The New Zealand Police service has 21 dog sections ranging from Whangarei in the north to Invercargill in the south, comprising approximately 110 general purpose police dog teams.

In addition, the section also operates ten narcotic detector dog teams and three explosive detector dog teams.

Police train German Shepherd dogs for the general purpose role, and predominantly Labradors for the specialist roles.

All Police dog handlers are experienced police officers with approximately five years policing experience behind them before they join the Dog Section. All training courses are conducted at the Police Dog Training Centre at Trentham (Wellington).

The quality of the training provided by the Dog Training Centre is well recognised in both New Zealand and overseas. Assistance has been provided to set up dog sections in several Australian states. Another important part of the centre's operations is providing training to other Pacific countries.

Police also train drug detector dogs for the New Zealand Customs Service and Department of Corrections, and Explosive Detector dogs for Aviation Security Service. The Dog Training Centre has also trained New Zealand's first accelerant detector dog for use in arson investigation.

In 1999, police dogs attended 37,790 incidents. They found 6,396 offenders and helped recover over half a million dollars worth of property. In addition, police specialist dogs attended 3,403 incidents and located substances on 765 occasions.

A comparison of statistics shows just how far the Dog Section has come. In 1958, dogs were called out 55 times. By 1968, call-outs had risen to 1,645.

Training

The training philosophy employed by the Police is based on positive reinforcement. The type of dog the Police look for is one that is well socialised to people, places and things, is even-tempered and has a high retrieve drive.

General Purpose Dogs

The general purpose dog is mainly used to track and search for people.

The training of a general purpose dog is based on a three-stage qualification process and takes approximately eight months. Dogs live at home with their handlers.

Police use German Shepherds because of their size, temperament and trainability. Half of the dogs Police train are gifted or bought from the public. The Dog Training Centre also has it own breeding programme which provides the remaining dogs needed.

Drug Detector Dogs

Police mainly use Labradors for this specialist role of locating illegal drugs.

Further specialist roles

• The Police also train many of their general purpose dogs to carry out other roles. These include:
• Search and Rescue work including avalanche rescue
• Deployment with the Armed Offender Squad
• Firearm detection work
• Drug detection in smaller centres that do not have a specialist dog.

See also: History of the New Zealand dog section.