POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 33 It didn’t take long for New Glasgow’s new police dog to make his first collar. EKKO (pronounced E-CO) was brought in from Slovakia to replace Bosko, who retired earlier this year after several years of service. Cpl. Duane Rutledge underwent 16 straight weeks of traning in the fall in Halifax. For the first six weeks, EKKO was literally tied to Rutledge. “He was always attached to me with some sort of lead, he was never free,” said the 25-year police veteran. Rutledge also worked to develop a complete trust with EKKO by being the only person to bring the dog food and water. EKKO cracked his first case Wednesday night in Linacy, after a 15-year-old allegedly broke into a residence at Green’s Trailer Court on Merigomish Road. After an officer found a set of footprints, the K9 quickly went to work. “EKKO took the track and followed it for about 1.5 kilometers,” to the boy’s residence, Rutledge said. All of the electronic property stolen in the break-in was recovered. The young offender remains in custody and will face charges of break, enter and theft, and breach of an undertaking, police said on Thursday. The 20-month old German shepherd, small for a police dog, resided in a kennel at Rutledge’s home, where he lives with his wife Kim, their two daughters, and three other dogs: a Jack Russell Terrier, a Lab and an 11-month-old Bull Mastiff. Because EKKO isn’t realy a pet, he doesn’t interact much with the other animals and his handler is careful to not to treat him too much like a normal dog. “He’s an asset to the police department, a tool that we use,” Rutledge said. “In order to keep him sharp, you can’t have him acting like a pet. To him, work is like play - that’s what he lives for.” German shepherds are desirable for police work because of their durability, loyalty, intelligence, courage and strength. “And they are silent trackers, they don’t bark like hounds.” By Kevin Adshade, The Evening News Cpl. Duane Rutledge of New Glasgow Police Services with his new partner EKKO. How EKKO was trained to sniff out marijuana: 1. Was taken into a room, where there were six boxes, (each about 30 cm by 20 cm by 20 cm) and each with a hole large enough for a dog to put his nose in. 2. A toy familiar to the dog was placed in one of the boxes. The command “search pot” was used for EKKO and he would seek out the item. 3. After repetition, the exercise was done again, but with a bag of marijuana placed in with the toy. 4. The bag of marijuana was placed inside the box without the toy, but when he found the marijuana, a toy was tossed from behind his handler. These exercises, through sheer repetition, made finding marijuana fun for EKKO. In the News... Criminals, beware of dog As originally published
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