If you can’t get enough of our patrol dogs, detector dogs and police pups, you’re in luck - the New Zealand Police Dog Trust calendar is back!
Across 14 full-page feature photos and 26 smaller images spread over 13 months, the pup-to-page ratio is high. Several months feature more than one of our dedicated doggos at work or pups doing what they do best – looking cute and having fun.
With more than 500 images submitted by New Zealand Police forensic photographers, judges had plenty to choose from.
This year’s winning image of four patrol dogs and their handlers lined up ready for action during a training day in Tāmaki Makaurau was taken by Auckland-based forensic photographer Senior Constable Alex Stammers and features in May.
Highly commended certificates were awarded to Sergeant Jane Dunn, for capturing patrol dog Kroc's intense focus on the job in hand, and Senior Constable Deb Potter for her colourful image of patrol dog Hanzu during a moment of downtime at a playground in Hawke’s Bay.
But this year, it wasn’t just the judges deciding which of our canine crimefighters and detector dogs made the cut.
For the first time, the photos featured on the double-sided pullout poster were decided by a public poll on the New Zealand Police Facebook page, with Sergeant Jane Dunn’s photos of patrol dog Pou and young Floofstable Wilk generating the most support.
The 2027 calendar is the 11th edition of the Police Dog Trust calendar and Inspector Todd Southall, National Coordinator of New Zealand Police Dogs and Chair of the Police Dog Trust, says it’s great to see it continue to go from strength to strength.
“Every year we see the standard of entries getting better and better and, with more than 500 submissions, this year the judges really were spoilt for choice," he says.
“We’re very grateful to all our photographers for taking the time to showcase our incredible patrol dogs, specialist dogs and young pups in such creative and engaging ways.”
🐾 The calendar is $20 and available to pre-order now through The Cop Shop. Physical copies will be available later this month.
🐾 Proceeds from calendar sales help the work of the Police Dog Charitable Trust, which gives extra support to police dog breeding, research and development programmes, over and above New Zealand Police's investment.
