Racer | as told to Jock Mackenzie , photos provided by Sergeant Claudio Mauricio

My name is Racer , I ’ m 6½ years old , I ’ m a male German Shepherd , and I ’ m about to retire . I ’ ve had a great career , and I ’ d keep going if they ’ d let me , but I injured my shoulder so it ’ s just not possible .

I don ’ t really know what retirement will be like , but I ’ m planning to attack it like I ’ ve attacked every other day in my very memorable life — especially the day I saved my master ’ s life . My first day at the Innisfail Police Dog Service Training Centre is where I ’ ll begin .

I arrived forty-five days late . All the other dogs had completed almost half of the eighty-five

days allotted to train RCMP dogs , so I had some major catching up to do — but I had the right pedigree ( my mom was a brood dog for the program and my dog dad had been a star for the force ) and I was blessed with what they call a great “ ball sense .”

By the end of training , I had caught up to and surpassed many of the other dogs . Claudio ( I ’ ll just call him Dad from now on ) and I got stationed to Richmond ,

British Columbia . We were in Richmond , and then Surrey , B . C ., ( Canada ’ s auto theft capital ) for my whole career . If I thought I ’ d learned all there was to learn in Innisfail , I was in for a shock . School can only teach so much ; the real world is an unbelievably bigger classroom .

Oh yes , I ’ d learned the fundamentals over the three levels of training : human , explosive , firearm , and evidence searching ; human tracking ; and criminal apprehension . And unlike the common notion that criminals leave some personal object behind for us to sniff , I learned to identify and follow the most recent human scent . With Dad at the other end of my twenty-foot leash , I was off !

Like all other police dogs , I ’ d been tested at regular intervals for my ball sense . And I LOVE chasing a ball . That ’ s the reward I ’ d get when I ’ d done a good job . In training , I learned to recognize the smells related to guns , drugs , and explosives , and when I found any one of them , I ’ d get the ball ! Out in the world after school , I added more smells to my mental menu , and those too got me a ball reward . Motivation rules !

Upon graduation , once we ’ d moved to

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