Craig and Tracey were contacted by an indigenous land and sea council and a large mining company whom had several dogs trained in the past by some well known trainers, unfortunately these dogs were not very successful and they wanted to try again.

 

They were contracted to find, test and train a dog to work on this island to help with the task of keeping the island cane toad free. Craig had to teach the dog to be able to search both on and off lead, on barges which are the main mode of freight arriving on island.

 

The dog must be able to find both live and dead toads, in a myriad of environment and around machinery and mining equipment. Due to the dangerous nature of the environments required to work in for the dog it also needed to be able to be rewarded by both food reward and play modes and or combinations of both.

 

The dog has now been working on the island for over 6 months and is doing extremely well. Naturally dogs need handlers and great dogs have great handlers and they need to constantly be learning and willing to adopt new techniques and be open to constructive consultation to ensure keeping their team on the best results and progressing.