Q&A: Amy Mua, MPI Detector Dog Handler

What does the dog handler training involve?

It’s an intensive process that takes three months. We start in the training room and move on to onsite training. We do exams on animal welfare; we learn about target odour and animal behaviour. The dogs are normally learning while the handlers are learning. For them, pre-training is six weeks before the handler course starts, so the dogs are already picking up the basics.

We also have to learn how to move, which is weirdly the hardest part. You use very different muscles! We do things like ‘pivoting in’ which is almost unnatural. At the beginning there’s a lot of falling over – I’m not the most graceful person! But once you get it right it becomes this fluid dance.

Why do you need to move like that?

If you’re just walking up and down it’s not engaging for the dogs. We move our bodies to encourage them to go up and sniff the right places. You want to keep it interesting and direct them but without being prescriptive. Those movements also help us work around all the obstacles – the passengers, the trolleys – so they all get coverage.  

When did Ally start working as a detector dog?

Ally has an interesting history. She was featured on the first season of the TV show Dog Squad: Puppy School. Then she worked as a BMSB dog (trained to detect the brown marmorated stink bug). Just before I joined the programme she was training to become an Ag dog, so she has learned to pick up all the standard target odours for meat, fruit and plants. She has amazing trainability.

What makes a good detector dog?

Food drive – they really want to get that biscuit. And they have to be very stubborn. For example, one day at the airport we had a gentleman who told me that he’d had some jerky several hours earlier. He was adamant that was all he’d had. When I said to Ally ‘let’s go,’ she just went ‘nope’ and dug in. So, I had his bag searched and they found a mandarin. Ally knew. 

How do you work with the dogs?

When they’re training they progress through different types of boxes and bags, starting open and then closing them to make it harder and harder for the dog to find things. We’re always introducing different odours and gradually increasing the difficulty of tasks. Even a dog that’s been working for five years will still be learning. They might know an odour already, but it’s up to us as handlers to make sure we’re keeping them on their toes. If we see that they’re finding more of one thing and less of another, we’ll work on developing those other areas.

Odours come and go. A while ago we were getting lots of flowers off island flights and cruise ships, but staff are getting better at reminding people not to bring their leis back with them. So now we don’t get them as often, but it’s still really important that the dogs will still pick up on those odours by introducing them as targets. 

What does a typical day look like for you?

We pick up our dogs from the kennels and bring them to the airport where we start processing people. Later in the day we might be deployed to different sites. We go to the port to make sure no-one is bringing any food off cruise ships. We can be on mail, checking the letters and parcels at NZ Post. We normally finish the day at the airport again, then bring the dog back to the kennels, give them dinner and put them to bed.

Has Ally found any unusual things?

There was a lady who had this really beautiful designer handbag, the kind that you envy a little bit. It was very small. Ally stopped on that, and I thought to myself ‘what on earth could you fit in there?’ But she’d put her child’s cheeseburger into her very nice designer handbag and forgotten about it. The weirdest part was that her passports were also in there! She would’ve gone in and out of that bag a dozen times and somehow not noticed the cheeseburger. 

What do you enjoy most about your role?

Biosecurity New Zealand has many layers of defence but detector dogs are really layer number one. Being that first layer is a huge responsibilty. It’s amazing being able to protect our land and our environment that we all care so deeply about.

But on a more personal level, seeing your dog achieve success is one of the best feelings in the world. I get so proud of her and the work we do. Whenever she finds something I think ‘oh, good girl, you’ve done it!’ Of course I’ve got to keep cool when I’m working, but in my head I’m doing a celebration dance. I will admit to doing a little skip afterwards.

Not many people are lucky enough to get to do this and every one of us handlers keeps that perspective. We work really hard and the days can be very long; you have to be so, so resilient. But when I walk through the airport and hear people saying ‘you’ve got the best job in the world!’ I bank those comments and I think, ‘yeah, I do.’