Hagar thanked for drug work

A Bunbury dog has been honoured for six years of drug detection with a canine service medal.

Hagar, a labrador who spent six years working at Bunbury Regional Prison, was one of eight dogs from across the State acknowledged at a ceremony in Perth last week.

He is now retired and a replacement drug detection dog, Blade, is working at the prison.

To be eligible for the canine service medal, a dog must spend at least five continuous years at either a State or Federal government department.

Drug Detection Unit operations coordinator Gail Raven said Hagar had been highly regarded by his handler and played an important role at the prison.

“Hagar was an easy dog to work with as he was bold and nothing much fazed him,” Ms Raven said.

“He had an exceptional hunt drive and some quite affectionate antics as well.”

Hagar’s handler, who cannot be named for security reasons, said the labrador was an engaging character with a weakness for cake, often taking a piece and pretending he had not eaten it.

Ms Raven said about 70 per cent of a drug detection dog’s work was spent searching visitors and prisoners and the remainder on area searches.

She described dogs as a “mass screening tool” that could speed up the drug detection process, particularly when there were restrictions around the lengths of visits.

“If we are specifically looking for drugs, the dogs are a mass screening tool then we can send search teams to concentrate on specific areas,” Ms Raven said.

“They speed up the process and this means we can cover a lot more ground.”