Touring judges honour top dogs

By CPL Damian Shovell

Air Commodore Greg Evans and the RAAF Richmond dog section with the Lady Hannah Trophy.

Leading Aircraftman Craig Westendorf with Riggs, the top dog award winner.

Father of the police dog mustering Bill Perrett presents the Perrett Trophy to Leading Aircraftman Ben Geurts, who teamed with Salem to claim the prize.

Photos by LAC Mark McConnell and LAC Allan Cooper

THE top Military Working Dogs (MWD), teams and sections have been recognised by an assessment team that toured the country to judge them.

Among the awards presented were two recently reintroduced trophies — the Lady Hannah Trophy for best section, and the Bill Perrett trophy for best dog and handler team.

Sergeant Ian Cooper, MWD Operational Cell RAAF Base Richmond, said his section was pleased with the Lady Hannah trophy that recognises the high performance, operational deployability, administration, and overall readiness of his section.

“The award is a credit to the entire section, and recognises the hard work and excellent performance of all section members,” he said.

Leading Aircraftman Ben Geurts and his MWD Salem, of RAAF Base Pearce, took out this year’s Bill Perrett Trophy as the best in a field consisting of two teams from each of the nine MWD operation cells.

“I am proud of my achievements, but with dogs it really depends on their performance on the day,” he said. “I think there are 10-15 dogs in the RAAF that could have won the trophy.”

This year the assessment team decided to award a trophy for the best individual performance by a MWD, which MWD Riggs from RAAF Base Amberley took home. MWD Riggs continued to clean up during the competition when he and his handler, Leading Aircraftman Craig Westendorf, won both the ADF and RAAF biathlon trophies, which are awarded to the winning ADF and RAAF participants in the Police and Service Association Queensland biathlon.

LAC Westendorf said that although he was pleased with both wins, and that the entrants provided good competition, he was disappointed with this year’s absence of an Army team because operational commitments.

“Five RAAF teams competed against entrants from the police, customs, correctional and quarantine departments, which made for a great day of competitions and interaction between professional working dogs and their handlers,” he said.

“The timed biathlon consisted of an obstacle course for the dog, and a 4km run with obstacles for both the dog and handler.”

LAC Westendorf said that the training program that he had implemented for Riggs and himself earlier in the year, which had centred on a lot of after hours work, had provided all the preparation they had required for the events.

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