07/01/2020
In
Custodial Operations, Excellence, North Coast Region, Our people
An unlikely story about the working rottweiler keeping our prisons safe
When we talk about our general purpose dogs, most people think of German shepherds and malinois – but did you know we’ve had a working rottweiler keeping our prisons safe?
Twelve year old Jed retired in 2017, but he served to protect Queensland for six years at the Woodford Correctional Centre.
His handler, John, told us about Jed’s unlikely story and his achievements as one of the state’s highest performing dogs.
It all started with the trial. There was a shortage of German shepherd puppies so QCS flew two eight week old Rottweiler puppies up from Melbourne to start their training – and as fate would have it, one was assigned to John.
Unfortunately after eight months, QCS decided to return the pups to the breeder when other dogs became available instead.
John’s family were heartbroken that things hadn’t worked out – so after two days with the breeder in Melbourne, he bought the puppy and had him flown back to Brisbane for his wife.
Three years passed with Jed now the loving family pet, and John’s working GP dog sadly developed a career-ending spinal disease.
John had been maintaining Jed’s training over the years and with another shortage of dogs at the time, offered to donate Jed as a working dog – on the condition that he could retire with John.
Jed served from 4 November 2011 to 26 May 2017 and came in as one of the top 10 dogs in the state every year for his training accreditation.
With management true to their word, Jed retired to live with John and his wife, and these days he enjoys a life of leisure.
“Sometimes we’ll sit on the back deck and have a chip with dip. Funny thing is, in his retirement he’s now got such a taste for the finer things in life, he won’t eat the chip without the dip anymore,” says John.
We don’t blame Jed, he’s not an animal! Enjoy your retirement, Jed – thank you for your service!
