Four service dogs have been selected by artist Sam Allen to be featured in a mural at Memorial Park. The Weekend Sun is running a series of six ‘Service Dog Mural’ stories. Today’s third story in the segment is about Nick Petry and his dog Kora.

For the past six years, Nick Petry and his dog Kora have been part of the frontline response team Tauranga LandSAR, one of the busiest search and rescue groups in New Zealand.

Aged 9, Kora has been operational since she was 3, working primarily as a New Zealand Land Search and Rescue dog across the greater Bay of Plenty, but also deploying to Waikato, Coromandel and Hawke’s Bay when needed.

Kora is not just a working dog – she’s Petry’s pet. He adopted her at 12 months old with the specific goal of training her for search and rescue work.

Nick Petry and Kora work primarily as a New Zealand Land Search and Rescue dog team across the greater Bay of Plenty. Photo / Nicholas Charles

While many handlers start training from puppyhood, Kora’s journey began a little later. It takes about two years to fully train a search dog, and together they put in the time and commitment to become an operational team.

New Zealand Land Search and Rescue dogs has 16 operational teams across Aotearoa. These dog teams are all members of a local Land Search and Rescue group and deploy as part of a police or Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) co-ordinated response.

Office to bush

Search and rescue work is entirely voluntary. By day, Petry works as an architectural designer and project manager.

“Kora goes to the office with me – but when the call comes, everything changes,” Petry said. “On average, we respond to about three callouts a month as a group, adding up to around 30 deployments a year.”

During the past six years, missions involving Kora have now reached 140 deployments.

Petry said their work covers a wide range of situations – from missing dementia patients and elderly people who have wandered from home to hunters, hikers, trampers and walkers lost in dense bush.

Some searches take place in remote wilderness; others happen close to town. Every deployment is different, and each one demands focus, resilience and trust between handler and dog.

Nick Petry and Kora have been part of the frontline response team for search and rescue missions across the North Island for six years. Photo / Nicholas Charles

While Petry is careful about what details he can publicly share, he said some of the most remarkable finds – purely from a search perspective – had involved incredibly challenging recoveries.

Training, instinct

In one case, Kora successfully located someone who’d been missing for a couple of weeks. It’s in these difficult, complex searches that her training, instinct and determination truly stand out, Petry said.

“Being able to hike or helicopter into the wild with your mate by your side and bring people home to their families is without a doubt one of the coolest and most rewarding things you can do,” he said.

Petry and Kora were also involved in the early rescue phase following the Mount Maunganui landslide tragedy in January, though he remained modest about their role.

LandSAR Search and Rescue Dogs like Kora are trained to follow scents and indicate their discoveries to handlers. Photo / Rescue, Revive, Rehome Bay of Plenty

Despite the seriousness of their work, there are lighter moments too. At the recent group photo shoot for the Memorial Park mural, there was an ironic twist – the group had to briefly stop and search for Petry and Kora, who’d briefly gone off to explore the bushwalk near Nicholas Charles’ photography studio at Tauranga Historic Village. “We’ve lost the search and rescue team!” was the hilarious cry.

Follow Kora’s adventures

Kora has her own Facebook page, where supporters follow her adventures. Petry hadn’t known much about the mural project when they were tagged in a Facebook post inviting involvement, but he thought, why not? After years of quiet, voluntary service to the community, Kora’s inclusion in the mural feels like a fitting tribute, he said.

Support her work

From bushland searches to office days, from intense deployments to playful moments, Kora is both hero and companion – and her dedication had helped bring answers, relief and closure to countless families, Petry said. To support Land Search and Rescue, go to: www.landsar.org.nz