NEW GLASGOW
Const. Donnie Wadden and New Glasgow’s police canine, Bandit – a six-year-old, purebred German shepherd – are a close-knit team, constituting the local police service’s K9 unit.
The bond between Wadden, the official canine handler with the New Glasgow Regional Police, and Bandit is implicit in their chemistry when playing out in front of the station, in Bandit’s attentiveness to Wadden’s commands – and in the fact that they live together, full-time.
Bandit is a versatile fellow, too. Although he is very much capable of the action most people envision, with police dogs tackling fleeing suspects to the ground, he is capable of far more than just that.
“He’s a tool on the tool belt for the membership,” said Wadden, who noted that Bandit is called upon to do an assortment of jobs. These include tracking, drug detection, and even locating lost, stolen or misplaced property.
For Wadden and Bandit to be able to work in sync, they need to regularly train and run drills to keep their skills sharp.
“We go through a series of different profiles … and (Bandit) works on those profiles, in article searching, obedience, criminal apprehension and building searches,” said Wadden. “I try a couple of different profiles a day, just to keep him up to snuff.”
The work and training they undergo can be anything from assorted situational drills to Wadden urging the German shepherd to track scents. Bandit responds with rapt attention to every command.
“I try to lay a track a day, depending on the weather,” said Wadden, referring to the tracking work – a prominent part of the training. “I try to get him tracking in specific kinds of scenarios and situations. It can go from hard surfaces, to grass surfaces to woods surfaces.”
Wadden said Bandit is trained to identify human scents, which hones his ability to focus on locating suspects and missing people.
“Bandit understands that when he smells humans and they’re concealed, he’s going to get a reward if he finds them,” said Wadden.
Even when people flee the scene of a crime, Bandit’s keen sense of smell helps him identify scents from articles dropped from suspects. He is able to detect those smells, Wadden noted, and “he’ll indicate that, and I’ll be able to pick that up and potentially identify a suspect that way.”
Although most of Bandit’s great skills are the product of his training, there is a “nature” factor to accompany the “nurture” that has played a role in his prodigious skill as a police canine.
“German shepherds are very smart,” said Wadden. The ideal breed to be a police dog has to be an active, working dog with a lot of motivation and drive – qualities Bandit demonstrates.
“He’s got a very strong, type-A personality,” said Wadden, who added that Bandit sees his work as “playtime.”
Wadden was trained in Halifax to work with police canines, going to the city every four months to learn the necessary skills to keep Bandit sharp.
“The training itself started in areas that had very few distractions for the dog. Big large fields, places where not a lot of people go, so the dog gets imprinted and understands it’s looking for the human scent,” said Wadden.
The training starts in secluded areas, and over time and increments eventually is done in busy residential areas, where the dog is then disciplined enough to follow scents without distraction.
“You learn how to handle the dog, and ensure he’s not following animal scents or other distractions,” he added.
Wadden emphasized how good he thought it was to get the word out about the nuances and challenges of working with a police canine during Police Week, because “with all the negative attention police get on social media and stuff, it’s good to let people know who we are.”
Wadden added that it helps to be able to talk to people in the area and get to know them.
“I’ve worked with street crime for five years, and was with intelligence before that, and most people – if they don’t know you, they’re not going to help or talk to you,” he said. “Police Week is important because it gets you out in the community, instead of being that faceless person in the car who gives you tickets. Most of us grew up in this area, and we all care about the community.”
Precautions around a police dog
When you see a police dog at work, Wadden recommends asking if it’s OK to pass through a scene, to prevent the possibility of disrupting a scent. Taking such a precaution can save potential difficulty for police in an investigation, since police canines are trained to pick up the most recent scents in a scene.