Over the past four months Cst. Curtis Amiot and Argo completed 600 hours of training to become the newest certified partners of the Moose Jaw Police Service's K9 Unit. 

 The two were introduced back in the fall at the Police Service open house but look a lot different now that they've completed all the necessary training. 

Photo courtesy of the Moose Jaw Police Service K9 Units Twitter page.

Argo and his handler Cst. Amiot returned to patrol this week. Their first day back was pretty quiet until the end of the shift when they were called to action and Argo made his first successful capture. 

"Once he was told what he needed to do, he did exactly what he was supposed to do and that's the goal of the training is to make sure that they're put in situations where they're going to succeed when the time comes to do it for real. He was awesome and everything worked out, and it was probably the best case scenario for how it played out as far as it working and as far as minimizing any further dangers or any further injury to anyone else."

Cst. Amiot said there are plenty of benefits to having a dog as a partner - skills that would take humans years to master if even possible. 

"The reliability of having somebody that has another strength than I do, than another human would have. The scent detection in the nose, and the instincts the dogs have. Also when it comes time for apprehensions just the speed and the strength that way as well."

Although their training is completed the pair needs to complete yearly validations to stay within the K9 Unit. He said they'll continue to work on different practices and even participate with neighbouring units in drills and training days. 

"We'll do things in like doing some of the searches on a longer line where the officers are out of position to cover. And we're also fortunate enough to be invited to participate with RPS (Regina Police Service) on their K9 training days and they have the benefit of working with SWAT and the Emergency Response Team a little bit too, so we're hoping to take advantage of as many of those days as we can."

Cst. Amiot noted that their bond is getting stronger with each passing week and Argo is a great addition not only to the Police Force, but has also been working well with his family.