South Wairarapa Rebus Club
The South Wairarapa Rebus Club next meets on Friday 22 March to hear Denise and Dougal MacKenzie of Te Rakau Birding describe their environmental restoration project at Ocean Beach. The following Friday, 29 March, we have chartered a bus to take us to see the project, followed by lunch at the Lake Ferry pub.
At our February meeting Jim Field entertained a fascinated audience with stories from his extensive experience as a police dog handler. His start with dogs was laying trails for police dogs during training sessions, having met up with three handlers over a beer. Once he had passed his permanent appointment exam, taken after the end of an extensive probationary period, he “applied for a pup” and was accepted for training. Handlers got their dogs at three months of age and spent nine months socialising them. At one year of age they were taken to the police dog training centre in Trentham for a 13 week training period. After graduating as a team, Jim and his first dog, Voss, were posted initially to Palmerston North. He was later the first police dog handler to be based in Masterton. He had three dogs during his 13 years as a handler. With his third dog, Rhys, he still holds the record for the number of arrests in a year, 97, more than twice as many as the next highest total. Today Rhys stands mounted in the Police Museum, complete with tracking harness and in tracking pose. … Continue Reading
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