Guardian in the woods, streams and lakes of Ontario
July 21st, 2010 | 
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Colin with Tanner during daily training
This unit assists Conservation Officers in the detection and recovery of evidence and concealed fish and wildlife. The highly trained dogs accompany their handlers every day to work and ride with them in trucks, boats, snowmachines, helicopters and ATVs.
These dogs provide high visibility patrols to deter violators from poaching and/or crime scenes. When someone is lost in the back woods they provide search and rescue support.
Once the trainer has his or her dog, it is up to them to train the dog in obedience, detection, tracking, etc. Frequent and intense refresher courses are mandatory. It is very important for the dog to have complete trust in the trainer. The dogs live with their trainers and are treated as professionals within the family. They are police officers. At present there are only six to seven such dogs working in the province of Ontario.
Colin Cotnam is a Conservation Officer in the Bancroft District and is shown here during training exercises with his Golden Retriever mix, Tanner, who has been a canine officer since 2008. When not directly servicing the south and central part of Ontario, Tanner and Colin conduct educational seminars.
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Captain Kilkenny of ‘The Toronto Irish’, 1939
Thanks to Susan Henderson, Fergus, Ontario
When I read your request for stories in the Canadian Legion magazine I was happy. I have a story about an Irish Wolfhound. This photograph was published by the Star Weekly, Toronto, on October 28, 1939.
Before the war started, my father raised this and other Wolfhounds to show and breed. My dad was 17 years old in this picture. When my grandfather realized that he and his three sons were going to war, he sold and gave away his horses and his dogs. Read the rest of this entry »
To diet or not to diet
- Bob
This is Bob the Pug. He belongs to Trevor Deschamps and Courtney Scott. With their children they live in a residential area of Prince Rupert, B.C.
On April10,2010, neighbours observed what they first thought was a large dog grab Bob from his front lawn and trot away with him in his mouth like a mother would pick up a kitten.
They hollered to Trevor and Courtney that a wolf had picked up Bob and run off with him. Soon everyone, including Courtney who had given birth to her third child just two weeks before, was yelling and running in pursuit down the street into the woods nearby. As they ran they kept hollering and making a lot of noise and throwing rocks and sticks. Finally the wolf, who by all reports was a large and very handsome guy, dropped the Pug and ran off. Bob’s neck was punctured, but he was alright. Apparently his neck was too fat for the wolf to maintain a good bite on him!
Bob is home safe with his family who wonder whether to put him on that diet they’d been considering before wolf boy paid them a visit.
Brave girl, good dog
Krystle Morrow and Koby at home recovering. Photo by Christopher Pike thanks to the Ottawa Citizen
In February 2010, Krystle Morrow and her dog Koby were taking their normal walk along a snowmobile trail where they walked together daily in Casselman, Ontario.
Koby, the Border Collie/Husky mix had been adopted by the Morrow family about three months earlier when his former family moved to Florida and felt that the Husky part of the dog wouldn’t do well in Florida’s climate.
On this day, the 19 year old and her dog inadvertently got caught in a foothold trap that had been laid along the trail to catch coyotes. These traps are easily concealed. Krystle dragged the 55 kilogram birch log to which the traps were secured for about a kilometre through snow to get help. Once she’d made it to her house, she was unable to navigate the hallway to reach the phone because of the log to which she was tied.
Her father Kevin, a retired fire chief, found her sitting bloodied with her dog in the livingroom almost three hours later when he returned from work. He said his daughter’s first concern was for her dog. After he had freed her and called an ambulance, Kevin said there were three foothold traps tied to the three metre-long log. His daughter’s middle fingers had been cut almost to the bone.
I talked to Krystle after her wounds had healed and Koby had recovered from his injuries which fortunately were minor. “It could have been so much worse,” Krystle told me. “Koby was really worried”. She added that her adrenalin kicked in to help her calm her dog as they made their difficult way back home. Krystle’s modesty and simple gratitude for prevailing through this ordeal was heartwarming to hear. I told her Good Dogs Canada is proud of her efforts. See http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=2588868&sponsor=