Drug dogs have keen sense of duty

Press, 25 May 1989, Page 6

Drug dogs have keen sense of duty

By

NEIL CLARKSON

Christchurch’s drug-seeking duo, Rundy and Bruffy, not only have a fine sense of smell, but a sense of duty. The pair have their heads down seeing if they can come within a whiff of the region’s drug-detecting performance of last year.

In spite of one drug dog retiring last year and several changes among . handlers, the results speak for themselves. In the year ended March 31, the region’s two drug dogs

carried out 700 drug searches and found drugs on 101 occasions. . The regional dog co-ordinator, Sergeant Geoff Stock, said the 700 searches included many deterrent checks, such as those regularly carried out at Christchurch Airport. Auckland’s two dogs carried out 322 searches over the same period, with 132 successes. The Wellington pair performed a total of 363 searches, with 120 successful drug finds. Rundy, whose handler is Con-

stable Keith Nicol, started working this year. Bruffy has been working about 12 months, the last six with Constable Dale Pohio. The two golden labradors have made a good start this year, with 54 jobs in April, 10 of which resulted in drug finds. Sergeant Stock said it takes six months to train a drug dog, including two three-week courses at Trentham. Dogs, are introduced to cannabis first and then to other drugs, from hashish through to

cocaine and heroin. Sergeant Stock said some people mistakenly thought drug dogs were addicted to drugs. “They are only addicted to retrieving. If a dog is mad keen to retrieve a ball, you can teach it to retrieve drugs.” Dogs are rewarded for successful retrievals. Two police-trained Customs drugs dogs are also based in Christchurch. The police are now training a drug dog for work with Operation Deep Freeze.