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Pictured L-R Jim Sweat Richland
County S.O. Larry Leslie
Canton PD. (ret) Dave
Haskins Washington DC Metropolitan PD. (Ret)
Rick Cook Canton PD. (Ret) Bob Kuehner Canton
PD. Gary Haft
Canton PD.
During the onset of the newly formed Canton Police K-9 Unit other
area agencies also began to see the benefit of having at their aid the
use of a properly trained K9 team. The City of Canton P.D. began to
offer K-9 training classes to other police departments at no
cost. This helped administrations realize that the cost
effectiveness of a canine program could not be matched. In 1986
with more agencies outside the Canton Police Department joining the
ranks of Canine teams, it was decided to begin the Police K-9
Association.
In the beginning of the K-9 Association, one of the
ways to help established K-9 units throughout the area was by providing
training and essentials at little or no cost to the agencies.
This helped to create very affordable K-9 units for the agencies which
became great assets.
Most of our past partners were donated
rescues. We would then screen and evaluate the dogs for traits we
desired in a Police Service Dog. One can clearly understand that these
dogs were essentially someone else's problem that could not be handled
as a normal household companion. When looking for a dog, sometimes it
was easy to go through testing some 20 dogs before finding one with the
right traits and in good health, in particular the dog's hips. Many
times we would have dogs that had proper traits but would be dysplastic
and therefore fail the hip x-ray evaluation.
However, the dogs
selected in the past as stated were 99% donations and our hats are off
to the pioneers of our unit and association. They took these dogs
and turned them into top notch police k-9s that were very reliable on
the street. About 4 years ago we began purchasing "green" dogs with
funds collected by generous donations from local businesses and
citizens dedicated to the preservation of our K9 program. Some of the
first dogs purchased proved their breed worthiness by being much easier
and faster to train than most of the dogs in the past. The biddability
of a properly bred working line German Shepherd meant that we could
more efficiently train our partners without needing to work on
sometimes several areas of problems associated with rescue dogs.
The
original goal in the forming of the Association was to raise donated
funds to aid in the costs related to effectively maintaining a K-9
Unit. While this goal still remains today, the Association has taken on
a larger role with more members. So our operating costs have
risen. We also raise revenues through T-Shirt sales and our Annual
Reverse Raffle to help offset the costs of maintaining such a program.
While
most departments associated with our K9 program, do provide for
veterinary care and food at no cost to the handlers as long as the K9
remains in service. As our partners retire from service all costs
associated with vet care and food stops being provided by the City.
Once the K9 retires from service 99% of the time the handler that grew
so close to and shared such a bond with, takes on the dog as part of
his or her family. Of course the handler also takes on the rising costs
of vet bills as an older canines health begins to take its toll.
At this time we have a total of 5 retired K9s that are still living..
We as an association would like to begin a separate fund used to help offset the costs of
food and veterinary expenses.
As our Association grew, we used some of the monies donated to build
our K9 training facility.
1986 - The Shed
1986 - The Cemetery
1997 - Main Training building
2005 - Dave Haskins Learning Center
2006 - The "Tower"
2006 - Explosives Bunker
2006 - Updated agility Course
2008 - Garage
- President: Chris Heslop - Canton PD
- Vice Pres:
Mike
Talkington - Canton PD
- Secretary:
Kris Ousley - Stark County Sheriff's
Office
- Treasurer: Terry Monter - Canton PD
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