A sheetmetal dog, sheep and farmer by artist Hannah Kidd, of Methven, helped launch a project to research working dog health on New Zealand farms last week.
The TeamMate project, launched at Milford Galleries Queenstown last Thursday, is led by senior veterinarian Dr Lori Linney, of Vetlife, Alexandra, in association with Dr Naomi Cogger, of Massey University's Centre for Service and Working Dog Health.
They were recruiting 300 to 500 working dogs and their farmer owners from Vetlife's Central and North Otago and Canterbury clients, and eventually 1000 to 1200 dogs would be involved nationally in the three-year project.
''We will be looking at husbandry and health issues for huntaway, heading and handy dogs,'' Dr Linney said.
They will use pedometers and GPS units on some dogs to see how far they run in a day and at what elevations.
Although the official launch took place last week, the researchers will probably start the study halfway through next year so it will not interfere with the farmers' busier times of year.
Dr Cogger has just returned from the Working Dog Conference in Australia, hosted by the Working Dog Alliance, where she presented papers on the risk factors associated with New Zealand working farm dogs and profiled the centre's work.
The research will be used to establish best practice, as well as body condition scoring, and eventually they hope to develop educational material on dog welfare, nutritional standards, longevity, workload and dogs' economic values and contributions to farming businesses as there are no New Zealand figures available at the moment.