A major international conference on how best to handle working dogs is on in Wellington next week.
Police and the NZ Defence Force (NZDF) are hosting the working dog conference at Trentham, Upper Hutt, with internationally renowned Dutch dog trainer Dick Staal set to attend.
Seminars from Monday to Wednesday would focus on training and handling working dogs across a range of services.
About 170 people from the NZDF, NZ Police, the Australian Defence Force, Western Australia and Victoria Police, New Zealand Customs and more were set to attend the gathering.
"Dick Staal is one of the world's leading police and working dog trainers, and the opportunity to have him come and give us a glimpse into his training methodologies is invaluable," said Alan Inkpen, the NZDF's military working dog capability manager.
"We considered the benefits of sending NZDF personnel to one of his overseas courses, but realised it would be even more valuable to spread that training across multiple people and organisations by bringing Mr Staal here.
"Bringing all these organisations together hasn't been done before, so it will be an incredible opportunity to network and will be extremely valuable for all of us."
The training would be held in three fields — detection, tracking and puppy development.
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