RCMP in Ottawa welcomes first full-time facility dog for employee mental health
By Patricia Vasylchuk
Health and environment
The General’s job is supporting both civilian employees and officers of the RCMP.
Image by Serge Gouin, RCMP
January 20, 2025
Content
Transcript – Audio story: The General support dog
Narrator: Welcome to the RCMP Gazette. We cover the latest topics on policing, offer tips on crime prevention and safety, and highlight the exceptional work of RCMP employees at home and abroad. Keep listening for our latest audio story.
Chances are, people who've been to the RCMP's national headquarters in Ottawa lately, will likely have run into The General. He's a big scruffy white poodle with legs that appear too long for his body.
This hypoallergenic puppy, is the focus of a new, 18-month pilot project. At just one-year old, the General is working hard to help improve employee mental health.
RCMP Corporal Meredith Darrah is The General's handler. She's collaborating on the project with the RCMP's National Reintegration Program and the Federal Policing, Criminal Operations, Border Integrity Unit.
Meredith Darrah: Employees are our most valuable asset, and we all go in and out of, you know, periods of joy and periods of sadness. And you know, something that can make you feel just a little bit better doesn't have to be complicated.
Narrator: Since August 2024, The General has come to work with Darrah every day from 9 to 5. While there, he holds drop-in office hours twice a week. He also visits RCMP units and employees on demand.
During a visit with The General, employees may interact with him in whatever way is most helpful to them. Though most people, choose to sit and pet him, or take him for a walk.
Meredith Darrah: People light up when they see him in the hallway. Like, he's goofy. He looks like a Muppet.
Narrator: Working with animals is not new for the RCMP. Though the organization no longer has mounted units, horses are used ceremonially in the iconic Musical Ride.
Dogs are also used routinely for detecting drugs and explosives, locating suspects and missing persons, and in rescue operations.
Dogs are also used for mental-health support. Sometimes they will comfort victims of crime. In other cases, they work to comfort investigators who work with sensitive material. Most often, it's officers working on child exploitation units. Dogs used for mental health are brought in by an external organization for only a few hours a week. What makes The General unique is that he's the only dog with an RCMP handler, top-secret security clearance, and who works full time supporting RCMP staff – that's both officers and civilians. In July, The General visited the RCMP's Central Departmental Security Section, after a colleague died by suicide.
Staff Sergeant Jane Lee, provided support to the group's 140 employees in the weeks after the employee's passing.
Staff Sergeant Jane Lee: The week before the General visited was a really emotionally difficult period for many employees. I was able to see sadness and tears in people's eyes. I was able to see that weight on their shoulders. And, after his visit, that was gone.
It was a great support tool to, you know, provide them comfort and help them with the grieving process. I really hope that this pilot project becomes embedded as a permanent program. I think it's a really important initiative, and it really underscores the people first mandate.
Narrator: Marie-Claude Verreault was in the group that day. She saw The General's affect on people first-hand.
Marie-Claude Verreault: He's a little piece of magic working in the room. The silence was gone. Life was back.
Narrator: The General's brand of magic is also offered to employees who are going through the National Reintegration Program. The Program was established in 2021 to help RCMP officers build the confidence to return to operational duties following a traumatic incident, or after a long period away, such as maternity or sick leave. Darrah explains.
Meredith Darrah: You have employees that are wanting to integrate back into the workplace and there's lots of anxiety surrounding that. Maybe they need to go to the range and qualify with their firearm and they haven't shot their firearm in a year because they've been off because of a critical incident. Or they've been off for a period of leave. Maybe somebody's had a baby or been off on paternity leave.
The General, he's able to go to the range with you. He has hearing protection he can wear. He can go and wait for you, sit with you. You know, sit in the van while you go and shoot, and then you can come out an have little bit of poodle time to help, sort of, alleviate that little bit of stress.
Narrator: Kim Nocita is the director for Employee Supports and Member Benefits. She also oversees the Reintegration Program. She says facilitators are seeing how The General can have a real impact on reducing the anxiety in officers participating in the process.
Kim Nocita: We don't know what that long-term impact is, but we know that for that moment, we brought joy, in a very challenging time, to some people.
Narrator: Darrah agrees.
