If you are ever in need of an avalanche search dog - you know you're in trouble.
"That's why they get such a huge welcome from people lost in the outdoors," Wanaka Search And Rescue (SAR) dog handler Matt Gunn said.
Mountain safety instructors often joke the safest thing one can do about avalanches is to avoid them all together.
Mr Gunn thinks the advice isn't wide of the mark.
He works as a ski patroller at Treble Cone with his border collie Blizzid.
The pair are taking part in an avalanche training course for SAR dogs at Snow Farm on the Pisa Range this week.
Run by the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council, the annual assessment course is being attended by all of the country's 16 SAR dog handlers.
Dave McKinley, of Twizel, is often called out on SAR exercises in the Mt Cook National Park with his two dogs Tussock and Simba.
"We're all volunteers out there in the mountains searching when we need to and these courses are vital for everyone involved," he said.
The dogs are assessed on various skills, such as the find and alert, and location of buried people.
The handlers are critiqued on their personal search skills, plus their transceiver and probe use skills, Mr McKinley said.
Sniffer dogs were used not only during avalanches, but also in a wide variety of different SAR circumstances, including people buried by earthquakes and bush searches, Mr Gunn said.
