Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Sergeant Steven Dalrymple and Senior Constable Matthew Houghagen say Patrol Dogs like Drax are 'priceless' resources in the NT

Transcript

Sergeant Steven Dalrymple and Senior Constable Matthew Houghagen say Patrol Dogs like Drax are 'priceless' resources in the NT · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And it does seem like the Dog Operations Unit have
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: been deployed a lot recently, arresting a prison ESKP this
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: week as well as a group of offenders in Berry
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Springs in relation.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: To a car theft.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I believe there was another incident as well where the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Dog Operations Unit were of assistance and an offender ended
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: up being.
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  Speaker 2: Caught on the roof of a of a home.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio right now to talk
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a little bit more about the Dog Option Unit and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the wonderful work that they are doing.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Is Sergeant Stephen Dalrymple, Good morning to you.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Morning, lovely to have you in the studio, and of
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  Speaker 1: course Senior Constable Matthew Hohagen, good morning to you.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: And we have also got patrol dog Dras. Good morning Drags.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if he's going to uh, it's not
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  Speaker 2: going to talk for me, is he?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 2: There we go. Good morning to Dras.
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  Speaker 1: I tell you what to those out there listening this morning,
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  Speaker 1: Drax is an absolutely beautiful looking dog.
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  Speaker 2: He's glorious, Stephen. Is he a German Shepherd, isn't he?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Yes?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a very large German shepherd. And I tell
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  Speaker 1: you what I would not want to be on the
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  Speaker 1: wrong side of drax.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: No, not many do, now, can you both.
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  Speaker 1: I know that there's been quite a few situations where
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  Speaker 1: the patrol dogs have been required in recent days and weeks,
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  Speaker 1: I mean ongoing, like it's something that they are obviously
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: doing all the time, catching criminals and catching those that
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: are doing.
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  Speaker 2: The wrong thing. But this week or the last week
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  Speaker 2: or so, it seems as though it's been a really
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  Speaker 2: busy one for our patrol dogs and for you guys
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  Speaker 2: of late.
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  Speaker 4: I think it's been busy all year pretty much realistically.
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  Speaker 4: Now that we've got three patrol dogs operating in Down
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  Speaker 4: there's drags, there's Wedge, and now Daily, I think we
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: come to attention because we're out there more and more,
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  Speaker 4: whereas previously we were struggling for numbers and things like that.
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  Speaker 3: We've got another fellow that's due to graduate.
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  Speaker 4: In September with Arnie. Yep, he should be out in
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  Speaker 4: the road come mid September.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we'll have a full compliment of four of us.
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  Speaker 2: Is Arnie a big units Daily's brother?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so similar size.
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  Speaker 1: And now Daily's just sort of just graduated or just
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  Speaker 1: finished training.
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  Speaker 2: Tell us about his training.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us what he had to do to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to get to the point where he is out there
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  Speaker 1: apprehending offenders.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, it's been a long, a long process. You
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  Speaker 5: had him from eight weeks of age and he's now
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  Speaker 5: just over eighteen months and he's h hit the ground
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  Speaker 5: run and so it's been the best part of two
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  Speaker 5: years and we're both just super excited to be able
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  Speaker 5: to get out there and actually contribute to our team
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  Speaker 5: and also to the community.
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  Speaker 2: And it's amazing work.
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  Speaker 1: The work that you guys as handlers and also the
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  Speaker 1: dogs do incredibly helpful. I would suspect, you know, say,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: when Strikeforce Trident is working to apprehend you know, people
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: around property offenses, and sometimes it can be a little
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  Speaker 1: bit difficult if those offenders try to escape.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Correct, So as ERIONA has tried and as there go
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: to properly offending team, they look after most of you
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  Speaker 4: or all your unlawful entries and your most of the
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  Speaker 4: cars that are stolen around and there's been quite a
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  Speaker 4: few of them, especially the highlux riety in the Langres
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  Speaker 4: variety of late.
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  Speaker 3: We generally work.
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  Speaker 4: Arm in arm with them or HANDI Paul, Yeah, let's
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  Speaker 4: call it and when people are on the run, you know,
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  Speaker 4: we do whatever we can to try and apprehend them
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  Speaker 4: and bring them forward.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, we'd heard a little bit earlier
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  Speaker 1: in the week, or I think it was yesterday a
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  Speaker 1: situation where I think it might have been Wedge who'd
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  Speaker 1: been instrumental in helping to offend or to apprehended offender
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  Speaker 1: who'd ended up up on a roof. The handler, I
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  Speaker 1: think ended up having to obviously apprehend that person, but
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  Speaker 1: very much with the assistance of Wedge.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: That's correct, That's correct.
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  Speaker 4: By the time the handler actually you put the dog
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  Speaker 4: in the down and he climbed up to see whether
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  Speaker 4: anyone was on the roof as he was going up
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  Speaker 4: the roof, they were coming down the roof, and then
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  Speaker 4: they tracked him across the road towards a bowling club
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  Speaker 4: and located to very scared little people.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this is the thing, you know, the dogs they
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: are amazing dogs. You know, they're glorious looking dogs. But
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  Speaker 1: once they turn it on, they certainly know how.
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  Speaker 2: To do their work.
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  Speaker 1: Like, how difficult is it in terms of that training.
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  Speaker 1: Because it's something I've spoken to you guys about before,
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  Speaker 1: where in years gone by, the police dogs sort of
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: weren't so friendly when you know, when they are out
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  Speaker 1: and about. Whereas it can see from drags this morning,
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  Speaker 1: he's happy as to be in here in the studio.
