|
ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE DOGS: The Shepherd
"We have a higher success rate and a higher retainment rate with dogs we breed and train ourselves," says Insp Lawrence Aimoe, the officer in charge of the Police Dog Service Training Centre...
Go to Web Site
|
|
|
|
When the days of the great Northern Patrols ended, the need for the famous huskies was also gone.
But the Mounties were using dogs for new purposes.
Even in the early years, dogs were used for some search and rescue by the North-West Mounted Police. Bloodhounds and other tracking dogs would be borrowed from local citizens to help find criminals or lost people.
In the early 1930's, the Mounties, now renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, formed the Special Dog Section.
Delbert Young described how it came about: "Sergeant Cawsey owned a particularly clever German Shepherd he called Dale. He had trained Dale to retrieve objects, and also to scent out and locate articles he had hidden. The Sergeant was so proud of his big Shepherd he used to show the dog, taking him everywhere he went so that soon the sight of Sgt. Cawsey in his patrol car with the handsome dog beside him were a familiar sight. A step further and he was employing the dog to assist him in police work. So successful were the first experiments that the Dog Section was formed with Dale as its first member.
"The case of the Sleepy Car Thief was one of several solved by the sensitive nose of Dale. A vehicle had been stolen, driven and then abandoned by the side of the road. Cawsey let Dale sniff the car over, then put him on the trail of the thief who, at the time, was five miles away in his bed. Not for long did the man sleep soundly. Dale tracked him to his very door. Sgt Cawsey rapped sharply. Shortly thereafter, a sleepy-eyed crook found himself in custody."
The RCMP Dog Section was officially formed in 1935, with Dale and two other dogs, Black Lux and Sultan. In 1937, Commissioner MacBrien, satisfied with the value of police dogs, ordered an RCMP training school for dogs and handlers to be established at Calgary. In 1940, the RCMP won its first case involving dog search evidence.
The RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre was established at Innisfail, Alberta in 1965. The training staff comprises one officer in charge, one staff sergeant program manager, one staff sergeant senior trainer, five sergeant trainers, one acquisition sergeant, two corporal pretrainers and a support staff of six public service employees.
The German Shepherds of the Special Dog Section have become renowned for their successes.
On the morning of August 31, 1989, a devastating gas explosion rocked a building in Ottawa, creating considerable structural damage. Much of the building still standing was unusable and in danger of collapsing. Although most of the tenants who were in the building at the time of explosion had been safely evacuated, there were still some people trapped inside.
Rescuers worked quickly and carefully searched for trapped victims, while under the threat of a second explosion.
Constable Joseph Guy Denis Amyot, a Dog Handler at A Division (Ottawa), Ottawa Airport Detachment, was off duty when he heard the news reports of the explosion.Volunteering his services and those of police service dog Jocko, he entered the building accompanied by Captain Gerard Patry of the Ottawa Fire Department to search the debris for victims trapped beneath the rubble. Despite the dangers, they searched the most heavily damaged portion of the building for a missing boy, who was later found alive in the rubble.
In recognition of his courage and professionalism, Constable J.G.D. Amyot was awarded a Commissioner's Commendation for Bravery. Captain G. Patry of the Ottawa Fire Department was awarded a Commissioner's Commendation to a Civilian for his courage and assistance to Constable Amyot.
Only purebred German Shepherds are considered for the RCMP Police Dog Services. Male dogs are favoured but some females are chosen. In addition to being in perfect physical condition, they must have particular personality traits which make them suitable for police work: even temperament, hunting instinct and sound character are essential. All RCMP dogs are taught to protect their handlers, themselves or to apprehend upon command. Any that display reluctance to do so are not accepted.
The German Shepherd breed displays the versatility, strength and courage that makes it eminently suitable for Canadian police work. Their heavy coats allow them to work under extreme climatic conditions. In addition, their presence seems to have an inhibitive psychological effect on potential wrongdoers. German Shepherds trained to apprehend will invariably make a successful arrest despite the fact they are trained only to hold, never to be savage.
In 1999, the RCMP started a pilot breeding program to produce a working strain of dog most suitable for law enforcement duties. One pup from this program has already graduated to field service and a number of others are currently in training.
"We have a higher success rate and a higher retainment rate with dogs we breed and train ourselves," says Insp Lawrence Aimoe, the officer in charge of the Police Dog Service Training Centre in Innisfail, Alberta.
With 125 police dog teams across Canada, the RCMP needs up to 35 replacement dogs every year. With a recent infusion of $1.18 million in funding, the centre will now be able to expand its breeding program, relying less on dogs they buy on the open market.
Currently, one in four dogs the centre breeds goes on to become a police dog. Aimoe says increased funding will enable the centre to raise the success rate to one in three. And while the centre will have produced 100 puppies this year alone, it hopes to boost that number to 120 a year by 2007.
By breeding its own, the centre eliminates the unpredictability that can come with dogs it buys from brokers.
"We don't know their medical history, what training they've had or what their socialization has been," says S/Sgt Patrick MacIsaac, the centre's program manager, who also has 14 years of experience as a dog handler. "When we put them into training, we may come across some behavioural issues and this can impede the training process." Although the dogs the centre buys are guaranteed to complete the tasks for which they are acquired, Aimoe says some ultimately have to be sent back.
And brokers are sometimes unable to provide dogs that meet the RCMP's strict standards and skill requirements.
Aimoe says most other police forces around the world generally look for dogs that can serve one or two functions. But RCMP dogs--mostly German shepherds--must be multi-purpose, able to perform a minimum of four profiles, or tasks, including tracking, searching, guarding, locating drugs or explosives and apprehending criminals. Some of the dogs are even able to fulfill search and rescue duties during avalanches and other disasters.
To ensure its dogs are on the path to perfecting these skills, the centre begins training within two days after a puppy is born up until it is eight weeks old. It is then tested to determine if it has the potential to become a police dog. If the puppy passes, it enters the imprinting program, where prospective handlers must raise it before it returns to the centre for the final stages of training. The increased funding will allow the centre to improve the imprinting program as additional staff will be able to monitor the animals more closely, weeding out unsuitable dogs at an earlier stage.
The breeding and accompanying imprinting programs have even reduced the time it takes to train a dog handler, from 80 days down to oftentimes just 40 days, says S/Sgt Warren Ganes, the centre's senior trainer.
"Because handlers are raising and pre-training their own puppies themselves, they're not starting at day one," says Ganes, who has overseen the training of hundreds of dogs.
Because the breeding process is a science, an expert is necessary to examine blood lines and isolate which animals have the genes that will produce the best police dog candidates. With additional resources, the centre can now dedicate one person solely to this task.
Agencies around the world are beginning to recognize the quality of RCMP dogs--including the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), which visited the centre in 2002.
"Our dogs had the traits that they wanted to further enhance their own dog program," says MacIsaac.
The centre has since provided the RAAF with semen from its own breeds, which has already produced a few litters of puppies. "I think we're going to see a lot more international collaboration with other agencies looking to exchange genetic material," MacIsaac says. "This is just the beginning."
For more about the animals of the Northern patrols, see NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE Canadian Mounties in Literature & History.
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2003 - 2012 URL.biz. All rights reserved. |
|
