Brantford police introduce new therapy dog to bring joy to staff

The Brantford Police Service has now added a therapy dog to their department whose job is to bring comfort and joy to the staff.

“North’s fantastic. So North’s a three-year-old black Lab Golden Retriever and he’s been with our service since April of this year,” says Nicole Ensell, North’s primary handler.

North was loaned to Brantford police by Autism Dog Services (ADS), an organization that raises and trains service dogs for people with autism and other conditions.

North’s title is facility dog and he takes his job very seriously. He has gone through the Puppy Program with ADS for two years.

“Putting smiles on peoples faces, just kind of lighting up the room when he comes in. There’s a lot of emotional stuff that people can deal with here whether they’re out on the road or whether they’re here at the service. And even just that instant change of a smile on someone’s face and taking that stressful moment away, it’s absolutely priceless,” Ensell says.

Despite his obedience and socialization training, North was ultimately deemed too friendly to serve as an autism service dog.

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“Facility dog is a perfect role for him. He continues to be a working dog. He continues to support and our training that we provided him to be an autism service dog, his skills are transferred beautifully here at Brantford Police Services,” says Vicky Spadoni, the executive director of ADS.

North isn’t the only ADS dog that has been put to work.

“The same time we placed North, we also placed Tucker with Niagara police services and he supports the Mental Health Clinician Program there and they grew up together, so it’s rather exciting to see the two of them prosper in this way,” Spadoni says.

“I think the data and the history is there. There’s no doubt that having an animal or a dog or a facility dog makes huge impact on employee wellness,” Ensell says.

ADS says to get a dog to this point costs around $30,000 but they’ve been loaned to local police and paramedic services free of charge. ADS just asks that those services help fundraise for the non-profit organization.

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