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“Pharaoh was an awesome dog. He always had my back. I felt very proud to be a K-9 officer, and I felt quite devastated when I learned how he passed away.”

When asked to describe the fateful night he lost his partner, Craig admitted he couldn’t get through reliving what happened without choking up.

Craig was one of the first officers on the Calgary police dog unit when it started in 1960 — a time when there were only four police dogs for the city of just over 235,000.

“We took turns — we got off at two o’clock in the morning, so we would start at two in the afternoon. We’d have a sitting in court and we’d take turns — we only had two K-9 cars,” said Craig, who said the relationship between owner and handler hasn’t changed between then and now.

“I think it’s the same. A dog handler gets close to its dog because of what the dog does for him. I’ve gone through three other dogs on my own as a civilian and they have passed and it’s not the same.”

Sgt. Jim Gourley with the Calgary police K-9 unit says the force was happy to finally make things right.

“I think we did right today,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get it right in 1969 — things were different. I think we made amends and I’m happy that we were able to do that for Herb.”

Before the ceremony, attendees were able to get a first-hand look at upgrades made to the RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre’s state-of-the-art training facilities.

“(Two years ago) we purchased 22-acres of land to move our old agility field — we wanted the public to have more access,” said Staff Sgt. Gary Creed, acting officer in charge of the RCMP Police Dog Services.

“The agility field is replacing our old field, which ran its course for its life span.”

Upgraded facilities include an improved tower housing a tunnel system allowing the dogs to track in tight spaces.

Other parts of their new land include spaces for human remains detection.

zlaing@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @zjlaing