How to become a Customs Detector Dog handler

To become a Customs detector dog handler you need to be fit and healthy. Good handlers are also quick thinking and agile and possess a strong work ethic with the ability to work to tight deadlines with little or no supervision.

From time to time Customs will advertise for people like this to become trainee detector dog handlers. Advertisements for these positions will appear in the Commonwealth Government Gazette, Customs website (under careers, recruitment) and/or national newspapers. Information as to how to access the application kits will be contained in the advertisement.

Applicants are short-listed and successful applicants sit a psychometric test. When the results of these tests are received, the remaining successful applicants undergo fitness assessment (details of which can be downloaded from the Customs website) and a face-to-face interview. Out of this process an order of merit will be established and successful applicants will be offered positions on the next available course.

The basic handlers course is a live-in 13-week course in Canberra at the Customs Detector Dog Training Centre. The course is intensive and physically demanding, with trainee handlers having to pass three formal assessments. Once the course is completed, applicants go back to their home regions whereby they receive further training under the guidance of experienced senior handlers.

After three months of this guidance, trainee handlers go back to Canberra for a final two-week assessment period and, if successful, they graduate as Customs Detector Dog Handlers.