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Cazz in place as new avalanche dog

Though he’s just a youngster, he’s now got plenty of training under his collar and he’s raring to go.
Warden Mike Henderson with new search and rescue dog, Cazz.
Warden Mike Henderson with search and rescue dog Cazz.

Though he’s just a youngster, he’s now got plenty of training under his collar and he’s raring to go.

Cazz, Parks Canada’s new search and rescue dog, along with handler Warden Mike Henderson, have been involved in boundary patrols, on the lookout for poachers, searching for missing persons and working with RCMP on drug and evidence searches.

And now that winter has fully arrived in the valley, Cazz (aka Shaggy Dog) and Henderson are prepared for any avalanche work that might be required.

Cazz replaces Atar, who had a distinguished five-year career as a Parks dog. He’s now enjoying his retirement in Pincher Creek with some Parks staffers.

A product of an RCMP breeding program, Cazz was paired up with Henderson in May and as a team they spent four months training at the depot in Innisfail.

As part of a reciprocal agreement, a Parks dog receives RCMP training and police dogs receive avalanche specialty training.

Henderson put on a lot of kilometres travelling back and forth to Innisfail, but Cazz is now fully operational and lives with Henderson and his family, with his own insulated Parks Canada outdoor kennel.

“The training is a long process and pretty exacting,” said Henderson. “It takes four months, 72 working days, but that’s what it takes with an established handler and a new dog.

“But Shaggy is a well-rounded, confident dog and he’s calm on chairlifts, on snowmobiles and in helicopters.”

Cazz’s training ranged from tracking in rural situations, where he had to track for a good 2.5 kilometres, to criminal apprehension (bite work), to general duty police dog work including narcotics (seven types) and firearms searches, and evidence and small article (shell casings, etc.) searches.

“We really work on the tracking,” said Henderson, “that’s a really useful profile for us because of the work we do in the mountains.”

Search training was also ramped up from rural to urban searches in Red Deer, where there are many distractions and more difficult tracking on gravel and pavement.

“And there was a lot of obedience training,” said Henderson. “He has to be socialized and able to manage whatever environment he’s in. I think the RCMP did a great job of pairing us up.”

Cazz, a German shepherd, ended up with the nickname Shaggy Dog, said Henderson, “because he’s got long hair, he’s black and he’s got a big head. He’s also got a soulpatch of white on his chest.

“We haven’t been overly busy, but things are cyclical and we’ll get slammed at some point.”

Being a youngster, Cazz will likely log a solid five years of work with Parks Canada, as did Atar before him.

“That’s about average for Parks Canada. Between the avalanche profile and all the miles we put on them, we’re pretty hard on them. We ask quite a bit of these guys and put them in scary situations.”

Henderson said it was hard to see Atar go into retirement. “He was hard working and a nice dog to be with, but it’s also nice to be able to see him relax and retire. He’s really taken to the whole retirement thing.”

Atar suffered several injuries during a career which saw him help the RCMP and take part in many strenuous avalanche searches.


Rocky Mountain Outlook

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