K9 Deployment was established in 2002 by Neil Van Der Wee, who remains as our CEO to this day.
Initially, we provided security guard dogs and canine patrol services to businesses local to our head office in West Sussex. As our reputation grew and we became known for providing a reliable and professional service with highly trained dogs and handlers, our operations have developed – we now work nationwide.
In addition to continuing to provide security guard and patrol solutions, we also offer specialist sniffer dog services to detect the presence of drugs and tobacco.
Our Director, Neil, has been handling and training specialist security patrol and sniffer dogs since 1998. He holds the HABC Level 3 Certificates for both as a Proactive and Passive Drug Detection Dog Handler and the NASDU Level 2 Award for a General Purpose Security Dog Handler.
Neil has a distinguished reputation in the industry having accrued the most wins of any dog handler at the NASDU Annual National Security Dog Championships, winning it on no less than four occasions with two separate dogs.
He is passionate about ensuring all dog and handler teams are trained to the highest standards and providing the best possible customer service. Due to his experience and knowledge, Neil is regularly asked to give talks and demonstrations.
K9 Deployment mainly uses breeds of dogs that are generally renowned for their suitability for detection and security work, such as English Springer Spaniels, Labradors, German Shepherd Dogs and Malinois. We work very closely with reputable breeders to ensure our dogs are healthy and will adapt to training. The well-being and health of our dogs are of the utmost importance to us.
Neil started handling and training specialist security patrol dogs, working for local nurseries and country estates, he also acquired a 1.5 acre training ground and agility area to train his own dogs.
Expanded the facilities with a new 5 acre secure exercise ground for the dogs to run free and enjoy themselves.
Neil uses patrol dogs for security at large, popular, local events and festivals.
At the NASDU Security Dog Championships, Neil and his patrol dog Louis win the Best Turned Out Security Dog Team title.
This year Neil and Louis win 1st Place in obedience at the NASDU Security Dog Championships
As the workload continues to grow, Neil decides to create K9 Deployment and continues to provide security under this name. That same year became the Overall National Champions at the NASDU Security Dog Trials Championship with his dog Louis
Neil and Louis are the Overall National Champions at the NASDU Security Dog Trials Championship for the second year running.
This year Neil competes with Poppy, and they become the Overall National Champions NASDU Security Dog Trials Championship.
Once again Neil and Poppy become the Overall National Champions at the NASDU Security Dog Trials Championships, making it four years in a row for Neil.
Neil and his Drug Detector Dog Tigger pass their Passive Drugs Detection Dog Course with Surrey Police at their Regional Dog Training School.
We receive our Home Office Drugs Licence for the main class A and B drugs meaning we can train on using real substances.
The Grand Opening of the K9 Kennels! Our dogs are housed safely and securely in our comfortable and warm state-of-the-art kennels. An experienced kennel team ensure our dogs receive round-the-clock care and manage their strict feeding and exercise regimes. This year Neil wins 1st Place in the Handler Protection category at the NASDU National Security Dog Championships with his patrol dog Baloo, also winning Best Turned Out Handler and Dog!
Neil, along with Baloo, wins 1st place in the Criminal Protection Round at the NASDU Security Dog Championships.
Due to huge demand, we expanded our work area to cover Northern England and acquired a new customised 6-cage sprinter van.
We become an associate company member of NASDU and Neil welcomes Carolina to the team as our Operations Manager. The same year Scotland is added to the areas we cover.
We extended our administration team with Nadine as our Admin Assistant.
What a busy year! Early in 2022, we became a NASDU Approved Training Facility enabling us to train our in-house handlers with NASDU Approved Dog Trainer Nigel Edwards. We also welcomed Tom, Polly, Axel and Bruno to the K9 dog team as trainee Drugs Detection Dogs, qualifying later in the year along with their handlers. We also moved into our new modern offices and Nikki joined us as Marketing and Research. The vehicle fleet also expanded with more new dog handler vans.
