Police celebrating K9 graduation and retirement along with the unit’s 60th anniversary

Lethbridge Police are welcoming the newest four-legged member and wishing two outgoing police service dogs a happy retirement – all during the K9 Unit’s 60^th anniversary year.

PSD Macho, an almost three-year-old Belgian Malinois, has completed 20 weeks of comprehensive training with his handler, Cst. Braylon Hyggen, and will take the reins, or rather leash, from PSD Myke (also handled by Hyggen) and PSD Robby, handled by Cst. Andrew Firby. PSD Myke, 10, and PSD Robby, 11, have served since 2016 and will now transition to retirement, remaining with their respective handlers as pampered pets. 

Macho’s training included tracking, obedience, agility, building searches, compound/area searches, evidence searches and criminal apprehension. He will also continue to work on skills such as drug detection. 

The grad and retirement celebrations, coincide with the 60^th anniversary of the LPS K9 Unit, which was established in 1964 when the Service acquired its first dog, PSD Thors Yorker. Better known as York, the first canine was initially handled by Cst. Glen Berry, then Cst. Joe Schenk. PSD York came from a kennel in Devon, Alberta and served with LPS until 1972. In the early days, police dogs were trained in Belt, Montana. In the mid-90s an in-house training program was developed. Since the inception of the police service dog program, there have been 32 canines – including the dogs who are currently serving.

The Service has at total of four K9 Teams who work alongside the frontline patrol teams and with the Critical Incident Team.