The owner of the dog at the centre of a long-running ownership row is without his pet again after the animal went missing in the early hours of Boxing Day - and he believes she was stolen in a targeted raid.

The North Shore man, who the Herald has agreed not to name, has had the German shorthaired pointer - who he calls Tui - back in his care since late November after she spent 6 years with another family.

That family - who named the dog Ziggy - had the animal taken from them by armed police earlier that month after it was revealed that she had been stolen when she was puppy.

Sam Duncan explained to the Herald that he had purchased the animal from an acquaintance after seeing she was in poor condition and after his then 6-year-old daughter bonded with her.

Now she is missing again, months after she was returned to her original owner.

‘Someone was waiting’

The original owner told the Herald that he was woken about 3am on Boxing Day by Tui and his other dog barking, so he went to check on the animals, who sleep in a garage space under the house.

He sat with Tui for a while before deciding to let her upstairs for the rest of the night, heading inside while he allowed her to relieve herself on the lawn.

He said Tui normally slept in an armchair tied up with a lead and would usually go straight inside when she was unclipped.

“The door was open, it never got into the house, someone was waiting for it and gone,” he said.

He hoped that the dog had wandered off and would return, but says he knew she hadn’t and believed that he might have been attacked if he had led her inside.

Her owner believes Tui, also know as Ziggy, was stolen from him on Boxing Day. Photo / Supplied

 “It was gone, that’s it, it was gone. If I had took her on the lead I might have got a bloody good hiding,” he told the Herald.

The man thought he heard something moving across the road from his house when he first went to check on the dogs but couldn’t see any unusual vehicles.

He said Tui had settled in well at his home in Auckland and had enjoyed trips down to his rural property in Turangi, adding that losing her had created a mental strain.

He had a simple message for whoever took Tui: “Give the dog back. It’s not yours”.

A police spokesperson told the Herald: “Despite efforts to establish an offence and identify any alleged offenders, police have exhausted all lines of enquiry and the matter has been filed”.

They said they remain open to reassessing the matter if any new information comes to light and anyone with information is asked to contact police on 105 quoting file number 221226/1616.

Missing his ‘shadow’

Sam Duncan, who previously told the Herald that the animal was like his “shadow”, expressed shock that she had been taken and said he had been “in the process of trying to bring her home”.

The family told the Herald last year that those in authority should show more humanity in the case, saying they were considering legal action and believed the dog should remain with them because of the bond they built.

The Herald put the family’s case to the original owner, who said he would only consider giving up the dog if she proved to be unsuitable for duck hunting but thought she would be “fantastic” because she was now in her “prime”.

But the family said they were determined to find a solution that saw the dog return to them and expressed frustration that the law was not on their side, telling the Herald: “Just because something is legal, that doesn’t make it just”.