From the moment they are weaned as puppies, police and military dogs start training for their life of service.
They learn to track missing children through dense bush, search aircraft for explosives, and run head first towards danger.
Police dogs are far more than companions. They are highly trained working officers and their work is essential to keeping Canadians safe.
“These dogs work regular shifts, but they’re also on call,” RCMP Sgt. Mike Drenka explained. “We provide 24-hour service, seven days a week.
“It’s physically demanding for both the dogs and the handlers.”
Sgt. Drenka currently works with his dog Memphis — his second dog since he joined the RCMP canine unit in 2014.
His first dog Roy was retired in 2020. For the most part, Roy lived a healthy retirement until about his last six months, when he started having mobility issues.
“We were very fortunate that Ned’s Wish stepped in and provided him with a wheelchair, so he remained mobile and fit and healthy,” Sgt. Drenka said.
Years of jumping, climbing, searching and sprinting takes a toll on the service dogs’ bodies.
Common injuries include joint degeneration in hips and elbows, spinal issues, and mobility problems — conditions similar to those faced by human first responders.
“We take really good care of these guys during their careers,” Sgt. Drenka said.
While the police service does what it can with regular veterinary care, physio and “dog yoga” for active members — when the dog can no longer do the job, the veterinary care then falls on handlers or families who take them into their homes.
With their working careers, pet insurance isn’t often a viable option to help with costs.
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“Sadly, taxpayers dollars can only go so far,” Stacey Talbot, the founder of Ned’s Wish, said.
“Your agencies that are looking after them they have to keep their working dogs working.”
Talbot spent more than 35 years with the RCMP, and routinely took home retired dogs.
“I had Ned for five glorious years,” Talbot said.
“Over that time, I racked up about $50,000 in vet bills.”
While veterinary medicine has advanced significantly, Talbot realized something crucial was missing: support for retired police and military working dogs.
“The public assumes agencies take care of them after retirement,” she said.
“Once these dogs can’t perform anymore, they’re retired and the costs don’t stop.”
Recognizing a nationwide gap, Talbot and a small group of supporters took action.
After a year-long process, Ned’s Wish became a registered charity — its slogan is a cause for heroes with paws.
“These dogs have been bred and trained into a life of service, and once they can no longer perform that service, then they’re retired,” Talbot said. “They’ve given the best years of their life for the work that they do.
“When they retire, they’ve retired because their bodies can’t do it anymore.”
Six years later, Ned’s Wish remains 100-per cent volunteer-run. It’s paid out more than $600,000 in veterinary costs for 266 retired RCMP, military and municipal police service dogs across the country.
“They’re like our human officers and so they deserve to have a comforting retirement in terms of their medical well-being and the support that they need to get into a home that can provide that for them.”
Talbot said maintenance for some of these dogs can costs handlers or owners upwards of $500 a month. That doesn’t include emergency surgeries that are often tied to the work they did on the force.
“This dog saved your life, he’s looked after you,” Talbot said. “You go to the vet, he’s really sick, and the vet says, ‘We can save your dog, but it’s gonna be a $15,000 surgery.’
“I don’t know too many families that can afford that.”
Ned’s Wish hosts a variety of fundraisers across the country to pay the bills. They don’t get any government funding or grants. Talbot said they work they do is worth every penny.
“To see them get what they need and to see somebody go, ‘Oh my goodness, you can help. This is my partner. They’re sick. They’re not feeling well.’ And then for us to step in and say, ‘We got you’ — it’s great.”
Ned’s Wish relies entirely on donations and grassroots fundraising, from fun runs and golf tournaments, to children donating birthday money instead of gifts.
“Any way you can help matters,” Talbot said. “Time, skills, donations…it all supports the dogs who kept you safe.”
For Sgt. Drenka, the mission is personal.
“These dogs give everything they have,” he said. “Supporting organizations like Ned’s Wish is one small way we can say thank you.”
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