![]() ![]() "It's a chance for all people involved with wild and captive koalas to get to know each other and make great contacts, which will cement the 'let's do the right thing by koalas' message," said Cheyne Flanagan, supervisor of the Koala Hospital and organiser of the conference, which runs from May 17-19. The conference will focus on issues surrounding declining koala populations throughout Australia including disease, urban development, translocation and bushfires. ![]() It is also the world's leading koala research centre. The Koala Hospital treats about 300 koalas a year, and aims to release all its patients back into the wild. "If we just sit back and say, 'Oh well, we'll let the dogs rip up the koalas', then one day we'll wake up and there'll be no koalas left, and it'll be our fault." "Owners need to be aware that their dogs, no matter how nice they think they are, are really harming our koala population," Mr Austin said.īut can enough dogs be trained to make a difference to the number of injured koalas? "You've got to start somewhere," Mr Austin said. Twenty-five per cent of koala injuries that come in to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital are from domestic dog attacks. "The education of the owner is paramount, so they can continue training their dogs once they leave puppy class." "It's all about positive reinforcement," said Mr Austin, who will also educate owners about keeping their dogs inside and on leads when they're in a koala area. They will use koala scent supplied by the Koala Hospital as well as live animals, including rabbits or cats, to teach dogs from eight weeks of age that, when they smell a koala, to come back to their owner to be rewarded. They will be training puppy class instructors wherever there are koalas under attack to introduce aversion training techniques as part of their regular classes. Mr Austin and his colleagues have been recruiting puppy class instructors to sign up to their program, which will be launched after the conference. ![]()
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