Meet Tackle, the newest 4-legged member of the Lambton County OPP | CBC News
[ad_1]
The Lambton County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has a new addition to its canine unit.
Tackle, the two-year-old German Shepard from Alabama, has recently finished his training as a general police service dog, and is ready to get to work with his handler, Const. Kris Black, who has led the unit for 10 years.
“You still see a little bit of a puppy in him. He’s pretty goofy sometimes but he’s pretty good at his job,” Black told CBC’s Afternoon Drive guest host, Matt Allen on Friday.
So far, Tackle has been trained in tracking, evidence search, building clearing and criminal apprehension. He’s expected to finish testing on odour recognition for drugs and firearms later this month.
Tackle will join explosives detection dog, Celaena once he replaces the division’s current police service dog, 12-year-old Blitz who is set to retire after Tackle’s final training is complete.
It’s been a difficult year for canine units across southern Ontario police forces. A funeral was held last week for Woodstock Police Service dog Taz, who died when he consumed drugs in the line of duty. In July, Bingo a Toronto Police dog was shot by a suspect he was tracking.
Dogs are reliable partners
Black said the three main criteria that qualify a police service dog are: having a strong drive and lots of energy, a defence drive so they’re not afraid, and most importantly a hunt drive to keep searching for something until they find it or are told to stop by their handlers.
“It’s been a bit of a learning curve for me, I was fortunate enough to have a general service dog prior to Tackle that lasted me 10 service years, so we learned a lot from each other and after all these years I’m still learning everyday,” Black said.
Although Black said it would be nice to have a partner that talks, he’s enjoying the bond that he and Tackle have formed, and he’s excited for it to grow as the pair work together.
“You start to create a bond right way. We usually make sure we’re feeding and rewarding the dog, so the bond starts pretty early but starts to build from here and once (we) get a few calls, it just gets better and better,” he said.
For Black, an upside of working with service dogs is having a reliable partner that comes to work with him everyday. But a downside to that is that Black has to take his job home with him, he said.
“It’s nice. Most of the times it’s a lot of fun because you get to see two different sides of him, the work side and the fun side.”
The OPP has two positions open in Grey County and Essex County that the force is hoping to fill soon.
“Timing is everything and there’s a lot of emergencies in policing but a missing person is at the top. Timing for the dog is crucial so they can get a track and help maintain it and having handlers and dog teams in strategic areas helps us make sure we cover our area well,” Black said.
LISTEN: Lambton OPP Const. Kris Black on working with police service dogs
Afternoon Drive6:51Lambton County OPP welcomes new K9 dog
Police K9 dogs have been in the news a lot lately in southwestern Ontario. Earlier this week, there was a parade in Woodstock for Taz, an OPP dog who died consuming drugs. Last month, Bingo, a dog from the Toronto police force was shot by a suspect he was tracking. But today, a good news story about a police dog. Tackle is the newest member of the Lambton County OPP division. Guest host Matt Allen speaks with Tackle’s handler, Constable Kris Black.
[ad_2]
