RCMP K-9 unit continues training on regular basis in Melfort

There are four general duty police officers from within the area of Melfort, Nipawin and Prince Albert that are training to become dog handlers with the RCMP.

In order to become handlers, the officers must raise puppies under the tutelage of Drohomereski.

“Once a week, we get together and I evaluate both the potential handlers and the puppies to see if they are making the grade,” Drohomereski said.

The dogs eventually get sent back to Innisfail, Alta. to the breeding and training facility for the police dog service of Canada. The dogs are then teamed with handlers to go work anywhere Canada-wide.

There are nine imprinters (potential handlers) in Saskatchewan with five of them training with Drohomereski, and four in the Melfort area.

“Two of them work right out of the Melfort office. I have been in Melfort for about seven years and they seem to just come to me,” Drohomereski said. “They were working in other places but it’s just as easy to work for me if they work in Melfort, so we have kind of grown our little dog section out of Melfort out of happenstance.”

RCMP police service dog Lux. (Submitted photo/Shannon Marshall)

The other four imprinters are spread out amongst the other six handlers in the province which are located out of Battleford, Meadow Lake, Saskatoon, Swift Current, Regina and Yorkton.

A trained police dog can do the work of about ten men in a search effort, according to Drohomereski.

“If we go into a building to search for drugs, it would take Lux and I minutes where it would take a team of ten police officers a fair amount of time to search that same area that we used Lux’s nose for,” Drohomereski said.

Training inside a facility like the Northern Lights Palace (NLP) is key to the success of police service dogs in getting them comfortable with being inside a building or being in an environment with a big open space.

“Sometimes we will hide a person and simulate a break and enter and have the dog locate the guy or hide drugs and have the dog look for them,” Drohomereski said.

RCMP police service dog training at Northern Lights Palace in Melfort. (Submitted photo/Shannon Marshall)

Along with the NLP, the Melfort fire hall is often used for training exercises as well.

“With COVID, we are very limited to places we can use and Melfort has been amazing for letting us use their facilities and give us that chance to train our dogs,” Drohomereski said.

The dogs that do live in Melfort have become part of the community.

“We train all over Saskatchewan but we have always had such a warm welcome here in Melfort,” Drohomereski said. “If someone isn’t used to seeing a police dog here it’s kind of a rarity at this point, you’ll see us at the mall and out and about quite often.”

The police service dogs are also often involved in live demonstrations at schools or events but those have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic but training is essential for the unit.

The more exercises the dogs go through that are similar to an actual search effort, the better they will perform in live time.

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angie.rolheiser@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser

by Angie Rolheiser

RCMP K-9 unit continues training on regular basis in Melfort

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