John Stolarski’s Old Newspaper Clippings

With the exception of his first two years in the Force, John Stolarski spent his entire career as a Police Dog Services handler (1961 – 1988).

Throughout this career, John clipped newspaper articles about members who he had worked with.

Despite the fact that John has passed away, his family has agreed for us to re-post these articles for the interest of RCMP Veterans and current members of the Force.

FOUR-LEGGED TRAINEES TEACH RCMP MEN NEW IDEAS, TOO

Cpl. Walter Regitnig of Innisfail and Flash demonstrate the art of tracking. Flash is the RCMP rRed Deer Subdivision service dog stationed at Innisfail. He is not connected with the dog training school (Source of photo – Bryan McKinnon)

May 20, 1966 (The Red Deer Advocate: Story by Denis Stanley & Bryan McKinnon Photos) – Duke, an 11-year veteran, balked on a simple tracking and retrieving assignment and officials of the RCMP Service Dog Training Kennels near Innisfail were surprised.

Staff Sergeant Terry Kehoe remarked that they learn something new about the dogs every day.

Duke was tracking a butane lighter covered with water buffalo hide and, although he found the object, he was reluctant to pick it up.

Thinking that the balk was a peculiarity of Duke’s S/Sgt. Kehoe called upon Sheba, a new dog, who also balked at the lighter.

Since the opening of the dog training school in November, dog trainers and dog masters have discovered  many new things about the dogs.

Buke and Flash, stationed in Red Deer subdivision at Innisfail, were responsible for finding the remains of a French youth murdered on a hiking trip to the Yukon.

The dogs found the remains almost two years after the boy was lost.

Cst., J.C. Brown and veteran police dog Rindy demonstrate obedience which is one of the first things learned by the German Shepherds at the RCMP service dog training kennels near Innisfail. (Source of photo – Bryan McKinnon)

At that time, the trainers wanted to know how the dogs could tell the difference between human and animal bones.  Scientists told the trainers the dogs could tell the difference because man at prepared food while the animal ate raw food.  Even after two years, the dogs were able to tell.

Many bold, new ideas have evolved since the opening of the 17-acre school in Innisfail.

Wednesday night saw an innovation.  S/Sgt. Keboe bred two highly- training German Shepherds.  The RCMP hope to breed their own replacement dogs in the future and have the dogs born with traits of the parent dogs.

Of the 20 dogs in the field across Canada, there are several well-bred female dogs.  Biene and Sheba are both in the kennels at Innisfail.

At present, there are four trained dogs in the kennels for a refresher course and, there are five new dogs in training.

The dogs in training are in the ninth week of a 14-week course.  The dogs taking the refresher will be finished this week.

A syllabus of the 14-week course shows that the trainees spend the first week on a familiarization program, during the second week, the dogs are introduced to commands, during the third week, the dogs are drilled with speaking commands and trained on jumps, their first introduction to retrieving comes in the fourth week; in the fifth week, they learn scent discrimination; in the sixth week, search work starts, and they also given higher jumps and taught to retrieve small objects in the seventh week, they are taught drowning rescue work.

The second phase of the training moves into more refined tracking and searching.  During the ninth week, the dog learns to search for his master.  In the tenth week, he learned to track his master.  Next, the dog learns to search for illicit spirits.  Alt the climax of the second phase of training, the dog is given a complete review of all nose work.

In the final phase of training, the dog is taught to guard and attack.  This most difficult part of the training is left until the last.  In the 14^th week, the dogs are given a review of the entire course.

Ero whose aggressiveness was held back for two years as a show dog in Calgary demonstrates aggressiveness as he attacks Cst. D.G. Weir of Red Deer posing as an armed criminal. Euro has entered the final phase of training and has just started on the attack. (Source of photo – Bryan McKinnon).

The syllabus is not always followed closely.  Dogs can learn quickly when given the lead by a trained dog, so a portion of training may be skipped while a trained dog is refreshing on a particular aspect.  All the dogs will work on the same thing.

Dog training in Canada was started by the late Sgt. Jack Cawsey, stationed in Calgary , 35 years ago.  Since then, the dog school has been moved across the nation.  Most recently it was in Ottawa and Sydney, N.S.  But the dog section was always connected to a regular detachment never had a separate building and kennel.

The site, located 22 miles south of Red Deer, on Highway 2, was chosen because of the climate, and terrain.

The school is able to operate all year and can find all kinds of terrain within 50 miles of the kennels.  It is also the centre for western dog masters.

Accommodations costing more than $100,000 are situated on the 17-acre site, although not completed.  Jumps and equipment are still arriving at the school.  Barracks for the men will be built on the site in the future.  In the meantime, men are housed in motels in the area.

It is the first of its type in the nation.  There are 14 kennels neatly arranged for maximum efficiency.

There are four permanent staff at the kennels S/Sgt Kehoe, Cpl. J.D. McLean, assistant trainer; a civilian kennel attendant, and a spare dog master.

Training is not limited to the site.  The dogs and officers travel to the mountains in the west, to the plains in the east for special work.  Trainers try to simulate conditions which will be met by the dogs in actual working life.

Those at the school at present are: Duke and Cpl. M.I. Murton of Prince Albert, on a refresher course.

Ero and Cst. R.H. Stephens of Nelson, B.C. Cst. Stephens is retraining, while the dog is new.  He lost his last dog in a gun battle in Rossland, B.C. last year.

Max with Cst. C.K. Jones is also a team with a former master and new dog.

Rindy and Cst. J.C. Brown are attending a refresher course.  Rajah and Cst. H. Geddes of Dauphin, Manitoba are also on a refresher course.

Werro and Cst. B.H. Johns, Sheba and Cst. B. Baldwin, and Rocky and Cost. F.D. Marioo are all new teams.

Also attending the course are four RCMP officers who act as quarries during the training.  The quarries are men interested in dogs, and who would like to get positions as masters.  A the end of the course they are also evaluated by the officers and may be recommended for a dog at some future time.

Cst. D.G. Wiebe of Red Deer is one of the quarries attending the course.

S/Sgt. Kehoe says that the graduate dogs could be valuable on any type of investigation and, are being used for more cases every year.

“The greatest use for our dogs is during the hunting season, looking for lost hunters,” said S/Sgt. Kehoe.

Cpl. Walter Regitnig of Innisfail has worked with Flash on several cases during the year to capture escapees from Bowden, to search for lost children and to aid in criminal investigations.

There are three other dogs stationed in Alberta, one in Calgary sub-division, one in Edmonton sub-division, and one in Peace River sub-division.

S/Sgt. Kehoe started his training with dogs for Scotland Yard.  He joined the RCMP in 1957 and, in 1961, was named head trainer for Canada.

Duke, the 11-year veteran of dog service in Canada, shows threats of the class how easy it is to find illicit alcohol hidden in the grass by this building. Due is the oldest dog in the service and is stationed at Prince Albert with master Cpl. M.I. Burton (Source of photo – Bryan McKinnon).

He say that one of the most important aspects of training is choosing the right man-dog combination.

“We have to match temperament of the dogs and men.  We have to put aggressive dogs with aggressive men.”

He said that fearlessness, aggressiveness and attitude are what they look for in a dog when first picking it for police work.

Constable Bill Sterling of the RCMP Dogmaster Subdivision lectured the children of St. Pat’s Elementary school on Tuesday. His dog King is used by the RCMP all over the lower mainland for tracking, guarding, etc…