The South African Police Service K9 units converged onto the shores of the Nelson Mandela Metro for the National K9 competition.
The competition was divided into nine categories including tracker, narcotics detection, explosive detection, patrol dogs, search and rescue, protected species dogs, fire investigation, currency detection and biological fluid detection.
All nine provinces as well as the SAPS Divisions Operational Response Services, Protection and Security Services and Presidential Protection Services competed in this National K9 competition. This competition was a culmination of provincial competitions which were held over this past year after which nominations were made for the national competition.
This event offers a perfect opportunity to ensure that national standards are maintained as well as that the capacity and capabilities by both the K9 handler and dogs within the respective disciplines are enhanced. Such a competition also helps to enhance the welfare of the dogs through engaging our veterinary services. This platform further ensures that the health, fitness and social interaction with other dogs is also assessed.
The winners of the various categories have been announced at an awards ceremony on Friday at the Board Walk Casino Conference Centre.
The winners are as follows :-
Category 1 winners : Biological Body Fluid : W/O KS Siva and Odie(KZN), Narcotic Detection : Cst TC Shidzinga and Rex(Limpopo) and W/O CJ Claasen with Buddy (FS) , Fire Investigation : Capt H Alberts with Brutus(Mpumulanga) , Best Unit Commander : Lt Col N Singh (Johannesburg)
Category 2 winners : Explosive Detection : Sgt SA Morake with Zinzi (Gauteng) , Protected Species : Sgt RC Spannenberg with Gavin (EC)
Category 3 winners: Tracker Discipline : W/O PJ Engelbrecht with Buster(NW), Patrol Discipline : W/O V Haripersad with Fang(KZN), Search and Rescue : W/O J Potgieter with Ben(EC), Best Provincial PES Commander : Col V Moodley (EC)
Category 4 winners: Currency Detection: Sgt S Xaba with Erica(KZN), Best Provincial Team Spirit : Western Cape , Best Provincial Overall Winner : Eastern Cape, Best Provincial K9 and Mounted Unit : Lt Col D Van der Merwe (FS)
The K9 Unit is a critical component to our efforts in the prevention and combating of crime throughout the country. These units are most often in the frontline and exposed to potentially dangerous situations like tracking of serious offenders, during patrols and search and rescue operations.
The dogs have proven to be pivotal to the success of operations in a multitude of cases whereby the handlers on their own would never have been successful. Dogs have the ability to go into places that ordinarily a human being would not be able to, they have the ability to detect incriminating items or items with evidential value just by using their senses, etc,.
Therefore dogs are indispensable in the SAPS. However, the greatest challenge is soliciting dogs for the SAPS. We encourage breeders and the community at large to consider donating dogs between the age of 8 weeks and 7 months.
Only thorough bred dogs will be welcomed and the preferred breed of the dog can either be a German Shepard, Border Collie, Rottweiler, Golden Retriever, Jack Russel, Labrador, Dutch Shepard, Blood Hound or Cocker Spaniel. Donors may contact their nearest police station to facilitate the donation.
