NEW POLICE POOCH HITS THE STREETS

The newest member of the Winkler Police Service is now on the beat.

Tika, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois, has been fully certified for
duty with Winkler's first canine unit, led by handler Cst. Arnie Klaassen.

The crime-fighting duo wrapped up six weeks of training with the
Winnipeg Police Service's canine unit last month, and have been
hitting the streets together for the last few weeks.

Already, the pooch has uncovered several hidden stashes of drugs in
vehicles pulled over by police.

"With her, there's a higher probability that we'll discover drugs
that we would likely not discover otherwise," said Klassen, who notes
Tika is able to detect 10 different kinds of illegal substances -
from marijuana to cocaine to heroine - and is trained to sit as soon
as she finds something suspicious.

Tika will be on duty whenever Klassen is, and the pair have spent the
last few weeks getting used to one another, Klassen said.

"Part of the training ... is learning to work together as a team,
myself and the dog, learning to read each other," he said.

This is the Winkler police's second attempt to launch the canine
unit; last fall, Klassen was paired up with Kenya, a year-old
chocolate Labrador.

But Kenya's personality proved unsuitable for the job, and she never
reached certification.

Tiki, on the other hand, received her final police dog certification
last month, and Klassen expects she'll be with the department for the
next several years.

"She has great ball drive (her reward for finding something), high
prey drive," he said, noting those are two key factors in whether a
police dog will be motivated to do its job.

In addition to sniffing out drugs, Tika will also be a valuable
public relations tool for the police service, said Klassen.

People are much more likely to come up to chat with officers on the
street when a police dog is at hand, he said.

The canine unit will also be making stops at local schools later this
year to speak with kids about the dangers of doing drugs, Klassen said.