The latest addition to the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP complement bears little resemblance to his colleagues.
Enzo is the new Police Service Dog with the detachment, serving alongside his handler, Const. Garfield Henderson. A purebred German shepherd, Enzo was born in Innisfail, Alberta, as part of the RCMP dog-breeding program. He is just over two years old and is trained for a range of duties, including tracking, searching, and criminal apprehension.
Enzo and Henderson became a fully operational Police Service Dog team in March following an intensive dog/handler validation process. Police Service Dogs specialize in searching for either drugs or explosives, and Enzo's specialty is drugs.
"Enzo is Const. Henderson's second fully trained Police Service Dog," Cpl. Jon Stuart related. "Most dogs go into training around the age of two, and the service life of a Police Service Dog is about seven years. Enzo was labelled as a 'high flier', and was the strongest dog in his litter."
Henderson and Enzo have been serving the North Cowichan/Duncan detachment together for about two months, and have already been in action many times.
"They have had several operational successes ranging from robberies, searching for drugs, and locating suicidal/missing persons," Stuart said.