Edmonton police dog working to support members through mental health challenges

The newest four-legged member of the Edmonton Police Service will help his colleagues redirect tension.

The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) has a new furry member to help support its staff during difficult times.

Blaise is the organization’s first Operational Stress Intervention Dog and his task will be to help sworn and civilian EPS members through mental health challenges through emotional support, stress relief and comfort.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News Edmonton, right at your fingertips

“We know the smallest gestures can have the biggest impact and sometimes a wagging tail and a quiet moment can be just what someone needs to rest and recharge,” said interim EPS Chief Warren Driechel.

Blaise is trained to recognize signs of agitation in people and interrupt those processes by providing a calming presence.

His handlers spent the last couple of weeks training Blaise and he is now working full-time.

Blaise comes to EPS through a donation and partnership with Wounded Warriors Canada and was provided by B.C. and Alberta Guide Dogs.

According to one of Blaise’s handlers, when he is in the building he has a lot of staff coming around to give him pets.

“They’ll say, ‘This is the best part of my day, I can sleep well tonight,’ it’s been really amazing over the last two weeks,” said Const. David Klein.

Blaise isn’t limited to EPS Headquarters, he goes to the divisions around the city to help where he’s needed.

EPS has tried a similar program with other dogs in the past, but they didn’t work out.

“Not that it was the dog’s fault,” Klein said. “Typically with a service dog, he’s someone’s ride or die, he’s at someone’s side.

“It’s just that we need a dog who will lie here chill and then I tell him to go see a room of 15 people and he’ll happily leave my side and go.”

Programs like this have proven successful in western Canada at other police organizations.

“They have a huge, huge impact because we know that when it comes to mental health, the earlier that you can intervene … the less need they’ll be for the kinds of downstream programs that we do and treatment programs,” said Philip Ralph, the director of health services with Wounded Warriors Canada.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Klippenstein