Four dogs will leave their Tasmania Police foster families on Friday to undertake the next steps in their training to become general purpose police and service dogs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tasmania Police Dog Handlers Unit leader Sergeant Iain Shepherd said the four German Shepherds were fostered as part of the puppy pilot program, a joint venture with Victoria Police, with the aim the dogs would go on to commence training as general purpose police dogs.
"On average, only one in 10 puppies make it through to becoming a police or service dog, so to have all four of the puppies fostered in Tasmania make it through to start training is a great success," Sergeant Shepherd said.
"Despite the serious nature of their training over the past 12 months, the dogs have retained their wonderful sociable nature and still love a pat.
"On behalf of my fellow foster parents to the puppies, we wish the dogs every success and will miss their bounding paws."
Dog trainer and ex-military dog handler Ben Barnes said the training involves primarily using the dogs' own drives such as their sense of smell and agility.
"There is only so much training we actually do. A lot of it goes just to the innate drives in the dog," Mr Barnes said.
"It's quite exceptional that all four dogs have made it."
The program was funded by a range of sponsors providing items such as food, with Mr Barnes training the puppies provided by breeder Garsova Kennels.
Foster parents of the puppies were Sergeant Shepherd who fostered Raffa, Senior Constable Josh Tringrove who fostered Rico (renamed Baloo), Senior Constable Alison Kay who fostered Rocket, and Mr Barnes who fostered Reba (renamed Quake).
The dogs will soon begin training, two in the Northern Territory where the police dog program is run by New Zealand Police and two at the Queensland Corrections Service.
"The fact that a number of agencies were actually competing for these dogs is a very good sign," Sergeant Shepherd said.