Injury and old age force brave detector dog to clock off after 12 years of loyal service
After 12 years of being part of the garda dog unit in Cork city, Laser the German Shepherd is hanging up his harness and retiring to a quiet life with his handler, Garda Pat Harrington.
“For the dogs it’s not work, it’s a game when they go to work. It’s a very important play that they do,” the garda said.
“When they come out to go to work, they’re actually just looking for their toy.
“Laser just wants a ball, any kind of a ball. Normally it has to be a sliotar because he makes sugar out of tennis balls.”
Aside from reaching his ripe old age, Laser has a half-torn cruciate ligament, which Gda Harrington said played a role in deciding it was time for Laser to give up the day job.
“Like with these dogs, the mind is still willing but unfortunately the body isn’t able,” he said.
Laser has been with Gda Harrington since the dog was five months old. Working and living together has meant the garda and his canine colleague have developed a bond that is arguably stronger than most pets and their owners.
“Laser’s main goal was to protect me at all costs. If you were being aggressive towards [him], [he] would get aggressive back. If you were polite to the dog, the dog would be polite back to you,” Gda Harrington said.
Over the course of his career, Laser has had his work cut out for him. From sniffing out burglars to recovering stolen property and discovering a €900,000 cannabis grow house in Co Clare, he has seen it all.
Gda Harrington said there have been some stand-out moments, including when the detector dog found a burglar hiding out in an area of overgrown hedges on a golf course.
“Even under the thickest, thorniest bush, he found him,” he said.
“The man was screaming, ‘Take the dog back’ and ‘Take the dog away’. This fella was screaming like a baby, but Laser didn’t bite. He just told me where the man was by barking.
“I was proud as punch of him that day because that fella wouldn’t have been found without him.
“It’s all the work you’ve put in behind the scenes, all the training days out in the wind and the rain and everything. That is the fruition of it.”
Gda Harrington, who is an experienced dog handler, says it takes about six to eight weeks to train up a sniffer dog. If the handler does not have the experience, though, it can take about four months.
But not all dogs are made of the same stuff, and those who make the cut and become a garda detector dog are born to take on the job, Gda Harrington said.
“We have a very high failure rate on the initial assessment because all the garda dogs that we use – both for the general purpose work, which is what Laser does, and then for the sniffer dogs for the guns, drugs, cash and explosives – they are all born with the ability to do the work. You can’t just train up any dog,” he said.
Now that Laser has retired, Gda Harrington said the dog will be missed within the unit.
“There are people going missing nearly every week down in Cork, in the southern region and further afield,” Gda Harrington said.
“So there’s always someone in need of a good search dog to be able to go out there and try and find them.”
It hasn’t all been work, though, for Laser the dog at An Garda Síochána.
“Some of my fondest memories are actually going on school visits,” Gda Harrington said.
“The kids could rub him and hug him and kiss him. But it was that initial reaction when they’d see him coming out of the back of the van and then he would hit the ground…and you’d hear [the students] going ‘Oh, he looks like a wolf!’
“Half of them would run away from him, because of the way he looked, but would build up the courage to come back to give him a rub.”
Now retirement for Laser will be filled with lots of treats and walks in the countryside with Gda Harrington, and the dog will also get plenty of time with his favourite ball.
“It’ll be shorter walks and just keeping him happy and content and giving him the dental sticks he loves,” Gda Harrington said.
“He loves his dog biscuits and most of all he loves chasing his ball.”
