Stray rescued from street now top dog at Christchurch Airport

A stray dog has gone from rags to riches, securing a job at Christchurch Airport after he was found living on the street.

Noah the German Shorthaired Pointer was picked up by Christchurch animal management in September last year.

Support officer Lionel Bridger said nobody came forward to collect him, until Biosecurity saw his potential.

"We tried to locate his owners, didn't hear anything from anyone," he told Nine to Noon.

"Then we got a call from MPI, they had seen him and wanted to come in and undertake an assessment to see how suitable he would be in their working environment."

"It went really well, they then asked if they could take him to the airport to see how he goes in public, and it went fantastic."

Bridger said Noah's breed, a relatively rare sight in Christchurch, was a perfect fit for Biosecurity.

"He's a German Shorthaired Pointer. They smell everything, they love sniffing around, and that's what makes them so suitable for the role within MPI. They get trained to sniff out food products and I think it's 18 or 19 different products he can sniff out at this stage," he said.

Noah aced Biosecurity's tests and was soon taken to Auckland for a six-month training course.

Now Bridger said Noah had returned to Christchurch with a finely tuned nose and was excelling at his new job.