The special bond between a search and rescue handler and their dog
Hi neighbours,
Emma Milburn and Dart have been a search and rescue tag team for nearly a decade.
But as bearded border collie Dart, 13, gets older, she soon faces retirement, bringing an end to the special career shared between her and her handler.
The pair have been through a lot together. Milburn did all of Dart’s search and rescue training herself, pretty much everyday for eight years straight. The time and dedication it took to train a dog to be operational in search and rescue tasks was often overlooked, Milburn said.
Please click 'Read more' below for the full story.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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