(27 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trentham, New Zealand – 27 March 2025
1. Various of police dogs and their handlers at dogs’ graduation ceremony
2. Police dog handler Cam Dunn and Taco the dog being presented with graduation certificate
3. Close up Taco the dog
4. Handler and dog being presented with graduation certificate
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Cam Gunn, Police Dog Handler:
"Just his maturity level really has been his big thing. He gets quite easily distracted, you would have seen during the graduation that he looks around and he sees a lot of prey. He’s got high prey drive, so the squeaking and stuff sort of wound him up a fair bit. And then if he hasn’t got a way to release it, it seems to be his big thing. And with his distractibility comes just the ability to re-task him to do other things, well we’ve just finished one task, onto the next."
6. Dunn and Taco
7. Close up Taco
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Detective Constable Jessica Arthur, New Zealand Police:
"These dogs are bred to be working operational dogs, right. They’re not pets, so it’s quite a different mentality you have around them. Taco for one wasn’t allowed in my house unless he was invited, you know, so yeah, playtime is like very directed. He’s not allowed to have like, you know, freedom just to play with his toys whenever he wants.There’s always a purpose for it, you know, so the toy for the dog is the reward."
9. Close up puppy
10. Handler carrying dog
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Inspector Todd Southall, New Zealand’s National Coordinator Police Dogs:
"Here, we supply all the dogs to the Pacific, and we supply all the training, and then we do in-country support as well. It’s proved to be a very successful program, to the point where we’re getting increased demand for that capability in the Pacific. So, and it’s good for, you know, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island relationships too."
12. Police officers and New Zealand Defence Force soldiers with dogs standing in line
STORYLINE:
New Zealand’s newest law enforcement trainees were commissioned by the country’s police chief at a graduation ceremony Thursday.
But there were no badges presented.
The newest recruits were the four-legged kind – dogs trained for patrol and detection work in New Zealand’s police and military, and law enforcement agencies in the Pacific islands.
For these good boys and girls, their biggest challenge on graduation day was sitting still for pictures.
Among them was two-and-a-half-year-old Taco, who is the seventh police dog partner for dog handler Cam Gunn.
Taco was a little late graduating after early obstacles in maturity and focus held him back in the class.
"He gets quite easily distracted, you would have seen during the graduation that he looks around and he sees a lot of prey. He’s got high prey drive, so the squeaking and stuff sort of wound him up a fair bit," Dunn told the Associated Press at the graduation ceremony in Trentham.
Today’s cohort have undergone 37 weeks of training at the New Zealand Police Dog Training Center in Trentham, Upper Hutt, and in their home communities.
Some, like Taco, will join officers on patrol, while others will work in drug and explosive detection.
New Zealand’s Police have a breeding program at the dog training center, where a new litter of puppies, currently about eight weeks old, will shortly go out to foster homes.
When Taco was a puppy, he was sent to live with a foster mom, Detective Constable Jessica Arthur, who hadn’t raised a police dog before.
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