RED DEER COUNTY– The RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre is once again hosting free public demonstrations of its trained crime-busting canines.
There were no public demonstrations in 2024 but three are planned for the coming months of late spring and summer.
They will be held on June 11, July 9 and Aug. 13 at the training centre, located southeast of Innisfail and northeast of Bowden.
“Typically, we've started the first Wednesday after the May long weekend, and they ran every Wednesday until the Wednesday before the August long weekend,” said Kim Mann, the centre’s administrative supervisor, who noted a “shortage of manpower” forced a scaling back of the number of presentations for 2025.
“It takes of lot out of the training for the guys to stop their training for half a day to prepare for the demonstrations.”
And the time of day for the presentations has also changed.
In the past demonstrations were held at 2 p.m.
This year the demonstrations will start at 10 a.m.
Each demonstration is about 45 minutes in length.
The canine presentations always take place outdoors, rain or shine, and are cancelled only in cases of severe weather conditions.
The gates to the facility are open at 9 a.m.
Mann said the presentations feature dog obedience, obstacle work, criminal apprehension, and sometimes tracking.
“Usually there's a talk about the breeding program, and then if we have puppies, sometimes they will be in the show. It just depends what puppies we have at the time,” said Mann. “And there's usually a question and answer by some of the members.”
As for the centre’s famed puppies, this year’s winners of the Name the Puppy contest were announced in April.
The contest ran from Feb. 19 to March 19, and kids across Canada between that ages of four to 14 were invited to send name suggestions for the first 13 puppies born at the police dog training centre; one for each province and territory.
The winning Alberta name was Action from Chance Jerome, who received a laminated eight by 10-inch photo of the pup he named, a plush dog named Justice and an RCMP water bottle.
“We always give the option for the Alberta winner to come and have their presentation done at the campus during a demonstration,” said Mann. “So, it's up to the family if they want to do that.”
