Just three months after being deployed in the Pilbara, Western Australia's first dual general purpose and narcotics dog has rounded up armed offenders, domestic violence perpetrators, drink drivers and illegal drugs.
And there could be as many as seven more dogs just like him on the way soon, as WA Police revamp the way it trains their invaluable canines.
Maygar became the very first dual general purpose and narcotics police dog to join the force earlier this year.
He arrived in the Pilbara with his handler - First Class Constable Tom Gryta - in September.
He is believed to be one of the first police dogs of his kind in the country.
This is because most police dogs are either general purpose, or narcotic detector dogs.
Maygar has been trained to do both, and so far, he is nailing it.
The 20-month old Belgian Malinois is based in Port Hedland, but has also been deployed operationally to Newman, Karratha and Exmouth.
He is attending in excess of 30 jobs per week.
Just last month he helped disperse a large crowd of people fighting at the South Hedland shopping precinct.
Several weeks ago he was deployed when a car failed to stop for police, and the driver drove into bushland on the outskirts of South Hedland.
All occupants - 10 in total - fled in various directions into thick bush.
Maygar managed to find all of them.
Police say this would have otherwise taken a large number of officers, with potentially limited success.
Port Hedland Police Station Sergeant Jayd Morawski confirmed Maygar had also been used "successfully" to search targeted road, air, mail and port drug transit routes. More anti-drug operations are planned soon.
"The results he's achieved to date have spoken volumes about the success a dog team can have in regional Western Australia," Sergeant Morawski said.
"The local teams of officers from Port Hedland and South Hedland Police Stations have been working hard and have had great success in recent times in reducing the number of burglaries, vehicle thefts and assaults.
"The addition of Tom and Maygar to the local cohort enhances our policing capabilities and our capacity to detect and deter crime."
Senior Sergeant Glen Potter, head of Mounted and Canine Operations, described Maygar as a dynamic dog.
He said WA Police - in conjunction with training provider K9 Solutions Australia - were changing their approach to training canines, to see if more dogs like Maygar could be produced.
"We are approaching our training completely differently and as a result we are getting significantly better results," he said.
"It's not something you can do overnight.
"We are focussing a lot more on obedience, the dog has to be social, yet not defensive.
"The intensity of the training has increased and the desired outcomes, we are reaching them much higher than we used to."
Sen-Sgt Potter confirmed seven puppies would start their training at WA Police next year, with a view to have them become the next Maygar.
"We are certainly looking at every one of them to see if they are capable of doing it," he said.
"We knew it could be done, we just had not done it here before.
"Not every dog can do it, but so far Maygar has hit the ground running."
