REGINA - The new facility dog for Regina Police Service was officially introduced on Wednesday.
Sinclair is a fully certified facility dog, certified as a Pacific Assistance Dog (PADS). He takes over from PADS Merlot, the previous facility dog who retired early last year.
Sinclair, a yellow lab who is named for Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair, works with the RPS as well as the Regina Children’s Justice Centre.
Sinclair started training at eight weeks and spent over 1,200 hours in training with the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society before being placed with RPS at two and a half years old.
Sinclair’s role is to be there for victims or witnesses to crime, and provide emotional support and companionship for those vulnerable individuals who are giving a police statement or have to testify in court. The dog is trained to be calm and to be able to handle high stress situations.
Sgt. Kyla Young of the Regina Children’s Justice Centre is responsible for handling Sinclair. She was matched with Sinclair in October in Calgary and after some initial training there finished up training in Regina in November.
“It’s really an invaluable tool that our canines have in a role like this,” Young said. “We know that child abuse is a traumatic event, so when children have to testify or give a statement to police is extremely stressful. For them to be able to come to our centre and be able to meet with a police officer and tell their story, it’s very important they have a tool like Sinclair there to calm them down, to be the emotional support for them. We know that Sinclair has the ability to reduce stress, reduce trauma, reduce anxiety, all the benefits to a facility dog.”
By having this support role, Sinclair plays a valuable role in helping kids testify calmly and clearly and not feel traumatized.
“They have better recollection, they have a better ability for their statement to flow, so everything about the dog is positive when it comes to my role as a police officer, in obtaining statements, in having the child testify in court. These are all important to take a file and hold an offender accountable, and to be able to do that we need the child to be really comfortable, as comfortable as they can be.”
Sinclair is a full working dog, but once the workday is over he goes home with Young for some down time. As for recreation, Sinclair spent some time at the lake over the winter, and he frequently goes for walks at the bike pass at River Landing, often with another new dog friend he met at home.
“I have another dog at home, a rescue dog, so they are about the same age and they are best buddies.”
