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A Saskatoon police canine team met provincial standards during an incident in which a six-year-old girl was bitten by a police dog — but “improvements to policy and procedure” have still been put in place, according to city police.

A review into the June 11 incident has been completed, police said Tuesday.

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In a prepared statement, police said the review proposed “some modification to deployment procedures when using a team” and changes have been implemented that have become part of standardized training for all new and existing members of the canine unit.

Photo by Liam Richards / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

“I think we’re always looking for ways of improving our deployment,” Deputy Chief Mitch Yuzdepskisaid in an interview.

“What we had to do was look at the incident … and follow up with ‘How can we prevent this from happening in the future?’ “

Yuzdepski said members of the canine unit, when faced with a similar incident as the one in June, need to consider multiple factors, including length of leash between handler and dog, the time of day, environment, blind corners, and navigating property in the area.