Sault Police introduced Ben to local media on Thursday. He and his handler are the newest members of the department’s Canine Unit.
Ben is a one-and-a-half year old Belgian Malinois who has been assigned to Const. Nick Beaudry of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service. The pair were introduced to local media during an event Thursday at the Police Services Building on Second Line.
Beaudry began working with the Sault Police in 2022. Prior to that, he spent about eight years with the Sudbury Police Service.
With about a decade of service as an officer, this is the first time Beaudry has been assigned a K9 partner.
Beaudry grew up on a farm on Manitoulin Island and had an interest in working with animals, which led him to apply for the handler position. He was selected in the fall and spent 18 months in training with the OPP in Orillia, where he was paired with Police Service Dog (PSD) Ben.
“It’s definitely a way to challenge myself and really help the community with the two of us working together,” said Beaudry.
Ben is currently trained to do tracking and criminal apprehension. Soon, the pair will go back to Orillia to do five more weeks of training to certify Ben to identify drugs, as well.
Beaudry is one of two canine handlers in the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, along with Const. Dan Turco who is currently in charge of the three other police service dogs in the department.
As part of the training, the pair have bonded Ben has become a part of the family.
“He comes home with me, he has a kennel that he stays in. It’s definitely a 24/7 job, if he barks in the middle of the night I have to get up and see what is going on,” said Beaudry.
Beaudry noted Ben is on a very regimented diet and is in constant training to keep maintain peak performance.
“Pets get things like table scraps, he doesn’t get anything like that. He eats high-protein food fed at multiple times of the day to keep him motivated and healthy and ready to move,” he said. “We will work on keeping him as healthy as possible and giving him the right training to keep him healthy so we can keep him as long as possible.”
Sault Police spokesperson Lincoln Louttit said more than 1,300 submissions were sent in by local elementary school students to name the dog. The decision to name him Ben was ultimately up to Beaudry.
“Through some of those submissions Nick was able to choose a name that he wanted and it was Ben,” said Louttit.
A random name will be chosen from the submissions and the winner will have the first school visit by Ben and Beaudry.