Meet our fantastic five furry friends from the Far North

Dual Dog Handler, SC Peraza winning hearts with PD Neo, our Drug Detection Dog

The names Vader, Xander and Hahm have sent a shiver down the spine of many a criminal over the past few years and I’m sad to say those days are now gone.

As our older Police Dogs (PD’s) age and get a little too old for police work, we need to replace them with younger PD’s.

PD Vader passed away in 2015 not long after his retirement, whilst Xander and Hahm have only recently retired from service.

Xander and Hahm now live happy lives at home with their police hander and their respective families, however they miss police work.

As a special treat, and if there is a spare seat in the back of the van, they get to head out on patrol, watch the new PD’s in action and dream of days gone by.

Over the past six months or so, we’ve seen the new breed, PD Axel, PD Bally, PD Thor, PD Ziggy and PD Neo hit the ground running, literally.

Officer in Charge of the Cairns Dog Squad, Sergeant Dave Raymond has been a Police Dog handler for nearly 20 years and says PD’s are just amazing.

“We thought we had good dogs before, but you’ll be surprised by how good this new squad already is as they are purpose bred for this job,” Sergeant Raymond said.

“We have a breeding program at the Brisbane Academy. The pups spend the first three or four months at the academy before they are assigned to handlers as they come up for renewal.

“Our handers have a great work ethic so we are reliant on our dogs to have one as well.

“The bond between a handler and his dog is well known. We look after each other daily and rely on one another for everything. We have to have each other’s back.”

The PD’s are very tough working dogs however do have their own personalities that make them special. Like all normal dogs, they want to spend time with their families, enjoy their treats and playtime.

All PD’s do regular training each shift to keep up their skills and the Dog Squad Team, train as a team at least once a week and practice their bite work which is required for taking down offenders.

Tracking is a very important component to our PD’s role and adds incredible value to the QPS. The PD’s help to track missing people, offenders of crimes that have just happened, violent offenders, searches and back up our police colleagues on the street as well.

Now whilst our new PD’s are good, we have four very experienced dog handlers as well, with about 80 years policing experience between them.

Senior Constable Peraza is a Dual Dog Handler and responsible for PD Ziggy, a general purpose dog and PD Neo, a Drug Detection Dog.

Check out some of the below images taken at a recent training session.