From wags to riches for Tasman the drug detecting superdog

Three years ago, she was leading a life of crime, stealing tennis balls from a court in Blenheim and mastering the game catch me if you can.

Now, a stray, cross-breed saved from a life of homelessness has overcome a stroke to become one of the country’s best drug dogs.

Tasman never thought her life would lead her to serving her country, as a Wellington District Police Facebook post explains.

Then living under the name Banjo, she belonged to no-one and knew no-body when she was eventually caught and taken to a pound.

There, she was given a seven-day death sentence.

But something unique about this brown and white pooch gave her a D-day extension and that’s when the police dog handlers received the call.

The pound explained they had a stray who seemed to have the qualities of a detector dog, but she wasn’t what the force was used to.

All currently serving police detector dogs are either labradors or shepherds.

Put through some simple drills the police took her on the spot and she was later flown to the police Dog Training Centre at Trentham, Upper Hutt.

At the same time, Senior constable Matthew Fage was about to begin a nine-week drug course. He would be partnered with a new dog after his last working companion suddenly died.

Fage was asked to train a German shepherd and Banjo who was set for a future in Rarotonga as a drug detection dog.

Training wasn’t smooth sailing but Banjo was meeting her targets. In the end, she ran rings around the other dog, graduated, and Fage decided to take her on.

She needed a name and Fage settled on ‘‘Tasman’’ – Tas for short – as a reminder to her beginnings in Blenheim and as a token of support to the Tasman Makos.

Having been a dog handler for 19 years, working with German shepherds, Fage said the pair received some sideways glances. Colleagues would tease, ‘‘It’s not bring your pet to work day’’.

‘‘Tasman is a little bit different,’’ he said on the Facebook post.

She’s a real character with a zest

"She's well-loved now ... but it's very sad to know what she potentially went through in her past life." Senior constable Matthew Fage

for life but Fage could tell she was a victim of abuse.

‘‘[For] some of our commands, we raise our hands and the sight of that used to make Tasman cower and urinate herself as she thought that she was about to get hit.

‘‘She’s well-loved now and grown out of it but it’s very sad to know what she potentially went through in her past life.’’

Tasman had only been working with the police for under a year when she became paralysed one morning, dragging her back legs.

‘‘I let her out of her kennel one morning, I went inside to make a coffee and when I came back outside I found her.’’

Fage rushed her to the vet who weren’t sure what had gone wrong. It turned out Tasman had suffered a stroke of the spinal cord and there is no cure.

But there’s hope that in time she will overcome her disability. The movement in her right leg came back about an hour after Tasman’s stroke.

With a lot of dedication and care, Tasman is on the mend. Her left leg now 90 per cent functional and she was missing her work finding drugs and money after just six weeks.

She’s now been working for several years in searches not possible without her savvy wits and, of course, her nose.

Last September, Tasman and Fage were selected to compete at the NZ police dog’s national trials where the top two detector dogs from the police, customs and corrections compete for the title as the best drug dog in the country.

‘‘We placed second.’’

Fage said his little, brown and white stray had come a long away.

‘‘I have absolutely loved every minute of being her handler.’’

Tasman is now only non-pedigree New Zealand police dog as all other dogs are either German shepherds or labradors.