{"id":813995,"date":"2026-07-20T11:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/813995\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T11:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:02:09","slug":"pup-cup-fundraiser-supports-winnipeg-police-service-k-9-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/813995\/","title":{"rendered":"Pup cup fundraiser supports Winnipeg Police Service K-9 Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Winnipeg Police Service<\/a> K-9 Unit traded patrols for pup cups on Friday, giving community members a chance to meet the officers and dogs.<\/p>\n

The meet-and-greet was held at Hercs Nutrition\u2019s Regent location as part of a fundraiser supporting the K-9 Unit.<\/p>\n

The event was organized by Hercs Nutrition owner Jessica Ash, who said the idea came from seeing so many customers visit the store with their dogs and wanting to find a meaningful way to support local first responders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always see the dogs, and I thought that would be a great tie-in to the canine unit by doing pup cups,\u201d Ash said. \u201cIt was our way of being able to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Introducing the K-9 Unit to Winnipeg<\/p>\n

Members of the public were able to meet K-9 handlers, and some of the unit\u2019s working dogs, including Juno, a six-year-old Belgian Malinois.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Police Service K-9 trainer David Weiss said events like this help build understanding between officers and the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love it because it gets the public to be able to see the dogs, what they do and everything that goes on within the city,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good opportunity for us to meet with the public and give people a better understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than criminal apprehensions<\/p>\n

Weiss said police dogs are often associated only with criminal apprehensions, but their work involves many specialized skills.<\/p>\n

The dogs are trained in areas including suspect tracking, evidence recovery, drug detection, explosive detection, and tactical support.<\/p>\n

Each dog is paired with a handler and stays with that officer throughout its career. The dogs also live with their handlers at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to take care of our retired dogs as well,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cThey\u2019ve worked their whole career. They deserve a good retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Police Service currently has eight active K-9s, with two more dogs expected to join the unit this fall.<\/p>\n

Fundraising helps cover costs that are not included in the unit\u2019s operating budget, including veterinary care for working and retired dogs, as well as specialized equipment such as ballistic vests.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The science behind training police dogs<\/p>\n

For K-9 trainer Justin, working with police dogs has been a lifelong interest. He said he dreamed of becoming a canine handler as a child and has now spent more than 15 years working in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much science involved in this,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the psychology side, for training, but then also on the environmental side, understanding how the environment works and affects the dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the more he learns, the more fascinating the work becomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as a trainer, it\u2019s really quite fascinating that the dogs are able to do what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporting local first responders<\/p>\n

Ash\u2019s husband is a firefighter, which has given her a closer connection to the emergency services community.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing a lot of what they do, what they face, what challenges they have\u2026 it was again an easy thing for me to jump on board with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ash said the event was also an opportunity for people to see police dogs beyond their working role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re dogs. They also have a heart. They\u2019re also your best friend, but also on the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fundraiser continues through July<\/p>\n

While the meet-and-greet was a one-day event, the fundraiser continues throughout the month.<\/p>\n

Pup cups will be available at both Hercs Nutrition locations until the end of July while supplies last, with all proceeds supporting the Winnipeg Police Service K-9 Unit.<\/p>\n

Ash said she was grateful for the turnout and the opportunity to connect the community with the people and animals who serve Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it brought a lot of people out that really wanted to see the canine unit,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s another way for them to come out, talk about their job and what they do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Winnipeg Police Service K-9 Unit traded patrols for pup cups on Friday, giving community members a chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-813995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}