11/10/2026
RAGNAR: A POWERFUL DRIVE. A NEW PURPOSE. š¾ K9 Intervention
Ragnar, when we brought you home from Cāest La Vie Malinois in Wellington on 1 February 2026, you were just eight weeks old. A son of Bolo and Scuba, you arrived with a future we were excited to help shape.
Now, at ten months old, you are giving us plenty to smile aboutš
You have done exceptionally well in your bite and protection development training. Your enthusiasm for work is clear, and your obedience has taken shape beautifully.
There is still work ahead, of course. You are a young dog, learning how to manage your energy, listen through excitement and work alongside your handler. And now, your nose has a new assignment.
DETECTION PHASE
We have started your second journey into narcotics detection, giving that busy mind another challenge and your energy a more measured outlet. This chapter will ask you to search with purpose, concentrate and communicate a discovery through stillness. For a youngster who loves action, the latter is quite an assignment!
PHOTOS TELLS A STORY
These photographs capture day one. ā¢ One container.
ā¢ One young Malinois.
ā¢ One new lesson to understand.
At this stage, we are helping you learn what to do at the container: settle into a down position and offer the passive response we want to develop.
Eventually, that calm indication must communicate something very specific to your handler: āThis is where I have located the target odour.ā
EARLY DAYS
For now, we celebrate the beginning. Lying down beside a container is a foundation to build on, and you have given us an encouraging first day.
Over the next six weeks, we plan to dedicate approximately three hours a day, five days a week, to your development. That is around 90 hours set aside for the journey, including short training sessions, play, rest, preparation and review. You will have time to recover and enjoy being a young dog, too.
WEEK 1
During your first week, we will keep your lessons clear and rewarding. We want you to understand the response we are asking for and approach the work with confidence. Small successes will matter.
WEEK 2
In week two, our aim will be to strengthen the connection between the target odour and your passive indication. As your understanding develops, we will look for a response that becomes more deliberate and needs less help from us.
WEEK 3
By week three, we hope to see you making clearer choices. Your task will gradually become more than approaching a familiar container. We want you to use your nose, work through the exercise and communicate what you actually find.
WEEK 4
In week four, if your progress supports it, we will begin widening your experience. Carefully introduced changes of setting and distractions will give you opportunities to carry your learning beyond the familiar training space.
WEEK 5
During week five, we will focus on consistency and teamwork. Your handler will be learning alongside you: watching your behaviour, recognising changes in your search and giving you room to work without answering the question for you.
WEEK 6
And in week six, we will take an honest look at the foundations we have built together.
ā¢ What do you understand confidently?
ā¢ What still needs patient repetition? ā¢ Where are you ready for a new challenge?
POSITIVE ABOUT YOUR FUTURE
Your progress will guide that decision. Six weeks will be a milestone in your development, with further training and assessment ahead.
Ragnar, your first day has left us excited about what you may achieve. You appear eager to learn, and we believe you have the potential to take to this work quickly.
Our responsibility is to give that potential time, structure and patient guidance. There will be days when everything clicks and days when we return to a simpler lesson. We will be there for both.
For now, you are ten months old, lying beside a container, beginning to discover that sometimes the most useful thing you can do after finding something is to become very still.
We are proud of how far you have come, Ragnar. Letās see what you and that nose can learn next.
Team K9 Intervention š¾
