BARRHEAD – Attendees of Barrhead's FCSS 55+ dinner May 16 got a special treat when Sgt. Colin Hack and Staff Sargeant Andy Brown brought their retired K9 unit dogs for a visit.
Seniors asked questions of the officers regarding the dogs and the K9 unit.
“Dogs sniff out bad guys. A dog's sense of smell is 10,000 times stronger than a human,” said Sgt. Hack answering a question of why a strong guy like him would need a dog like that.
A dog has very particular scent skills that are useful in tracking people.
All the K9 unit dogs are bred within the RCMP in Innisfail in central Alberta with 60 to 70 puppies born each year and are homed across Canada.
The last German Shepard dog bought for service was in 2012.
German Shepards are now the only dog breed used as police dogs and are black or a mixed brown sable colour.
Both dogs present, Jock and Echo, are a brown sable colour.
Not all pups are destined for work in the K9 unit.
Staff Sgt. Brown said three of six pups will have the demeanour, agility and attitude to qualify.
The other pups can go to other agencies or are adopted to a waiting list of people interested in these dogs.
When K9 unit dogs retire the handler has the option to keep the dog, friends and family have the option to keep the dog and there is a list of names at kennels wanting retired police dogs.
There is no support for police dogs after they retire.
There is a program started by retired police officer, Stacey Talbot, called Ned’s Wish, raising funds for retired police dog legends across Canada.
Both officer’s retired police dogs have benefited from the Ned’s Wish program.
Ned was a retired police dog who was a legend in his career and was adopted by Talbot when Ned retired.
Staff Sgt. Brown’s dog Echo is 13 years old and retired five years ago.
Echo has some mobility problems in his hips and last year had a blockage in his stomach.
It was going to be a $10,000 surgery to remove the blockage.
Staff Sgt. Brown couldn’t let Echo go after all his years of service and covered the cost of the surgery.
Talbot from the Ned’s Wish program heard about the surgery two months later and provided funds to cover the surgery.
Staff Sgt. Brown said the dogs work because they want to. They love to catch bad guys.
There are three reasons a dog bites according to Sgt. Hack.
They are if a person threatens the dog, a person threatens his handler, and the third reason is the handler telling the dog to bite or rather apprehend a suspect.
Hack and his dog, Jock, demonstrated the bite command for the seniors and walked calmly around the room full of people.
Jock is nine years old, and Sgt. Hack has had him since he was a year old.
They completed the 65-day training course together in 31 days.
For a first-time handler it requires completion of a six-month training course.
Police dogs are used for searching for missing people among the duties they perform.
The dogs track, they search, and they apprehend.
If the dogs don’t show aptitude for all three activities, they are homed with agencies that benefit from their best skills.
There have been dogs who were killed in the line of duty.
One incident was in High Prairie a few years ago and another dog was stabbed in Red Deer.
Police dogs wear protective vests on duty, and one was shown at the presentation.
