TONY NZ Land SAR Search & Rescue Dog

28/02/2026

Have yourself a sunny fun Sunday ❤️ Tony… but with safety precautions 🧭 🩹 🎒

10/02/2026

Happy birthday Tony! Not slowing down my beautiful boy ❤️🐾 Thank you Mel Cheseldine, fellow dog handler and amazing photographer.

02/02/2026

My training mates Steve and Echo!

Well fancy that - turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks 🪄✨

Echo is a labrador-spaniel cross who has found 11 people, and assisted in 30 searches with Land Search & Rescue New Zealand (LandSAR) ⛑️

Steve Signal - chairman of Tūrangi LandSAR - successfully applied for a Taupō District Council community grant to help meeting the costs associated with training specialist rescue dogs like Echo.

Steve decided to train his own rescue dog after being involved in LandSAR for about seven years. He chose Echo as a puppy based on aptitude and breed characteristics.

🐾 “I looked specifically for a labrador-spaniel cross. I’d spent time with one in my years working on farms, and he was a great dog. You get the benefits of a labrador without the bulk.

🐾 "LandSAR New Zealand is a national volunteer organisation that provides search and rescue help to lost, missing, and injured people. It’s an important job that can mean the difference between life and death. Crews personally fund their equipment with some community support – including purchasing and training dogs if they want to specialise in rescue dogs."

Steve's grant has gone towards ongoing training and travel costs for himself and his four-legged partner, Echo. Vetora Taupo are also sponsors of the duo, and Blackhawk are the official Search and Rescue dog food sponsors in New Zealand.

🐾 "Search and rescue dogs learn skills in three areas – tracking, where they follow scent trails where someone has walked, area search where they roam an area and try to capture a scent on the breeze, and lastly article search where they find things humans have dropped like a muesli bar wrapper, gun shells, or clothing."

🐾 There are only a handful of trained rescue dogs in the country. As dogs (and their handlers) retire there aren’t always replacements coming up through training. This can mean quite a bit of travel for Steve and Echo, which the community grant will help with.

Echo and Steve also attend training camps each year as well as being annually reassessed by both New Zealand LandSAR rescue dog assessors and NZ Police Dog assessors. The council community grant will allow Steve to cover training camp costs.

When he’s not searching in the bush, Echo is a cruisy family dog.

🐾 "He does everything with me and hangs out around the farm,” Steve says. “He’s pretty laid back but if I get out his harness and put my jacket on, he’s all noise. He knows it’s time to get to work.” 🐕 💖

31/01/2026

1.8km dead end drill.

18/01/2026

Weekly challenge - what clues could a lost person leave behind? Add to the challenge!

03/01/2026

Tracking into 2026 with great team support. Couldn’t do it without you.

02/01/2026

Tony wishes you all a Happy 2026 🥳

23/12/2025

Merry Xmas from Tony

22/12/2025

Shaping instinct to bring you home.

22/12/2025

Tony and his buddy Doug (mascot/support crew) wish you a safe and Merry Christmas 🎄 🐾❤️

27/09/2025

Tony is looking forward to trying out his new tracking line… just putting on the finishing touches. For the tracking enthusiasts : 10 metres leather cord, 8 mm thick, brass buckle, waxed polyester twine, grip at 3, 6 and 9 metres.

26/08/2025