A Tauranga dog patrol duo has secured a podium spot at the Australasian Police Dog Championships which wrapped up in Wellington last week.

Fifteen handlers and dogs from New Zealand, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Federal Police have been taking part in the event, in what has been a first for Trentham in 20 years.

Taking out the grand prize in the individual patrol dog championship has been South Australian Senior Constable Craig Charles and Ruger.

The pair delivered a polished performance over four days of intense competition, edging out Leading Senior Constable Heath Drew and Ike from Victoria Police.

Also in the category has included Western Bay of Plenty's Senior Constable Mark Chapman and Mario who finished in third place.

The win follows on the back of their success at the New Zealand Police Patrol dog championships where the four-year-old police dog and his handler were awarded the Frank Riley cup.

Following on their heels is Constable Elyse Lewis and Mist who finished in fourth, Victoria Police Leading Senior Constable Michelle Dench with Archer who finished in fifth, and New South Wales Senior Constable Michael Humphreys with Magnum finishing in sixth place.

Despite their respective lead in the individual competition the patrol team trophy was claimed from Mark and Elyse by Victoria Police.

The combined efforts of Michelle Dench with Archer and Heath Drew with Ike secured the team a 15 point lead.

Other awards include New Zealand Police's Senior Constable Chris Harris and Floyd from Auckland who won the narcotic detector dog title, adding to their New Zealand Police title won in September.

Senior Constable Shaun Hardwick and Nero from the Australian Federal Police won the explosives detector title.

Senior Constable Hamish Todd and E-Zak from Wellington Police were second in the explosives detector category, followed by Leading Senior Constable Justin Mickan and Ink from New South Wales and Leading Senior Constable Kath Koop and Puma from Victoria.

In the narcotics detector category, Senior Constable First Class Robert Poole and Kira from South Australia were runners up, followed by Senior Constable David Kotek and Rufus from New South Wales, Senior Constable Mathew Blow and Leo from the Australian Federal Police and Leading Senior Constable Peter Wilson and Flame from Victoria Police.
NZ Police dogs national coordinator Inspector Todd Southall says the standard of competition was extremely high across all categories.

'This is really encouraging for the development of dog sections in New Zealand and Australia and I congratulate the winning teams and all the competitors and officials who have supported the event. It's been a fantastic week.
'There's a lot of pride at stake whenever the championship is held,” he said. 'It's a great way to benchmark ourselves against one another, to see how each of our jurisdictions operate, build partnerships and have some keen rivalry at the same time.”
All of the exercise scenarios which tested the canine teams this week were based on the skills and decision making they need in their operational roles.