THOROLD, ONTARIO — In an otherwise quiet cemetery on Tuesday afternoon, sirens suddenly pierced the air as a police chase began on the winding dirt roads.
The two vehicles — a Lockport police cruiser chasing an Amherst police SUV — sent up clouds of dirt as they circled around and finally stopped. Amherst Police Officer Bruce Mann, acting as a fleeing suspect, got out of his SUV and began running away.
Behind him, the back door of the Lockport car popped open, and Sabre, the department’s K-9, jumped out and began his pursuit.
Sabre chased Mann, barking all the way, until the officer stopped running and placed his hands over his head in surrender. The dog kept barking until his handler, Lockport Police Officer Steven Ritchie, walked up behind him, and Sabre was rewarded with his chew toy.
Ritchie, Mann and other K-9 officers from both sides of the border attended the training session on Tuesday.
The twice-monthly training is organized by the Niagara Regional Police Service and is held in and around Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario. Niagara Falls Police Officer Mike Bird and NRPS Officer Brent Mason of Peterborough, Ontario, joined Ritchie and Mann on Tuesday.
The training is led by NRPS Sgt. Jeffrey Hopkins, who sent the officers on several drills throughout the morning and early afternoon.
In one exercise, Ritchie walked a few hundred feet down a path and hid in the woods. Each officer in turn sent their dogs out to follow his scent and find him.
Later, inside an NRPS office complex, the dogs entered a supply room one at a time and sniffed out a hidden jar of marijuana.
Since dogs have a natural instinct to sniff out food, the trainers take that instinct and turn it around. Instead of food, the dogs learn to sniff out people or drugs, Hopkins said.
When they find what they are searching for, the dogs are rewarded with a “kong” — a rubber dog toy.
The positive reinforcement is key, Hopkins said. Because the search is treated like a game, the dogs don’t know they’re working.
“I’ve seen dogs track over 10 miles just to play fetch,” he said.
The dogs are trained to have a “bark and hold” response at the end of a chase. When they find what they’re looking for, the dogs will stand and bark unless otherwise provoked. If a suspect fights or runs, the dog will become more aggressive.
“The suspect dictates the level of force that is used or not used by his level of action or inaction,” Hopkins said.
The officers participated in “bite training” on Tuesday
Ritchie said most of the dogs are bred in Europe; Sabre is from Hungary. As a result, the dogs may not look like the traditional American-style German shepherd and might be one uniform color. Instead of being bred for looks, they are bred for their talents in the field.
A police dog from Europe usually costs around $5,000. Hopkins said a good police dog is usually a $40,000 investment —including the cost of the dog, the training sessions, food, equipment and veterinary costs.
Each dog trained by the NRPS must go through an initial 15-week session with its handler.
The most important thing isn’t necessarily the dog, but the officer handling it, Hopkins said.
“It’s all about the people,” he said, nothing the NRPS has a rigorous selection process for its K-9 officers. “You can shut down a good program by misuse of a K-9 in a matter of minutes.”
The back seat of Ritchie’s police car has been fitted with a special cage for Sabre, including mesh over the windows and a water dish that won’t spill out when the car goes over bumps in the road.
“It’s more comfortable for him,” Ritchie said. “It’s a lot safer than just throwing him in the back seat.”
Sabre, an especially vocal dog, has room in the cage to pace back and forth, always barking excitedly as Ritchie drives him around the city.
The LPD’s K-9 program was suspended for a year and a half after Ritchie was seriously injured in a shootout in November 2004. As Ritchie recovered, his first K-9 dog, Blesk, was retired and went to live with him at home.
When Ritchie returned to work after his injury, the NRPS decided to sell him Sabre — a fully-trained, 4-year-old police dog — for $1.
“That’s one American dollar,” Hopkins said, laughing. “It was like $1.65.”
Sabre had been with an officer in Ontario who was retiring. Because Sabre was already trained, Ritchie didn’t need to go through the 15-week training course with him again, and he was certified as a K-9 dog after a two-week certification course.
Hopkins said the partnership was perfect for everyone involved, since it saved time and money and helped get Ritchie back on his feet.
“The dog was too young to retire,” Hopkins said. “It gave us a quality place where we knew the dog would get work.”
Ritchie and Sabre work on patrol from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., often busy hours for city police. They often find themselves tailing suspects and searching homes for drugs.
The job doesn’t come without risks, of course.
Sabre was hit with pepper spray when he and Ritchie responded to Trowbridge Street during the riot after last year’s Outwater Park fireworks show.
Ritchie said he was off duty when Zeus, a German shepherd assigned to the sheriff’s department K-9, and his handler, Deputy Craig Beiter, responded to the old city hall building on Pine Street on Friday night. While searching the building, Zeus fell 20 feet down a shaft.
Though Zeus seemed fine at the scene, he was checked out by a veterinarian just to be sure.
Ritchie said dogs have poor depth perception, so there’s always a danger that something like that will happen.
“When you send them into a building like that, you never know what you’re going to encounter,” Ritchie said. “It’s always a scary thing.”
In his off-hours, Sabre relaxes at home with Ritchie.
“He’s a good watchdog,” Ritchie said. “When he’s at home, he just likes to be a dog. That’s all he needs to be, just a regular dog.”
Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.
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