DRUG DOG PUTS ON A DISPLAY FOR COUNCIL

Town Of Vauxhall Council Gained Insight Into The Role Of An RCMP Dog
Handler And Were Witness To A Staged Drug Search In Town Office At
Last Monday's Meeting.

Cpl. Al Sullivan and his canine partner, Muskwa, visited council
chambers while earlier in the year, they attended M.D. of Taber
council's regular meeting to offer information on what, as a team,
they can do.

Muskwa successfully searched for two cocaine-scented make-up pads
earlier placed by Sullivan, who noted dogs are trained through
positive-reinforcement methods.

"A dog is given a reward if they do it right, and a correction if they
are repeatedly doing something wrong."

Originally from Hanna, Sullivan has 16 years of experience with the
RCMP. His education began at the University of Lethbridge, where he
was a history major in areas of policing.

For the last seven years, Sullivan has been a dog handler for the RCMP
and his first dog passed away from cancer two-and-a-half years ago.
While currently stationed in Lethbridge, he and Muskwa, a
three-and-a-half-year old German shepherd, will handle all of southern
Alberta cases for the RCMP.

Sullivan trained with Muskwa for six-and-a-half months at the training
kennels in Innisfail where for 12 to 14 hours each day, they would
track and do criminal-apprehension exercises. Along with obedience and
agility training, gradually, Muskwa was introduced into the various
searching profiles for different drugs, Sullivan explained.

He said the first level is basic tracking for "lost guys and bad
people" where they train in a rural area uncontaminated by human
scents. Muskwa was also broken of tracking other animals and
introduced to bite work. Level 2 training happens in industrial areas
with light grass and human cross tracks and Sullivan indicated Muskwa
was introduced to drug searching along with searching bigger areas
looking to chase scents in the wind. For Level 3 training Muskwa
searched in areas where there was lots of human traffic.

"They have to be able to do that proficiently before they leave the
kennel."

Once they graduate from the kennel and are assigned, Sullivan said the
police dogs increase proficiency and build on the previous year.

While training is physically demanding for both, he indicated it is
mentally demanding for the trainer, who has to be intuitive and learn
a new language, that language being dog.

"We have to learn how to read a dog and a subtle move of the tail or
how he moves his ears is an indication," said Sullivan, who noted he
had to figure out how Muskwa was trying to communicate to him. "It's
tough to process that when you're on the fly."

Muskwa came from the Czech Republic at a cost of $15,000, as Sullivan
said there was virtually nowhere in North America where dogs are bred
to suit the purposes of the RCMP.

"Most of the dogs in North America have been bred to a show standard,
so they've been bred to be a lot bigger dog than what a German
shepherd should really be, especially a working one. The typical
German shepherd you see winning shows has that really sloped high end.
That?s murder for the dog. Eventually its hips and elbows will give
out prematurely."

To his recollection, an RCMP Breeding program was started in 1999,
where most of the breeding stock has come from eastern Europe with a
military or police background.

Sullivan said 75 per cent of pups now come from their breeding program
and noted a trained dog could cost anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000.

"A lot of money goes into training these dogs. They're an extremely
valuable asset once they're trained."

Unlike television or the movies, Muskwa won't take the scent from an
article of clothing of the person he tracks, but takes it directly
from the ground Sullivan explained.

"When we're doing tracking we don't do like on TV and give them a
piece of clothing and tell them to follow the scent. Our dogs are
trained to look for the freshest human scent on the ground and exclude
all others down to that one."

The average call volume expected is 225-250 calls per year, in an area
which goes between the Saskatchewan and B.C. borders, and extends up
from the United States border to Nanton, Vulcan and Vauxhall. Sullivan
notes he covers the Calgary handlers area as well, and while up around
Turner Valley and Cochrane quite often, he and Muskwa are on call
24-7. Two Fridays prior to the meeting, they were at Park Lake
searching for a missing person, while the Saturday before their visit
to Vauxhall they were called to a accident. Sullivan noted they were
also in Vulcan tracking a missing person.

Most calls they respond to are tracking calls for break and enters and
stolen vehicles, and while dogs can be trained in firearms or drug
tracking, Muskwa was trained for drugs. Sullivan said being a dog
handler is extremely rewarding work that shows immediate results.

"Its kind of neat in that a lot of jobs, you can work for long periods
of time, even years and not really have any way to measure if you're
succeeding or making any headway. Whereas this, you get immediate
results and you know if you've caught a bad guy or you didn't, or
you've found what you're looking for. It's very rewarding that way."

And while Muskwa is always happy to see him, their partnership has
other bonuses as well.

"I get to drive and pick where we eat."