From the OPP
OPP canine teams work across the province each day to support public safety.
In addition to these duties, the OPP Canine Unit has created the 2019 Canine Calendar to raise money for the OPP Youth Foundation and the Friends of The OPP Museum.
Each month of the calendar features OPP canines from across the province.
Funds raised from the sale of the 2018 OPP Canine Calendar totalled more than $28,000.
The 2019 OPP Canine Calendars makes a great gift! Each calendar costs $10, with all proceeds going to the OPP Youth Foundation and the Friends of The OPP Museum.
Calendars can be purchased online at www.oppshop.on.ca/stationery/k-9-calendar.html
To demonstrate the type of work the dogs featured in the calendar do, here is a story about “Jake,” a canine featured during the month of June:
Life as an OPP canine handler is unpredictable–you never know what the day has in store.
In October, 2018, Cst. Jeff Scott and his German shepherd partner, “Jake,” were dispatched to a call about a missing elderly man with Parkinson’s disease. The man had left his home around 8:30 p.m. and didn’t return.
Worried, the man’s two housemates called the police at 4 a.m. to ask for help. The last place the man was seen was the end of his driveway.
When Jake, Cst. Scott, and a member of the OPP’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) arrived at the man’s house, they began surveying the area and immediately began their search. They started on the road outside the man’s home and headed into a forested area nearby.
“When we start looking for a missing person, I always start looking in the areas that aren’t so nice–places like swamps and bush,” said Cst. Scott. “I try to cover areas that, if someone was lost, they’d have a hard time getting out of.”
Cst. Scott quickly noticed a change in Jake.
“As a handler, you’re always watching your dog’s behaviour for any recognition of a scent,” he noted. “Oftentimes when you’re looking for missing people, it’s a very long process.
“Right away, I noticed that Jake was air scenting.”
Air scenting is when the dog picks up the microscopic particles in the air left behind by a human. A human’s scent becomes airborne and can be carried by the wind for considerable distances.
“As we worked our way into the wind, I knew that Jake was definitely on to something,” said Cst. Scott. “I got a view of the direction the scent was coming from, suspecting we were downwind from the person we were tracking.”
The team continued through some nasty swamp areas and finally made it to high ground. When they did, they did a “call out”–a yell to the surrounding area to see if they will get a response.
“Between the two of us, we thought we might have heard something way, way off into the distance,” said Cst. Scott. “We started off in that direction and again I saw Jake pick up the airborne scent.”
After following Jake and the scent for quite some time, Cst. Scott decided to do another call out. When he and his ERT partner yelled, they heard something. It was faint but this time there was no mistaking it was an answer to their call.
The team went through some more swamp, only to come up onto a ridge. They looked beneath the ridge to find the missing man had fallen into the swamp below. He had no way to get up.
“We got to him and right away gave him water and made sure he was okay,” said Cst. Scott. “Once we knew he was all right, we started to work out a plan to get him out of there.”
After alerting the command post, Cst. Scott and the ERT team member used GPS to guide in a team that brought a collapsible stretcher. Collectively, they returned the man to safety.
“Finding a missing person is quite the feeling,” Cst. Scott said. “This man was out all night: lost, alone, and probably afraid. If we hadn’t been able to find him, he wouldn’t have made it home to his family.
“It’s an extremely rewarding feeling.”