Meredith Darrah: I certainly don't want to give it more weight than it is. This is not an intervention, it's a tool. It's a support for, you know, overall wellness for employees. It's not a magic pill. It's not going to fix everything, but it was a little bit of a stress relief.
Narrator: Darrah first saw the effect animals could have on people during her time with the Musical Ride in 2008.
Meredith Darrah: If you've ever seen the ride, you know that at the end of the show, the horses have an opportunity to face outside of the riding ring so that people can come and say hi to the riders, pet the horses. I had a horse, named Heidi. We were standing there and I saw in the distance, a woman pushing a young girl, probably 9 or 10, in a wheelchair. She was very clearly nonverbal and she had, like, a tray on her wheelchair that her hands could sit in. And as she came close, and the daughter was basically right underneath Heidi, Heidi rested her nose on the young girl's tray of her wheelchair. And the young girl made this sound of joy that I'll -- sorry, I get emotional thinking about it -- the sound of joy that I'll never forget.
Narrator: She says The General's story really started when she was an instructor at Depot – the RCMP's training academy.
Meredith Darrah: I was pleasantly surprised, I guess, by how open cadets were talking about their mental health. 'Cause I think that's a positive step in the right direction. But, I was also really surprised with how many cadets came to Depot, already with high levels of anxiety, and some, you know, moderate depression. We'd be standing at the start line of a 5K test, and I'd have cadets crying. And I would be like, 'Oh my God, what are you crying for?' And they would say, 'I'm just feeling so anxious. I'm nervous. I don't know what this is gonna be like.' And I kept thinking to myself, like, how do we make this better?
Narrator: In 2022, Darrah attended the International Women in Policing Conference, in Niagara Falls. There, the idea to use a facility dog, started taking shape.
Meredith Darrah: So, a woman was there. And she had this Portuguese water dog with her and I was like–if I see a dog I'm like a crow with a shiny thing. I'm like "Dog!" So, I sat down with her and talked to her. I said, "Tell me about this dog, what is this dog?" And so, her name was Stella, and she was a working facility dog, and her job was to come to work every day for employee wellness.
Narrator: Darrah was so inspired, she pitched the idea to her training officer who liked it immediately. But before she could see the idea come to fruition, Darrah moved to Ottawa, and joined the RCMP's Border Integrity team. It didn't take her long, to present a business case for the project to be facilitated at National Headquarters. Once approved, Darrah began working with an organization called Canine Therapy for First Responders, to match her with the right dog for the job.
Now, Darrah is working with a dog trainer, to get The General officially certified as a support animal. The process can take between 18 months and 2 years. Should he fail, Darrah says she'll keep him as a treasured family pet, but she hopes, that The General will continue to bring a little joy into employees' lives.
Meredith Darrah: People come to work and not every day that you come to work is a great day. And if him walking down the hallway, brings you the slightest little bit of joy, on what is otherwise a dark day, I think that he's probably done his job, you know.
Narrator: Thanks for listening, to the RCMP Gazette's, latest audio story. This audio story was written, and narrated by Patricia Vasylchuk. Special thanks to the Rheanna Philipp, and the RCMP Digital Production team, for producing the story.
Chances are, people who've been to the RCMP's national headquarters (NHQ) in Ottawa lately, will likely have run into The General — a big scruffy white poodle with legs that appear too long for his body. The hypoallergenic one-year-old puppy is the focus of a new 18-month pilot project dedicated to helping improve employee mental health.
"Employees are our most valuable asset and we all go in and out of periods of joy and periods of sadness," says Corporal Meredith Darrah, The General's handler. "Something that can make you feel a little bit better doesn't have to be complicated."
Since August 2024, The General has come to work with Darrah every day from 9 am to 5 pm, held drop-in office hours twice a week, and visited RCMP units and employees on demand. During a visit with The General, employees may interact with him in whatever way is most helpful to them, though most people choose to sit and pet him or take him for a walk.
"People light up when they see him; he's a Muppet," says Darrah, who is collaborating on the project with the RCMP's National Reintegration Program and the Federal Policing Criminal Operations Border Integrity Unit.
Using animals is not new for the RCMP. Though the organization no longer has mounted units, horses are used ceremonially in the iconic Musical Ride. Dogs are also used routinely for detecting drugs and explosives, locating suspects and missing persons, and in rescue operations.
