About Kenson K9 Solutions

Tracey Peterson

Tracey joined the South African Police Service in 1990 and after completing her basic Police training, was placed at the Roodeplaat Police Dog Training and Breeding Centre where she was involved with the development and training of young police dogs. 

She went on to attend and successfully complete her basic Dog Handlers Course between September 1992 to January 1993. 

In November 1994 Tracey was the first ever female South African Police Officer to attend and qualify the Narcotic Dog Handlers Course, successfully completing it in February 1995. 

Having found her passion working with police K9s in active deployment, Tracey was nominated and selected to attend the Narcotic Dog Instructors Course between April 1995 to July 1995. After successful completion of the course, Tracey became the first female Police officer to graduate as a Narcotic Dog Instructor in the South African Police Service. 

Between August 1995 and May 1999, Tracey trained numerous handlers and dogs in Narcotic Detection. During this four-year period, she was also involved in the training of ivory, rhino horn, abalone, arson, gold dust and semen detection dogs and handlers. 

After leaving the Police in June 1999, Tracey joined a private company where she was in charge of training narcotic, explosive, and mine detection dogs. 

In July 2007, Tracey went to Kabul, Afghanistan, where trained mine detection dog teams and was the first female dog trainer in Afghanistan.

In June 2008 she joined Vigilant Canine Services International, an American based company in Kabul, employed as the in-country dog and handler trainer. She was responsible for the training, certification, and deployment of explosive and narcotic detection dog teams throughout the country.

Tracey also developed detection training programmes and standard operational procedures. 

In October 2009 she was selected as the Project Manager of the K9 Section at Kabul International Airport and the Kandahar International Airport, handling narcotic and explosive detection dogs at the airport.

Tracey was also responsible for the training, re-evaluation, and deployment of the narcotic and explosive detection handlers and dogs.

In 2014, Tracey moved to New Zealand and established Kenson K9 Solutions Ltd.

She started training truffle detection dogs and enjoyed meeting and working with various truffiere’s throughout the North Island. During this time, Tracey and her team trained narcotic and explosive detection dogs for the New Zealand and Australian Armies.

After hearing about a scentwork competition that was being held in Wellington by Central Search Dogs, she was immediately interested and arranged to go and observe. Rob and Tracey entered one of the first scent work trials in New Zealand in 2018 and have been hooked ever since. 

Tracey has trained several teams in scent work since 2018, known as the “KENSON KREW” who have been and continue to be very successful in both SSANZ and Dogs NZ trials. 

In addition to being a judge for both SSANZ and Dogs NZ, Tracey has developed online scent work courses, presented many workshops in both the North and South Islands, as well as providing in-person group and one-to-one training and consultation for handlers wanting to excel at this popular sport. 

A few photos of dogs past and present

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