Skye off to learn cancer detection
Born in the south but changing the world – that’s what a puppy from Invercargill breeder Flagstaff Kennel will one day be doing.
Skye, an 8-week-old black labrador, is off to join K9 Medical Detection as a cancer detection dog in training alongside Hero, her older half-brother.
Just what form of cancer she helps to detect is yet to be decided.
“We’re sad to see her go, but it’s incredibly exciting that she’s off to help save lives like her brother,” Flagstaff Kennel owner Claire Penno said.
Some of Flagstaff’s other dogs in the litter have recently headed off to begin their careers – one as a drug detecting dog, and another to work with LandSAR.
K9MD chief executive and founder Pauline Blomfield said the charitable trust was stoked with its pick of Skye, who was the smallest out of three female puppies staff looked at.
“We have a few males, so we thought it would be nice to have another female,” she said.
“We spend time with her and we introduce her to the world. What we noticed with Skye is she’s very inquisitive and independent. We could tell from videos done at seven weeks that there was something about her.
“We teach her to sit, lie down and basic manners. She is going home to a full house of three german shepherds.”
Staff work with the dogs at the trust’s training centre in Dunedin and do various training activities in a fun environment to prepare them for their job of detecting cancer.
Members of the public had been given the chance to name the new puppy, and hundreds entered, Blomfield said. She was pleased with the name they had settled on.
“We had some fantastic names and loved the meaning behind so many of them, but we have to keep them to one- or two-syllable names. We have a few with the letter H, so we thought Skye was the perfect fit.”
At present, there are eight dogs training or working under Blomfield to detect different forms of cancer, including ovarian, bowel and prostate, and Skye will be added to the group.
The dogs’ sensitivity is such that they can detect one spoonful of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The Invercargill Licensing Trust provided funding for the project, allocating $75,000 towards the purchase of Skye from the breeder and for her training.
Another $75,000 was approved to help with covering nurses’ expenses and transporting samples for cancer testing. All up the ILT Group supplied $150,000.
“It’s special that we can put some funding towards something so special. We’re really pleased to be able to help,” board member Angela Newell said.