Ross, Detector Dog Handler

With being a correctional officer, we work shift work, and so I was able on… if I worked four on, four off, I was able to spend my four days off traveling as a referee. So, I kind of got to live a double life so far throughout my career.

Hi, I'm Ross. I'm a Detector Dog Handler at Springhill Institution. Since I returned from my training, I've been welcome with open arms from not just the two other dog handlers at Springhill Institution, but regionally as well we train very often as a group.

Whiskey was a detector dog, has been in the program longer than I have. He worked at another institution prior to myself receiving him. He's definitely got more experience than I do, and most often times it's him telling me where to go and what to do. He's in charge. We have a different role to play so we do work alone often, so you need to be self-motivated to get in there and get working with everyone. You also need to be self-motivated to keep the dog up to an appropriate working level.

Depending on what day of the week it is there's food deliveries, there's other deliveries, mail, things like that that come in the institution. So, we search those things, we have a routine that way. If there is a call for us to go in and search based on intelligence, then we certainly happily go in and do that as well.

I was in grade 12 at the time, I had the opportunity to do a co-op program. I jumped on that and when I got there what I met was a lot of correctional officers that I really looked up to and ultimately after my co-op program I felt like I would fit in there, and it was a good place to start a career. And, once I got involved myself, I decided to stay.

Adjusting to work in a prison was not that hard for me. I grew up refereeing hockey. Obviously, I was nervous when I got into the correctional environment for the first time, but dealing with conflict has been something that I've been doing for a long time.

I began refereeing hockey when I was 10 years old. I was young, and I started to get the opportunity to referee in front of some supervisors that supervise the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. I was very fortunate to be hired as a linesman when I was 19, and I worked in that league as a linesman for a couple years. And then I was hired by Correctional Service Canada to be a correctional officer. But that took me to Alberta, so I was hired as a linesman in the Western Hockey League. And then after one season there as a linesman I switched over to refereeing in the Western Hockey League. Again, very fortunate to be able to transfer back to the Maritimes with Corrections Canada, which brought me back to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League where I continued my career as a referee.

In total I worked for the Canadian Hockey League for 15 seasons, and I just retired in February of this year, and it was just, it's just been a wonderful experience refereeing hockey. It goes hand-in-hand with, I find it goes hand-in-hand with working as a correctional officer.