A Nelson man who fries fish and chips by night has become a go-to tracker for desperate dog owners around the world, and he doesn't charge them a cent.
Don Schwass has spent 13 years behind the fryer at his fish and chip shop in Stoke, which opens every day except Christmas. In his spare time, he finds lost dogs for owners as far away as Texas and Thailand.
He said he had heard from the owners of seven missing dogs in the past 24 hours. One case in Australia was escalating, and the owners wanted him to help remotely.
"It's like a treasure hunt. You know, hide and seek. And I'm a sore loser. I like to win," Schwass said.
Don Schwass uses decades of tracking experience to reunite desperate owners with their missing dogs, from Nelson to Texas and Thailand. (Source: Seven Sharp)
From one missing dog to hundreds of searches
Schwass found his first dog 20 years ago, when Debbie Richards' Labrador, Floyd, went missing.
Richards said Floyd had been gone for five nights when she called Schwass.
"We did everything we shouldn't have done," she said.
"I knew Don was in search and rescue and I knew that he liked dogs and I just had hope that he would feel sorry for me and go looking for my dog."
Schwass said he didn't make her wait.
"I think Debbie expected me to go the next day and I said I'll be there in a couple of hours, have some radios and let's go and do it."
Four hours later, he found Floyd on a ledge in a ravine.
"Absolutely wonderful. Absolutely. How many guys would do that?" Richards said.
Schwass grew up in the bush, where he would hide and his father would track him down using his own dog. A scout leader took him to search and rescue when he was 15.
Sherp Tucker, who remembers Schwass arriving as a teenager, said: "He came along and he had lots and lots of promise."
After Floyd, Schwass stopped searching for people and started searching for dogs.
"You've got to outwit them, you've got to outmanoeuvre them and you've got to try and get one step ahead," he said.
Turning a childhood skill into a calling
Three years ago, 1News followed Schwass as he searched for Ace, a three-year-old border collie thrown from a car in a fatal crash. Ace had been missing for a week when his owners called Schwass.
Schwass searched the bush for small clues, such as broken branches or anything out of place.
"It's a bit like a game of chess and hide and seek all in one," he said.
"I always say to the owners, your dog's playing an A game, you've got to come with an A+."
Once Schwass had narrowed down where Ace was, his son Adam used a heat-seeking drone to spot him in the bush. Schwass then crouched low and avoided looking at the dog until Ace came to him.
Ace was found after an extensive search involving an expert tracker and thermal drone. (Source: Supplied)
'Don't chase your dog'
Schwass said owners often make understandable mistakes when they search for a lost dog, which is usually in "flight mode".
"Don't chase your dog. Don't call your dog. Counterintuitive," he said.
"The point last seen, sit down, sit down for a couple of hours, let your dog come to you, let your dog do all the work."
That was how he found Toby for Lynne Johnston.
"Don and Craig just sat at a table and Toby eventually came out and Don said, I've got them in the headlights," Johnston said.
"He knows dogs. What he said was exactly what happened."
The fish and chip shop pays for the tracking work. Schwass said he would need help to keep it going.
"I live and breathe tracking, I love tracking. But yeah, to make it viable, to be able to do it properly ... I need other people to help me probably."
There has been talk of a Netflix series, but Schwass said he wasn't fussed — solely focused on training a new dog, Banksie.
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