Hard-working dog teams from across Police, New Zealand Customs Service and Department of Corrections have battled it out for the title of top dog and handler as they competed at the 51st Patrol and Detector Dog Championships during the week.
This year’s event wrapped up with a prize giving held at the Dog Training Centre in Trentham on Friday.
The overall winner of this year’s competition was Senior Constable Aaron Senior and his dog, Cole, from Tasman District.
Inspector Todd Southall said Snr Const Senior and Cole achieved an almost clean sweep in the competition.
“It’s been an intense competition across three categories since Monday for all the operational dog teams,” he said.
“We’ve had experienced handlers in both patrol and detector categories competing this week. Consistency and confidence between handler and dog have determined who gets the points and a title.”
Taking part in the Police Patrol Dog competition were six operational teams from Northland, Tāmaki Makaurau, Waikato, Tasman and Canterbury Districts.
Six narcotic detector dog teams also competed – two from Police (Northland and Tāmaki Makaurau), and two each from Customs and Corrections.
The winning detector dog team is the formidable crew of Senior Constable Patrick Derbyshire and Ripper from Northland Police – a previous winner of the Narcotic Detector Dogs – Alan Symes Cup.
“Each of the teams start with a set of points and they’re put through a range of realistic but testing scenarios with points deducted for mistakes. The team that loses the least marks is the winner. The teams were marked on obedience, article retrieving, commands, tracking in grass, bush, operational scenarios, and criminal work,” says Insp Southall.
“All these dog teams do a fantastic job in helping keep our communities safe. They provide a critical frontline response, detection and prevention capability whether it’s on the street, at our borders or inside our prisons.”
