ABSTRACT
Dogs were the most efficient, economical, and reliable mode of transport available but the practice of keeping dogs and working with dog teams is fraught with many difficulties that the royal Canadian mounted police (RCMP) had to overcome. In southern Canada the relationship between the RCMP and horses is still championed, and it finds its way into kitsch souvenirs. However, unlike now with the memorialisation of police dogs, if they ever mourned or thought of their dogs as partners during the early patrol years, it was not reported in the official documents. In 1898 the western Subarctic was facing a shortage of dogs due to disease and the demand of the Klondike Gold Rush, so the police went exceptionally far afield to secure both new working dogs and hire dog-drivers. The individual dogs came and went but for the most part the bugs had been worked out of the system and the police became more efficient in their mission.
