Cassie comes home!

Like the famous Lassie, Cassie the Quarantine detector dog has come home.

Cassie, who did her first year of work at Darwin International Airport with handler Renee Strutt, has now returned to work with Darwin’s senior Detector Dog Handler, Duncan McIvor as a permanent replacement for his long-time pal Buzz. Buzz retired earlier this year after 10 years’ service.

Four-year-old Cassie is a well-travelled beagle with quite a long career with Quarantine. She was introduced to the program as a puppy in Brisbane and lived with a Quarantine officer until she was old enough to begin training at nine months. After eight weeks’ training she was teamed with Renee and posted to Darwin, where they worked together for a year before re-locating to Perth for a year. Cassie then did relief work at Sydney Airport for another year before her latest posting back to Darwin.

Cassie has already detected many times her own weight in prohibited imports. In an average month, a Quarantine detector dog will sniff out about 33 kilograms of fresh fruit and nine kilos of meat. Other seizures include eggs, live plants and plant cuttings.

Duncan, a noted bagpiper, assures us he doesn’t serenade his dogs — it’s a full-time job keeping their noses trained to enable their important work sniffing bags at Darwin International Airport. The dogs detect any Quarantine risk items such as fruit and meat that could bring exotic pests and diseases into Australia. 

A beagle’s nose is said to be 100 times more sensitive than a human’s, and they love to eat. They are trained to detect target odours by presenting them with food rewards.

 “Each dog has a different personality and works a little differently,” Duncan says. “After being teamed with Buzz for seven years in Darwin, I need to train myself to pick up on Cassie’s unique qualities so I can get the best out of her.”

AQIS beagles don’t target drugs, alcohol or explosives. They’re trained only to detect items of plant and animal origin that could pose a threat to Australia’s way of life, human and animal health and export industries.

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Media contact: Kay Carvan DAFF Media +61 2 6272 3232