.
“Archie is social, happy, goofy, has a high ball drive and a softer character, so he shows all the right signs,” Gary said.
“He and Maya will be best mates, they’ll be working together, but Archie’s job is a lot more difficult.”
The training with Gary will take three months, after which Archie will move into his forever home and continue to receive regular training for the rest of his working life.
“We only work with rescue dogs, and the real heroes are the foster carers,” Gary said.
“They don’t get enough recognition for the vital role they play.”
This means Hannah will have to say goodbye to Archie next Tuesday as she drives him to Canberra for his big solo flight to Queensland.
Hannah says she will miss the dog “who just keeps getting crazier”, but she is glad he will get his happy ending.
“He’s hilarious to have around, he’s a total clown,” she said.
Hopefully this clown will prove as adept at tracking endangered koalas as he is at fetch.
