A well-earned rest is in store for recently-retired detector dog Abbey. Abbey started her career in 2002, working as an 'active response' dog at the Sydney International Mail Centre, where she detected more than 300 items of quarantine risk.

Her potential was realised when she was redeployed as a 'passive response' detector dog and sent north to work in the Brisbane International Airport for several years, before heading to Adelaide International Airport in 2007.

Passive response dogs are trained to sit when they find a target odour, such as fruit or meat, and await a food reward from their handler. They generally work around the public. Active response dogs are trained to dig in response to items that contain a target odour, and are rewarded with food or a game of tug-of-war when they find quarantine material. Active response dogs generally work at mail centres (AQIS) and for private courier operations.

During her career as a passive detector dog, Abbey sniffed almost a million passengers over 5,700 flights, resulting in 3,280 seizures, including 98 on-body detections. Highlights in her career include multiple Quarantine Infringement Notices and four prosecutions.

On her last working day at Adelaide airport, Abbey's handler, Matthew Huddy, was asked a very common question by two young travellers: 'Can we pat the dog?'. Usually the response would have been a polite 'no'. But given that Abbey had completed her last flight, Matthew granted the lucky travellers their wish.

Abbey has now put up her paws—at the Canberra home of her first handler.