Inside the rough and tumble world of the Territory’s police pups

THE NT Police Dog Unit has been boosting its patrol dog squad, with a focus on improving the tracking and hunting skills of the animals, writes JUDITH AISTHORPE (WARNING: CUTE)

Drax, a 9wk old German Shepard pup destined to be a police dog.Pictrure Patrina Malone

THE NT Police Dog Unit has been boosting its patrol dog squad over recent years, with a focus on improving the tracking and hunting skills of the animals.

An international partnership with the New Zealand Police has led to the Territory squad to acquire a number of new dogs.

They are in various stages of training with the newest edition being puppy Drax.

Loki – Alice Springs’ qualified patrol dog is a product of the partnership with New Zealand Police.

He was brought over from New Zealand part way through is training and is under the command of Senior Constable First Class Colin Robson.

Loki has a long line of achievements under his belt including catching teens who allegedly stole a purse and subsequently the car from an on duty nurse and tracking offenders through 300m of scrub.

Constable Donaldson said he hoped little Drax would follow in the steps of Loki.

“It’s good to have him from a puppy and bring him all the way up to a police dog rather than getting them at an older age as your bond is a lot stronger,” he said.

“I’ve got another recruit police dog whose name is Arnie. We’re running two dogs at the moment they are both pups and we’ll see if they get through.”

For now the handlers with undergraduate dogs are working towards encouraging the traits needed to make them a patrol dog.

Simple games such as pulling on a tug or rope and encouraging biting of the objects and pushing them to be inquisitive, helps for when they reach the age of formal training to begin.

Little Drax displays those qualities. He’s bullish and not afraid of a crowd or strangers.

When we visit the NT Police Dog Unit, Drax is let out of the vehicle and he’s straight out into the weave of legs and camera gear. For a puppy of just eight weeks old he’s far from frightened – he relishes in the opportunity to play and explore.

Drax with Alice Springs NT Police Dog Unit Constable Adam Donaldson. Pic: Patrina Malone

Acting Sergeant of the Patrol Dog Unit Luke Hoolihan said the dogs were trained to track human odour.

“This enables us to track down fleeing offenders and search for missing people,” he said.

“Just turning up to ta job and being there at times, the mere presence of the dog is enough to you know de-escalate the situation and make sure everyone goes home safe.”

Training for the dogs never ends. Every day the dogs are put through their paces to hone their skills.

It’s also good training for the handlers.

“Every day we conduct training with the young dogs to make sure they are meeting their milestones,” he said.

“They’ve got to show desirable traits, which are boldness friendliness, they’ve got to be alert, happy, and they’ve got to have a real desire to chase things.

“We use that desire to chase things to train them. If they do something good they get to play with the toy at the end or chase something.

At the moment there are five patrol dog handlers with dogs in various stages of training.

Two are expected to graduate in early 2019 and a further two in mid-2019. For little Drax it will be about 18 months before he is in the big leagues.

Drax, a 9wk old German Shepard pup destined to be a police dog. Picture Patrina Malone

When not on duty the patrol dogs are kept in their handler’s vehicles. The vehicles

Acting Sgt Hoolihan says have been kitted out to ensure the pooches don’t over heat.

The vehicles are kept running at all times so the air conditioner can keep them cool. It for some reason the air conditioner switches off temperature monitoring devices will automatically roll down the vehicle windows and fans inside the dog’s kennel will switch on.

The kennel takes up the entire back seat of the vehicles, meaning there’s plenty of room for the dogs to stretch out and relax until they are needed.

“They’ve got heat alarms and all kinds of gadgets to keep them safe so internationally there’s particularly in the States there are issues with it being too hot and dogs dying from heat stress so we take every precaution to make sure they are as safe as they can be,” he said.

The dogs also go home with their handlers ensuring they are safe at all times.

When Acting Sgt Hoolihan opens the door to let patrol dog Freddie out of his vehicle he’s raring to go. It’s a trait the dog handlers’ desire. Freddie is in the final stages of his training.

Freddie is taken to the vacant lot next door to show off his skills for the camera.

He doesn’t disappoint. Weaving in and out of the cement tunnels and blocks, Freddie is determined to complete the tasks Acting Sgt Hoolihan puts him through.

Sitting on his hunches Freddie leaps into action at the drop of a command. It’s sure to be off putting for any would be criminal to see a large German shepherd unleashed on you.

The NT Police use only German Shepherds as patrol dogs because they can be both sociable in crowds and aggressive and intimidating when needed. They are capable of being docile enough to take to schools for education purposes, to festivals and events for crowd control and when needed aggressive and menacing to those on the wrong side of the law.

New Zealand Police Dog Section Sergeant Steve Pike has been visiting the NT dog unit since the partnership began. Under his guidance and knowledge the unit has strengthened their skills.

“Early in 2017 there was a review of the Northern Territory Police Dog Operations Unit by the New Zealand Police to provide assistance and an oversight of what we could provide over here,” he said.

“The result of that review was myself coming over as a support and trainer to help develop the unit.”

When the partnership first began Sergeant Pike brought over five dogs with him for training.

“Four of them were young pups and in February this year we brought over an 18 month old dog that’s now operational in Alice Springs called Loki,” he said.

“The first proper course was in May this year and from there it takes about 18 months to train fully and then they graduate.”

Some of the dogs haven’t made the cut explains Sgt Pike. The reasons range from environmental factors to their confidence.

“Some of it is through environmental factors and one of them their trekking and bite work was fine it was a female who was really scared of tall buildings and shiny surfaces and dark spaces,” he said.

“With a police dog we need them to be bullet proof and go anywhere and do anything and not be worried by anything or anyone.

“Sometimes it’s a lack of drive.

“Police dogs need to have really high drive, which for us means high prey drive, high hunt drive, and a desire to retrieve and keep looking to retrieve and working.

“Sometimes dogs just don’t have that drive in them.”

It’s not just a punt when the dog unit selects a pup for the program. Breeders will target lines in the hope of breeding desirable character traits.

Back in New Zealand we have a breeding program and other states here have breeding programs so the working line are bred from them so the success rate is a little bit higher says Sgt Pike.

“When we’re looking at pups, like Drax, which we just bought, you’re looking at their retrieve drive their desire to play tug of war games with a tug or chamois.

“Their confidence, are they frightened of anything or are they confident around people.

“The main one is developing the dogs from a younger age.

“It’s proven to be successful to start the training earlier when they’re pups because you can imprint the desired behaviour and traits that you want. Particularly trekking it’s really good to start young.”

For little Drax there’s a long road ahead of him to reach the levels of Loki or Lupo – Darwin’s graduated patrol dog.

Training for all of the dogs is continuous and they undergo external testing yearly to ensure they are up to scratch.