WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Police Service K9 unit began its in-house training in 1999. It is one of the two municipal forces who breed their own dogs in North America. The other is the LAPD.
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The training done in the city isn’t just for Winnipeg. Forces from around North America come to Winnipeg to have their animals trained. Winnipeg will also sell dogs that are bred and trained here to other forces.
The Winnipeg K9 unit is made up of Belgian Malinois. They’re a high-drive dog and with training, can be out working the streets at 12 months of age. German Shepherds are also commonly used in police forces but they will typically be 18 to 24 months of age before they’re at the same level.
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There are multiple courses taught in Winnipeg. The general purpose training is a 16-week course while the drug and the explosive training courses are a minimum 8 weeks.
The drug training course will teach the dogs to search out a number of drugs including marijuana, crack cocaine, hash, hash oil, heroine, and mushrooms. It’s an intense course that has the dogs going through hundreds of repetitions using conditioning. What this means is the trainers will ask for a scent to be found then when the dog finds the scent, they will sit and be rewarded with a treat. In the case of the these dogs, the treat comes in the form of a ball.