Estevan's newest member of the Police service will soon be joining his colleagues. K9 max and his handler, Cst. Paul Chabot are nearing the end of their training. 

"Max's training is coming along very nicely," explained Police Chief, Paul Ladouceur. "Max should be back in the city at the end of this month, I believe he is back on the 29th of September and the training portion will be complete."

He adds that after that, there is one more hurdle to overcome. 

"He will go back for a couple days just to do a validation testing and that's a provincial qualification that qualifies the dog to provincial standards. we believe there will be no problem for Max to achieve that. His success has been phenomenal. His trainers have spoken very highly of Max and his abilities whether it be tracking or protecting and drug detection. So I think the dog will work out very well."

Once training is complete, the police will then discuss how best the team will fit into the EPS. 

"When Cst. Chabot returns with K9 Max, there will be about a two week period where we will work together on putting the final touches on our K9 policies and procedures and integrating the dog in our day to day police work. I would suspect that by mid October, the dog will be out and about in the community and going everywhere that Cst. Chabot goes."

READ MORE: EPS Recognize the Need for Extensive Training with Police Dog