After years of hard work, dog living life of luxury
Published: January 22, 2007
Truro’s police dog hunted fugitives, tracked down missing children and worked for five years to bring peace to the streets of this town.
Now he naps on a fine bed and dines on dollops of cheese and bits of bacon. The well-regarded police officer whiles away his days in a virtual doggie spa — petted, indulged and spoiled.
“And that’s the way it should be. He’s worked for his retirement,” said Sgt. Rob Hearn of the Truro Police Service.
Sgt. Hearn’s voice softens when he speaks of his former partner, Will.
“It was the right time for him to retire and it was good he could retire without injury,” Sgt. Hearn said during a recent interview.
When the police officer was promoted in October it brought new responsibilities.
“My dog-handling days are over and I’m into a new position, so it seemed like a good time for Will to retire,” he explained.
Over the past five years, the two police officers went everywhere together.
“He has a good nose and he was a dedicated tracker. Will absolutely loved to go to work,” he said.
“I really enjoyed the job — running through the woods at three in the morning, chasing these guys with Will. It was fun,” Sgt. Hearn recalled.
“In 4 1/2 years he made 130 captures — suspects involved in (break-ins), armed robbery, drug searches. He found marijuana, cocaine. He had quite a nose.”
“The bad guys know police officers are not going to hurt them. They know we have to operate under certain regulations, but they don’t know about the dog, so they give the dogs lots of respect.
“A tracking dog like Will would go from daylight to dusk. They’re highly motivated and this guy never had a mean bone in his body,” he said.
Sgt. Hearn said he considered keeping his former partner as a family pet.
“It was too hard. He’d watch me go to work and leave him behind. It was just too hard to leave him behind every day,” he said.
So Sgt. Hearn did the next best thing.
“He’s got a good home now with Jim Moody, a young, single police officer, and he’s got it made.
“Will gets to just be a dog now — chill out and take it easy,” Sgt. Hearn said.
When he was working Will was on a very strict diet.
“Now he’s pretty spoiled. He even gets to sleep on the bed — 90 pounds of German shepherd. Now that’s spoiled.”
Will was the second tracking dog in the history of the police force. On Friday, the RCMP in Nova Scotia announced they’re giving two eight-week-old German shepherd pups named Seiger and Silken to Truro police for their first year of development and training.
The pups were bred and raised as police dogs and will live with aspiring dog handlers during what’s referred to as the imprinting period. Once the dogs are imprinted, they will return to Innisfail, Alta., to complete their training with an RCMP dog handler before being stationed somewhere in Canada.
It’s the first time the RCMP has partnered with a municipal police service for such training in a dog’s first year.
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