Dramatic increase in deployments, including nighttime economy operations working alongside multiple police forces strengthening our commitments to help tackle the supply and use of dangerous drugs.
With huge investment in a new marketing campaign highlighting the effectiveness of drug detection dogs, we focussed our resources on schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and sporting & leisure events with fantastic results. With the addition of tobacco detection search dogs, we continued our work supporting police forces up and down the country.
2025 saw a huge expansion of K9 Deployment with new operations managers, full and part time dog handlers, a brand new fleet of BS 8517 compliant vehicles and the exciting introduction of our NCTAS-P affiliated Explosives detection dog department. Our new staff members bring with them a wealth of experience and knowledge of the industries we support. Together we will continue to grow and welcome new clients while continuing to fulfil our commitments to our existing client base.
NCTAS-P - National Canine Training & Accreditation Scheme - Private Sector is a UK Government backed scheme that see’s explosive detection dog teams accredited by approved police instructors using explosives informed by the threat picture. The scheme is underpinned by an ongoing and wide-ranging program of Government commissioned scientific research ensuring standards are relevant and in line with the current threat.
So far in 2026....
We have six teams who have achieved NCTAS-P accreditation and in line with our pre-planned growth we have further accreditations booked. In addition to their NCTAS-P accreditations our Explosive Detection dog handlers have all completed external Police training including re-team courses at a regional police dog training school. Our police led training is set to continue throughout the rest of year and beyond.
To accomodate our ongoing canine development, we have just completed a dramatic expansion to our on-site kennel facilities.
We continue to develop and invest in the success of our drugs section with the teams re-accrediting to NPCC Standards in addition to their existing NASDU accreditations and we are proud to say that our drugs section consists of some of the very few handlers in the UK who achieve this. Achieving and maintaining the NPCC standard provides our clients with a heightened level of assurance that our teams are operating at the highest possible level and are at the cutting edge of the drug detection sector.
NPCC – The National Police Chiefs' Council Police Dog Standard sets out the nationally agreed minimum standards for all police forces who have police dog units. Accreditation is done annually at a Regional Police Dog Training School.
As well as our ongoing work in the education and healthcare sectors, 2026 has seen our detection dog teams supporting a major Premier League & UEFA Champions League football club as well as a EFL Championship club.
We have achieved SafeContrator accreditation, Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essential Plus and with our ISO 9001:2015 final assessment fast approaching, we are continuing to invest and develop our company to provide our clients and partners with the highest level of assurance.
Our dogs are housed safely and securely in our comfortable and warm state-of-the-art kennels. An experienced kennel supervisor and dedicated support team ensure our dogs receive round-the-clock care and manage their strict feeding and exercise regimes.
We only use breeds of dog that are generally renowned for their suitability for detection and security work, such as cocker spaniels, English springer spaniels and Labradors. We work very closely with reputable breeders to ensure our dogs are healthy and will adapt to training.
The wellbeing and health of our dogs is of the utmost importance to us, and each dog is health checked regularly by a veterinarian.
We are proud to be an associate company member of the National Association of Security Dog Users (NASDU).
NASDU promotes high standards, excellent training and ongoing education in the private security dog sector. We abide by the guidance & recommendations contained within British Standard 8517-1 for General Purpose Dogs & BS8517-2 for Detection Dogs. All our handlers are NASDU certified.
This British Standard sets the standard for screening security personnel working in an environment where safety of people, goods or property is essential.
It includes data security, sensitive and service contracts and confidential records.
Our dog handlers hold Security Industry Authority (SIA) licences.
The SIA is a statutory organisation that is responsible for regulating the private security industry in the UK.
All our handlers have undergone a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, which searches for criminal records and activity.
As we regularly provide services to the education and healthcare sectors, the enhanced check shows that our handlers are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults.
By working with K9 Deployment you will benefit from:
Our drug detection dogs are highly trained to detect illegal substances.
Our tobacco detection dogs are trained to detect real and counterfeit tobacco and search for contraband.
Our Explosive Detection Dogs are specifically trained to identify explosive devices in various locations.
