After sniffing out close to $2million in cash, kilograms of drugs and countless firearms and ammunition, detector dog champion Floyd is putting up his paws for retirement.
The eight-year-old black labrador graduated with handler Sergeant Chris Harris in October 2017 and they’ve exceeded expectations together ever since.
Trained to detect drugs, guns and money, Floyd scored a major catch with all three within six months of being operational, locating more than $1million in cash, a kilogram of meth and several firearms at a single job.
“He just hit the ground running,” says Chris. “There was no lead-in period or getting him used to things, he was just straight into it.
“That product and the cash was hidden, so it wasn’t exactly in plain sight, but he found it.”
Floyd at work.
Other memorable finds include $100,000 in a boot bag, hidden deep within the mechanics of a microwave that was in piles of rubbish in a garage, and a stolen firearm in a glued-down compartment in the base of a wardrobe.
“Ninety per cent of the stuff we find, a good search team will find," says Chris. "But it’s that 10 per cent or even 5 per cent that you just know that, if it wasn’t for the dogs and their ability, those drugs and that cash and those guns would never have been found.”
As well as the pair’s successes working across Auckland, Northland and Waikato districts, Floyd’s drive and determination made him a formidable opponent in national and international competitions.
He’s qualified for the National Narcotics Detector Dog Championships every year since being operational, taking the title in 2018 and 2022 (pictured, right) and narrowly coming second to Customs in 2019. And he’s still the reigning Australasian Detector Dog Champion.
“He’s a dream to handle and work,” says Chris. “He’s got huge amounts of hunt drive and he’s determined.
“If he wasn’t happy to finish a search it would be a struggle for me to get him out of a house. Sometimes we’d get to the front door and he’d go ‘Yeah, nah, we’re going back in’.
“He was a little bit special like that - if he got a whiff of anything he was pretty determined to find the source of it. You can’t teach that in a dog.”
Despite his strong work ethic, Chris says Floyd’s settling into retirement nicely.
“He waves goodbye at the gate now and I don’t think he gives two rats that I’m leaving without him. He’s done his dash and he’s quite happy about that.
“He has the run of the back yard and is like any other pet. He goes for walks, he gets swims every week and he chills out. He’s good as gold.”
As for Chris, he’s now working with Floyd’s replacement, Maverick, as well as his explosives detector dog, Iti.
“Maverick’s operational and has already had operational finds and I’ve got Iti as well so I’ve got the three of them running around.”
