They blend in with all the police dogs, but the pandemic puppies – all grown up and working now – provide new and exciting experiences for canine police officers.
The decision to raise these puppies in the canine police training facility at Camp Cumuto came during the covid19 lockdown in 2020, when Geoffrey Hospedales, former superintendent of the Mounted and Canine Branch, and Gary Griffith, former police commissioner, couldn’t import police dogs.
Named after letters of the alphabet, the A litter, with both parents a mixture of German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois, the B litter – pure German Shepherds – and two Belgian Malinois from the D litter are finding illegal drugs, guns and ammunition, and have offered their human partners many surprises .
Ati has surpassed everyone’s expectations.
Born on October 10, 2020, the entire A litter got parvovirus, an acute, often deadly gastrointestinal virus. One puppy died and it did not appear Ati would survive. But she fought so valiantly for her life, she won all the canine officers’ hearts.
When she got better, her back legs remained shaky. Cpl Premnath Maharaj took Ati on walks and threw her beloved ball uphill so she could climb and strengthen her legs.
Noting Ati’s high drive to find her ball and desire to work, the puppies’ trainer, Cpl Shane Chase, assigned her to the cadaver programme, along with Beast, of the B litter, who works with Sgt Kirt Antoine.
“Because of her medical history, we didn’t want to put her under too much physical stress,” said Maharaj.
Cadaver dogs don’t have as many assignments as narcotics and explosives-detection dogs.
Maharaj was on vacation when the A-litter puppies were assigned to canine officers. Cpl Chase paired her with Maharaj because of the bond they had already formed.
She has been on about 25 exercises deep inside TT’s forests.
“Ati has gone from being the weakest link to a ‘special’ specialist,” said Maharaj.
She hasn’t found a body yet, but Maharaj says Ati knows her work. Just last week, she had a live hit (the opportunity to smell a dead body). When Maharaj probed a designated area and hit rocks, he pulled Ati off of the exercise. When police moved the rocks and discovered the body double wrapped in plastic, a considerable distance from where Maharaj was probing, he brought back Ati, who demonstrated all the interest a cadaver dog should.
Eight of the ten A-litter puppies – brown dogs with black faces and ears – are working. Apollo, Ammo, Alpha, Arrow – all males – and the females, Anniva, Ashes, Ati and Anya, officially became police dogs in June 2022. Only Axel and Ava did not pass their exams. Ati’s sister, Ashes – the only all-black dog – works with WPC Natasha Joseph in Tobago.
She is “jovial, mischievous, playful, and has a very good teammate,” said Joseph.
Ashes has found marijuana on police exercises.
PC Kesh Ramlogan always had a special bond with Apollo.
“He was assigned to my shift. We worked with all the dogs, but I always noticed Apollo’s energy, focus and drive – that obsession w
