Guelph police dog ‘part of the family’ says officer

When Const. Andrew Crowe of the Guelph Police Service heads home after a shift, his partner is right there beside him walking through the front door of his home.

That’s because, as Crowe puts it, Charger, a police service dog who has been with the force since 2011, “is part of the family.”

“He comes home with me, he goes to work with me. I’m with that dog all the time,” he said in an interview on Friday.

“He’s integrated into the family, he’s good with my two kids.”

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But Charger has a switch that flicks on when it’s time to get down to business, according to Crowe.

“When he hears the cruiser keys jingle, he goes into work mode and he wants nothing to do with the house anymore and he just wants to get into the truck and go to work,” he explained.

Crowe and Charger were paired seven years ago when Charger was just 10 months old. He is a pure-bred German Shepherd, imported from Germany.

Charger is one of two police service dogs currently with the Guelph police K-9 Unit and recently finished first overall, among 40 other teams, in the tracking event at the United States Police Canine Association trials.

Crowe said Charger can do so much more than just track as he is a full detector dog as well.

“He’s capable of detecting recently fired firearms, Canadian and American paper currency, as well as pretty much any street drug that you can imagine,” he said.

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Charger is also trained in the apprehension of suspects, but Crowe called that a last-resort-type scenario.

It’s not easy to become a police service dog either, with all the rigorous training Charger has gone through and continues to go through.

Crowe said the dog’s basic training took four months and the detection training took three months, but there is also maintenance training.

Despite only being seven years old, Charger is nearing retirement within the next two years and Crowe will soon begin to monitor whether Charger is up to the task of maintaining a high standard of service.

“As long as he is healthy and loves to work and is able to do the job, then he will keep working, but if he starts to show signs of aging or health issues then we’re not going to push him past his point,” Crowe said, but he added Charger is showing no signs of slowing down.

“He still acts like a two-year-old puppy and has all the drive in the world.”

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