Biosecurity dogs Spice and Lemon touch base with growers and farmers at Fieldays 2024

Fieldays visitor Mackenzie Basevi, 11, of Mangatāwhiri, meets Lemon the biosecurity puppy in the pavilion. Photo / Merle Cave

Scampering around the pavilion on leads, stopping and starting for new sights and smells, Spice and Lemon caught people’s attention constantly at Fieldays 2024.

They also caught much admiration, pats and thanks - not for their Mystery Creek visit but for their work at New Zealand’s border, keeping exotic pests and diseases from entering the country.

The day Coast & Country News roamed the pavilion it was the Ministry for Primary Industries’ biosecurity officers June Kim and Tim Chen’s turn to look after the 11-month-old pups.

“These are biosecurity dogs - they’re not quite yet assigned working dogs.

“They are puppies in training,” Kim said.

“From about eight weeks to one year, they go to our foster care – ‘puppy walkers’ we call them.

“We ask these families to socialise them, take them to the mall, train station etc to get them used to all different environments, being in a crowd and among lots of people.”

From 12 to 18 months old, the pups start initial training to become detector dogs - a 12-week course.

“That’s when we start training them with odours - so they’ll look for anything with fresh produce, like fruits, meat products, animal products, plants products - so seeds, bulbs, fresh flowers - anything like that,” Kim said.

Biosecurity dogs: Their workplace

The dogs will eventually work at three major sites - international airports, the NZ Post International Mail Centre in Auckland, and at ports around the country.

“At ports, when a cruise ship comes in the dogs clear passengers coming into New Zealand internationally to ensure there are no pests and exotic diseases.

“So insects like fruit flies, which would obviously impact our biosecurity and our environment - which is our horticulture and agricultural industries.”

While the dogs’ work is far removed from Kiwi orchards and farms, Kim said it was very important to those businesses.

“Definitely. So, we’re not a wall - it is a net.

“This means we cannot stop every single bug or every single disease coming through but with the dogs’ noses and scent, they catch the things we don’t that we miss through searching.

Biosecurity officers Tim Chen (left) with Lemon and June Kim (right) with Spice at the MPI stand at the Pavilion at Fieldays. Photo / Merle Cave

“We trust them to pick it up when people come through our borders.”

Once the dogs are 6 months old they undertake a trial at an airport.

“We see if they will travel the escalator, go through the crates and cope with the noise.

“If they pass, we bring them back at 1-year-old to test them again.

“If they pass, we put them through behavioural challenges to ensure they are good with noises, etc.

“So we’re constantly making sure they are used to the environment so we’re not putting too much stress on them.

“If the dogs are good - then we train them as biosecurity dogs.”

Why this breed?

Why beagles?

“They are very food-driven - they’ll do anything for food.

“They are high-energy and their size ensures the public is not too sacred to be approached by a beagle with a friendly face. So they’re a perfect fit for us [at MPI’s biosecurity team].”

What did farmers, growers and other agricultural and horticultural people flowing through the pavilion think of the dogs? Did they know how important their work is to protect their industries and livelihoods?

“We’ve taken to them everywhere at Fieldays and they do recognise they are biosecurity dogs,” Kim said.

“At first, they think they’re drug dogs - but as soon as we tell them they’re biosecurity dogs they are like: ‘Oh, fruit dogs, food dogs’.

“Especially those who have links to Zespri and New Zealand’s horticulture industry - they know the importance of having these dogs.

“And they do play a big part - even though we don’t work alongside each other the growers and farmers do know their work does impact their industries.”

This article was originally published in Coast & Country News