IT MIGHT sound barking mad, but it turns out dogs can fly.

A New Zealand dog trainer who taught RSPCA dogs to drive has done the unthinkable and managed to train dogs how to pilot a plane in a bid to prove just how capable rescue dogs can be.

Last year, animal trainer and zoologist Mark Vette spent four months in the United Kingdom working with rescue dogs for the series, Dogs Might Fly, which is only just airing in Britain.

In a world first, Mr Vette was able to successfully train three rescue dogs, Reggie, Shadow and Alfie, to fly a plane, and even perform tricks, including a figure of eight manoeuvre.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Mr Vette told news.com.au.

“The human-dog relationship is one that has co-evolved over the last 30,000-50,000 years, it’s an incredibly subtle and complex relationship.

“It takes a lot of training and a lot of work and integration to build that collaboration

but it’s amazing, the more I’ve flown with the dogs the more intuitive they get.”

The process involved training the dogs on a flight simulator which used coloured signals to indicate which direction the dog should fly; blue to turn left, red to turn right and white to continue straight ahead.

Reggie was the world’s first dog to successfully fly, where according to Mr Vette, flew for 15 minutes straight.

“It’s a two way trust because you’re in a potentially dangerous environment. It can be all over, you’ve got to be careful,” said Mr Vette.

“We love to do these crazy and amazing performances but at the end of the day we’re trying to show that rescue dogs are smart dogs, this is why we’re doing it.”

So could we be seeing our canine companions pilot a jet plane one day?

“There’s certainly more to go, I haven’t had the call to take one into a space rocket yet but I’ll keep the option open.”

You can sign up to Mark Vette’s newsletter to get free training tips at www.dogzen.com.

— youngma@news.com.au