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  Speaker 1: But then once it comes time to actually, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to apprehend someone, I'm assuming that his personality changes to
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  Speaker 1: some degree.
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  Speaker 3: Our methodology has changed significantly.
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  Speaker 4: We used to have the land sharks is what they
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  Speaker 4: used to call them, which would go and by and
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  Speaker 4: anything any time.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 4: That doesn't really instill any confidence in the community because
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  Speaker 4: everyone sees you are scared of you and things like that.
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  Speaker 3: We're not about scaring people and things like that.
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  Speaker 4: We're just about taking people into custody as safely as
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  Speaker 4: you can.
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  Speaker 1: Now, can you tell me what's it like being a
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  Speaker 1: handler of these dogs? Do you have to be super fit?
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  Speaker 1: Have you got to be able to run with them.
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  Speaker 2: To keep up.
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  Speaker 3: Because I'm carrying a couple of.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, there is certainly a level of fitness that you
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  Speaker 5: have to maintain, and you have to keep up with
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  Speaker 5: the dogs, and you don't want them getting away from you,
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  Speaker 5: that's for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, Drax has got a green toy there. What
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  Speaker 2: is that?
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  Speaker 3: That's his tug?
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  Speaker 4: That's his reward for the ultimate reward for him will
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: be that yep, as opposed to previously. It might be
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: a bit during an apprehension and things like that, but
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, he loves a game
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: with me and this toy.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Now, how valuable are the three police dogs that we've
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: got in terms of being able to do your jobs?
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  Speaker 3: Priceless?
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, Well, that's a little bit of vice there, but
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  Speaker 4: as far as i'm can turn, their priceless because they
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: can de escalate a violent situation pretty quickly. As we
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: saw with Hoagues and daily to day there was that
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: eskp not saying that he was violent towards us at all,
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  Speaker 4: but he's attitude quickly changed from wanting to run away
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  Speaker 4: to I'll be submissive because of and simply because the
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: dog was presented.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we've spoken before as well about that incredible
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: situation where there was an elderly woman who'd been lost
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: near the waterfront. This was a year or so ago now,
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  Speaker 1: and I believe it was Widge who'd helped to find her. So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, not even just in apprehending people, but the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: search and rescue so skills I would imagine as well
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  Speaker 1: are quite amazing.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the dogs are very good at what we do
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  Speaker 4: or what they do. Sorry, we spent a lot of
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: time training and things like that. So they just with
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  Speaker 4: the dog with the correct amount of drive, it actually
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  Speaker 4: ends up being relatively easy. So yeah, probably taking credit
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  Speaker 4: for something that is a natural.
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  Speaker 1: No, I mean, obviously they do require a lot of training,
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  Speaker 1: how like, So it takes about eighteen months really to
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: train them to get to this point.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it depends again on the maturity of the dog.
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  Speaker 4: Arnie's a little bit slow with his maturity to Daily.
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  Speaker 4: That's why Daily is out in the road now. So
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  Speaker 4: you've got to recognize what the dog is putting out
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  Speaker 4: and what is capable of the time. Because the other
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  Speaker 4: thing is you don't want to throw a young dog
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  Speaker 4: into a situation that is going to overwhelm him and
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  Speaker 4: have him have an adverse reaction from the dog where
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  Speaker 4: he goes.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, you know what, I don't want to work anymore.
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  Speaker 3: This is not my thing.
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  Speaker 4: And especially if you're at that eighteen month mark or
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: twenty month mark, now that Matt's out in the road,
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  Speaker 4: if he comes across the situation, he might have to
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  Speaker 4: de escalated by removing himself from the situation so that
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  Speaker 4: there's no adverse reaction to the dog.
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  Speaker 1: And what is the working life span of our police dogs.
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  Speaker 4: We try and get five years of working life out
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  Speaker 4: of the dog. It's very difficult to climatic conditions up here,
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  Speaker 4: so you find history has shown us that we don't
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: generally get that.
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  Speaker 3: The only one that we've had working here from go
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  Speaker 3: to way was Lupo. Yeah, my old dog.
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  Speaker 4: He's still going luckily enough, but yeah, he got six
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  Speaker 4: years of working life.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they work incredibly hard. What a good boy.
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  Speaker 2: Drax is being over there, Hey, just sitting keeping an
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: eye on you, Matthew, making sure that everyone's saving. Now,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: tell me, do the dogs have a special diet?
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  Speaker 3: Black book is without selling the brand, but that's pretty
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  Speaker 3: much what were dogs shoreing?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yep.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Well, we really appreciate you bringing Dracs in this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you all work incredibly hard, but so
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the dog in it. At the moment, three three of
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  Speaker 1: our patrol dogs, but that's going to increase to four, correct, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: amazing stuff. I think the work they do is amazing.
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  Speaker 1: I think the training that happens now as well, the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: way that they're able to interact with the community, when
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: they're not sort of you know, switched on to apprehending
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: someone is phenomenal. You know, the way that he can
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: just come in here, be friendly with everybody, then when
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: he's got to do his job, he knows he's got
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: to do his job. It's amazing stuff. Thank you so
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: much to all three of you for coming in this morning.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Stephen Dalrymple of course, and Senior Constable Matthew ho
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: haagen Bush also patrol dog Drax. Thank you so much
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: for being in the studio with us this morning.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: It is just after ten thirty, and we will make
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: sure that we get a photo with Drags as well,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: because I know all of you probably wanting to see Drax.