Echo rides on Lisa Jaggi's shoulders or runs between her skis when she's heading to a search site Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
As soon as Echo steps off the ski lift he's causing a stir.
The black, white and brown border collie, harnessed for work, is like a magnet for the families holidaying on the slopes of Whakapapa skifield on Mt Ruapehu.
The two-year-old search and rescue dog is training to find people who might have got buried in an avalanche.
The children tossing snowballs at each other just metres away are all part of the simulation's distractions.
Sophie squeals with delight as Echo and his handler Lisa Jaggi stop amid the throng to say hello.
"Nicely, nicely," Lisa says to Echo who sits to allow the pre-schooler a pat.
Search and rescue dogs are among an elite few canines allowed on the slopes Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
"Education is a really big part of what I see us doing as avalanche dog teams."
It's surprising how little people know about the danger of avalanches, she said.
"Where there's snow and there's slopes, loading and stability issues, there are avalanches."
Country Life watched as Lisa put Echo through his paces, trying to find an old shoe, which had been buried in the snow as part of the exercise.
Dogs have an amazing sense of smell "220 million scent receptors versus our five million. They smell the world in 3D", Lisa explained.
Avalanche rescue dogs have been known to sniff out people buried several metres beneath the surface and can scent a person half a kilometre away.
The statistics around the efficacy of rescue dogs in an avalanche are staggering, she said.
A person has a 90 percent chance of survival up to 15 minutes from being buried, assuming they have no other major trauma.
A dog can search a hectare in 30 minutes and work out whether anybody is under the snow compared to 20 humans taking four hours to search the same area.
"Time is totally against you.
"A dog is the superior way to be found should you not be wearing a transceiver," she said, referring to the electronic device which emits a signal for searchers to pick up, a must for those heading into the backcountry.
Echo plays an important role in avalanche awareness when he is out and about on the slopes Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
The search is "just a big giant game" for Echo, Lisa said.
He is poised, Lisa's hand resting gently on his harness.
"Ready to work?" she whispers.
"Ready ... search!"
Echo zigzags across the snow, his nose in the air.
He follows the airborne human scent, then starts to dig furiously after pinpointing the spot where the shoe had been buried 20 centimetres below the surface.
Lisa races over, shovel in hand, and helps to dig it out. The shoe is spotted then comes an avalanche of praise and a boisterous wrestle over a tug toy.
Echo is in his first full season as an avalanche rescue dog with Land Search and Rescue, the volunteer organisation which is New Zealand's official search dog group.
"We're really training for a situation we hope will never happen," she said.
"He's this amazing teammate that makes me smile every day."
"He's this amazing team mate that makes me smile everyday." Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
