CANINE UNIT SHOWCASES ITS FOUR-LEGGED PARTNERS

KIRKLAND LAKE - People who attended Swastika Public School's annual Bean
Super not only enjoyed a good meal, they were treated to a demonstration of
the OPP's Canine Unit.

Const. Dave Wert, who works out of the South Porcupine OPP detachment,
brought his dogs, Rome and Chill, to the school to demonstrate how police
use the canines to keep communities safe.

He explained that he works from Temagami up to the James Bay Coast, and as
far west as Hearst.

Const. Wert's dog Rome, which is trained to sniff out explosives,
ammunition, shell casings and guns, was originally going to be a seeing eye
dog. However, the purebred Lab's natural curiosity meant the dog was too
easily distracted for that job. Ironically, that curiosity is just what the
OPP was looking for, so Rome was trained to be a working dog with the OPP.

The four-year-old Rome has been in active service with the OPP for three
years. Const. Wert said a dog's nose is hundreds of times more sensitive
than a human nose and a dog can smell thousands of different things at one
time.

The combination of highly developed sense of smell and a dog's ability to
search areas quickly make them ideal for police work. Rome is one of nine
dogs the OPP has trained to search for explosives.

Const. Wert said everything Rome does, he does because it is fun, and when
he finds something, he is rewarded by playing with a ball. Because Rome is
looking for potentially dangerous things it has been trained to give a
passive indication when he finds something. That means he puts his nose on
it and then sits down, letting Const. Wert know he has been successful.

Const. Wert said his part of working with Rome is learning to interpret
what the dog does.

After Rome gave a demonstration of his abilities, Const. Wert brought out
his German Shepherd, Chill, who is three years old and has been working as
a police dog for about one year.

Prior to being trained by the OPP, Chill had been a helper dog, who Wert
said was trained to open and close fridges and provided other similar
services for its owner.

Const. Wert said Chill's most important job is finding people, he looks for
people who are lost and he looks for people who are wanted by the police.
He explained, to Chill there are no two people that smell the same, so when
it picks up on the scent of a person Chill is able to follow it.

Another area that Chill is trained in is clearing people from buildings and
this is another thing that dogs can do must faster than humans. To clear
people from a building, the dog must search the entire building.

One very important role that Chill plays is protecting Const. Wert. If a
person makes threatening jester's or attempts to attack Const. Wert, Chill
jumps into action to protect him.

Chill is trained to search for illegal drugs, and in fact, on the day of
the demonstration Chill and Const. Wert had just returned from a job in
another town where Chill successfully found two sets of drugs in a high school.

Unlike Rome, when Chill finds something, he starts biting and scratching at
the area where the drugs are hidden.

Chill also works for rewards, and just like Rome, Chill's reward is getting
to play with his ball.

Const. Wert said with all the special training, Chill is worth about
$50,000 and he's worth it because he can save people's lives and makes a
contribution to society.

Across the province the OPP have 26 Canine Teams and 45 specially trained dogs.