In cases where dogs are used for mental-health support, such as for comforting victims of crime or investigators who work with sensitive material — for instance, those on the child exploitation units — the dogs are brought in only for a couple hours a week by an external organization. What makes The General unique is that he's the only dog with an RCMP handler, top-secret security clearance, and who works full time to support RCMP staff – officers and civilians alike.
Magic behind the curtain
In July, The General visited the RCMP's Central Departmental Security Section after the loss of a colleague to suicide.
"The General was a great support tool to provide them comfort and help them with the grieving process," says Staff Sergeant Jane Lee, who provided support to the group's 140 employees in the weeks after the employee's passing. She says that the week before the dog's visit was an emotionally difficult period for many employees, evident by the sadness and tears she saw in their eyes, and the difficulty some had focusing on their work.
"I saw the weight on people's shoulders, and then it was lifted," she says. "People were smiling again."
Marie-Claude Verreault was in the group that day and saw The General's affect on people first-hand. "He's a little piece of magic working in the room," she says. "The silence was gone, life was back." The General's brand of magic is also offered to employees who are going through the National Reintegration Program. The Program was established in 2021 to help RCMP officers build the confidence to return to operational duties following a traumatic incident, or after a long period away, such as maternity or sick leave.
"You have employees wanting to integrate back into the workplace and there's lots of anxiety surrounding that," says Darrah. "Maybe they need to go to the range and qualify with their firearm and they haven't shot their firearms in a year because they've been off. The General is able to go to the range; he has hearing protection he can wear."
According to Kim Nocita, the director for Employee Supports and Member Benefits and who oversees the Program, it's here facilitators are seeing how The General can have a real impact on reducing the anxiety in officers participating in the process.
"We don't know what the long-term impact is, but we know that for that moment we brought joy in a challenging time," says Nocita. "It's not a magic pill, it's not going to fix everything, but it is a little bit of stress relief," agrees Darrah, who first saw the effect animals could have on people during her time with the Musical Ride in 2008. One day after a performance, a parent brought a non-verbal child in a wheelchair up to the fence to meet her horse.
"My horse lowered her head and put it on the girl's wheelchair tray so she was face-to-face with the horse," recalls Darrah. "This girl's face just lit up and she made this joyful sound. It was incredible!"
A seed of an idea
Darrah says The General's story really started when she was an instructor at Depot — the RCMP's training academy.
"I was surprised with how many cadets came to Depot already with high levels of anxiety and moderate depression," she says. "I kept thinking, 'What's something we can do to make this better?'"
Then in 2022 she attended the International Women in Policing Conference in Niagara Falls. It was there the idea to use a facility dog started taking shape.
"I saw this woman. She had this Portuguese water dog with her – if I see a dog I'm like a crow with a shiny thing – so I sat down with her," recalls Darrah. "[The dog's] name was Stella and her job was to come to work every day for employee wellness."
Darrah was so inspired she pitched the idea to her training officer who liked it immediately. But before she could see the idea come to fruition, Darrah moved to Ottawa and joined the RCMP's Border Integrity team. It didn't take her long to present a business case for the project to be facilitated at NHQ. Once approved, Darrah began working with Canine Therapy for First Responders to match her with the right dog for the job.
Training for Success
"I really hope this pilot project becomes a permanent program," says Lee, who saw how The General supported her employees. "I think it's a really important initiative that underscores the people-first mandate [of the RCMP]."
Now, Darrah is working with a dog trainer to get The General officially certified as a support animal, a process that can take between 18 months and two years. Should he fail, Darrah says she'll keep him as a treasured family pet. She hopes, however, that The General will continue to bring a little joy into employees' lives.
"People come to work and not every day is a good great day," says Darrah. "And, if him walking down the hallway brings you the slightest little bit of joy on what is otherwise a dark day, I think that he's probably done his job."
RCMP employees in the NCR may visit The General at NHQ during his office hours every Thursdays from 10 am to 12 pm in M3-2-608, or email him at thegeneral-dog-chien@rcmp-grc.gc.ca to set up a special visit.
For information on the National Reintegration Program please send an email to: reintegrationprogram-programmedereintegration@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
