Police dog Astor marks one year anniversary with the force
Two paws up, as Astor completes first year on the job with MHPS
For a lot of people, the first year on a new job can be very difficult.
For police service dog Astor, it has been nothing but flying colours.
Astor was purchased by the Medicine Hat Police Service last year, and has since been trained to be one of two service dogs currently on staff.
“We buy our dogs from a broker in the United States, so that’s where Astor came from,” said Astor’s handler Const. Jason Ross. “Sgt. Clarke White and I flew down to Los Angeles and spent a few days testing a lot of different dogs. Out of all of the dogs they had, Astor showed the best for us, and showed the most potential, so we picked him as our top candidate and brought him back to join the Medicine Hat Police Service.”
After landing back in Canada, Astor, Ross and the rest of the MHPS K9 unit began intense training, with the hopes of getting Astor up to speed as quick as possible.
“Generally basic training for a police dog and handler is 20 to 24 weeks,” said Ross. “Because I was a handler before for seven years and had trained two dogs before Astor, it actually only took us about eight weeks. It’s a lot of work in a short amount of time, but the dogs need to be ready for every situation and every environment.”
Now with a year under his belt, Ross says Astor is fitting in very well with the MHPS.
“He’s been great,” said Ross. “He’s starting to mature a lot. When we got him he was just a year-and-a-half old. So now he’s had some time to mature and come around. We’ve been successful on the street, catching bad guys through tracking, building searches, we’ve located evidence. It’s been really successful with Astor so far.”
Astor is a purebred German shepherd, a breed that gives very good value to smaller police forces.
“We had tested some other breeds on our trip down there, Astor just happened to be the best for us,” said Ross. “German shepherds are a very good allaround dog. They’re never going to be the best tracker, the best biter or have the best apprehension, but they’re good all the way around. We only have two dogs right now in our force, so having two that can do everything is important for us.”
When Astor arrived in Canada he only understood his commands when spoken to in Czech, but now understands both languages. Ross says it’s important for him and Astor to stay sharp.
“He does understand English now, and we’re going to be doing drug training soon,” said Ross. “The dogs handle the pressure a lot better than the humans do, just because this is a big game to them, that’s how they see it. But we do a lot of training every week. We work on a lot of the basics and just keeping those at a good level.”
Const. Ross and PSD Astor work alongside Const. Joel Pullman and PSD Flint, with one of the pairs always on standby to assist at a crime scene.
“Even with the Cuyler Rd. incident, we were both there with our dogs — and the dogs were actually in their body armour,” said Ross. “The dogs play a big role, especially in tracking suspects. I know one of our first chases was at Ken Sauer School, Astor did a great job in tracking the suspect. The dogs just allow us to do things we wouldn’t normally be able to do.”