Photo courtesy Grande Prairie RCMP

By Erika Rolling

RCMP Police Dog

Grande Prairie’s newest four-legged RCMP member

Jun 16, 2022 | 7:00 AM

A two-year-old German Shepherd, Nytro is the newest member of the Grande Prairie RCMP Police Services Dog program.

Nytro was part of a litter of puppies born in 2020 and was raised in St. Albert, Saskatchewan.

He met his handler Cst. Mark Pearce in September 2021 and the pair graduated from the Police Dog Service Training Centre in Innisfail in February 2022.

All RCMP Police Service Dogs are purebred German Shepherds and at six weeks old, they become “Potential Police Service Dogs”. They are put through structured training and only PPSD’s that display the qualities needed to become a working RCMP dog goes forward into an imprinting process. The RCMP Imprinting Program prepares the puppies to be successful in their eventual training.

RCMP Members from across Canada who one day want to become a police dog handler, volunteer their time to ensure the PPSD’s are well socialized, and familiarized in various environments and introduce them to tracking humans and criminal awareness.

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Cst. Pearce has been with the Grande Prairie detachment since 2019. He says he wanted to become a handler because he loves working with dogs.

“I like seeing the progression they have, as well as all the different things they can do. It’s pretty incredible to watch them whether they are tracking a bad guy looking for an article of evidence.”

“It’s fun to have a partner that gets along with you so well,” he says.

There are currently three K-9 teams at the Grande Prairie detachment, including Nytro.

Cst. Pearce says on a daily basis; “we work on obedience, just making sure that we have control over our dogs and they respond to our commands and then we also work on tracking.”

“It’s very important whether we are tracking a bad guy through the city or out in the bush, most importantly if we are looking for a missing person whether it’s a hunter that’s lost or a child that wandered away from home, we work a lot on that.”

Cst. Pearce says they also do daily training on conducting searches for when they have to do it in real cases and investigations.

“Nytro is what we call a multi-profile dog, so he tracks persons whether they are bad guys or someone that is lost. He also searches for drugs and he can also search for evidence such as small shell casings that might be left behind at a scene.” He noted a few of Nytro’s many talents.

When Nytro is not working, Cst. Pearce says he likes to get brushed and “he loves running fast, he’s true to his name!”

“He’s taken well to swimming, he really likes going in lakes and ponds lately,” he says.

Residents may see Nytro as well as other Police Service Dogs working, Cst. Pearce says “he is a working dog so don’t approach him to pet, when we are done and you want to say hi to him or anything like that, just ask us, but if you see us working in town try to keep your distance.”