Detector dog teams have been available for duty at Auckland Airport since the Trans-Tasman travel bubble started on 19 April.
Biosecurity New Zealand plans to have dog teams in place at regional airports shortly.
Some of the dog teams will use handlers returning from other duties. Due to the impact of the pandemic on passenger traffic, many handlers have been redeployed to other roles, both at and outside the border.
It takes at least two weeks to reunite handlers and dogs, including providing refresher training. It takes three to four weeks to pair a handler with a different dog that has already undergone training. The process can take more than eight weeks if the dog is untrained.