So long to Sask.’s sole super sniffer
Holly, the province’s only border services dog, retires after nine years
Holly has hung up her collar after nine years of service with Canada Border Services Agency.
“We’re happy for her to be retiring but it’s also just a bittersweet time because she was very well loved in the community and a great, excellent detector dog,” said Luke Reimer, communications officer with CBSA.
Aug. 12 was Holly’s last day of work, based out of the North Portal crossing with her handler.
“The detector dogs help by reducing labour intensive searches, by cutting down the time it takes to search through a large shipment by using noses. And that helps to improve the service for travellers for the time needed to screen or examine passengers or luggage,” Reimer said.
During Holly’s career she was involved in 216 seizure actions and was trained to sniff out guns and drugs all across Saskatchewan.
Holly was a bright dog. She participated multiple times in the annual Canadian Police Canine Association Trials, placing first three years in a row and as runnerup twice.
“It just goes to show that she was a great detector dog and it really shows the CBSA detector dog service program,” Reimer said.
Holly was the only detector dog based in Saskatchewan. She would travel back and forth along the American border and to non-land ports, wherever she was needed.
Since Holly has retired, Saskatchewan is now without a detector dog for the time being. CBSA is looking into replacing her. In the meantime it has detection tools including X-rays and an ion mobility spectrometer that can detect substances.
Holly has retired to live with her handler who has been transferred to a different position within CBSA.