Boston walks in Chuck’s pawprints

NSW Police last week captured notorious fugitive Malcolm Naden with the assistance of Police Dog ‘Chuck’, bringing to an end a seven-year manhunt.
Dogs like Chuck are invaluable assets to the law enforcement community and locals and visitors to Stanthorpe can now see some of the training law enforcement dogs undergo every day these school holidays.
The Lawdogs Australia dog show will soon be heading indoors with a new training arena due for completion for the Easter school holidays next week. The arena will boast new agility equipment, synthetic grass surface and a safety fenced public seating area.
Owner/Manager Matthew Hibberd said he had researched for months a practical design that would minimise noise to neighbours, be warm yet still have ample ventilation and be safe and comfortable for guests to see the dog show.
Lawdogs Australia is a privately owned working dog training kennel that offers the public a behind the scenes experience to see future law enforcement dogs training in a one-hour package that showcases everything from puppies to fully trained protection and detection dogs.
Visitors to Lawdogs Australia can see dogs barking on command, biting and holding their trainers and finding hidden contraband. The line-up of dogs changes too, as dogs graduate and new dogs begin their training.
“We have exciting new arrivals for the Easter school holidays including a new eight-week-old German Shepherd puppy named Boston who is starting out his training adventure; and numerous Belgium Shepherds from different backgrounds that we are assessing for patrol work,” Mr Hibberd said.
“The Belgium Shepherds are used in America by the Navy Seal Paratroopers and one was dropped in with the team that caught Osama Bin Laden, so we are very excited to source one here for our show.”
See the dogs in action and even try and stump a detection dog every Wednesday and Saturday at 11am and 2pm. Lawdogs Australia is open to the public every day of the school holidays at 335 Church Road, The Summit.