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Dunedin’s latest crime fighting duo has arrived.
Eight-week-old German Shepherd brothers Harlie and Harlem arrived in Dunedin on Monday after starting their fledgling police careers at the Police Dog Training Center in Trentham.
Training has already begun for the pups, including getting them used to people like their fellow new police recruits – Officers Desiree Hoera and Larissa Muir, who joined Dunedin Police late last month.
Sgt. Mike Calvert, who has been paired with Harlem, said the cubs would begin tracking training starting Monday.
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While German Shepherds weren’t the best breed in the follow-up, they “met all of our criteria.”
That included strength, speed is “good for teaching.”
hamish mcneilly / Things
Agent Desiree Hoera with Harlem and Agent Larissa Muir with Harlie at Dunedin Headquarters.
It can take up to two years and $ 70,000 to fully train a police dog.
However, not all dogs make the cut and some end up being better suited to work with other government agencies, such as Corrections or Aviation Security.
There are three active police dog handlers in Dunedin working in Otago.
Calvert said it was important to socialize the dogs from a young age, as “it didn’t make sense to have a dog that can track or bite but can’t go anywhere.”
While the longtime police dog handler had never been bitten, he admitted that the number of other officers his dogs had mistakenly bitten was “double digits.”
That was news to Hoera and Muir, who didn’t know what to expect after graduating from police college.
“We learn different things every day, so that’s the thrill of work,” Hoera said.
It was important that the police reflected the community they served and, as a Maori woman, she hoped to contribute to that, she said.
