Animal charity teaches dogs to drive

A New Zealand animal welfare group has spent eight weeks teaching three of its shelter dogs to drive.

The Aukland SPCA says it wanted to show how intelligents dogs were to encourage more people to adopt them.

Three dogs were chosen from a group of seven and given daily training exercises to familiarise themselves with the mechanics of driving.

After just eight weeks Porter, Monty and Ginny were put behind the wheels of an adapted Mini Cooper and reporetdly managed to put it in gear, accelerate and steer.

So far, the dogs have been driving with the help of an assistant inside the car, but their next challenge is to drive solo on live television.

Auckland SPCA chief Christine Kalin said: "They will hop in, start the car, put it into gear, use the accelerator.

"It's an off-road raceway track and at all times we have a remote capacity to stop the car should we need to."

Ms Kalin described the three pooches as "highly adoptable", adding: "They are very intelligent, but they aren't any more special than any of the other SPCA dogs.

"Our dream would be throughout our major cities and across Australasia will be people will be proud of owning a rescue dog."