To console, to provide comfort and support while sending out unconditional love to those experiencing trauma or tragic circumstances.
It’s the essence of what Peterborough Police Service Facility Dog Pixie does, and it’s the reason why the Victim Services Unit canine and her handler Alice Czitrom were the recipients of a prestigious award from the Police Association of Ontario (PAO) at Peterborough Police Service headquarters on Monday morning.
The duo were chosen as the PAO’s On-Duty Difference Maker (Civilian Police Service Employee) Award finalist as part of its sixth annual Police Services Hero of the Year Awards this year. The award paid tribute to Czitrom — the Victim Services Co-ordinator and Facility Dog handler for the PPS — and Pixie for developing the Facility Dog program within the PPS and for providing calm, comfort and compassion to victims of crime and well as to employees of the PPS.
In lieu of an awards dinner to celebrate the achievement, COVID-19 protocols allowed a smaller gathering at the Peterborough Police Headquarters. Among those on hand to celebrate were Christine Hogarth, parliamentary assistant to the Solicitor General of Ontario Sylvia Jones; Mark Baxter, president of the PAO; Jamie Schmale, MP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, and Dave Smith, MPP for Peterborough-Kawartha.
It may have been a special occasion for those who attended the ceremony, but for Pixie, it was a rather yawn-inducing affair. Wearing her Facility Dog attire, the five-year-old black Labrador retriever-Bernese mountain dog cross laid stoically beside her handler Czitrom throughout the hour-long ceremony.
“She doesn’t bother at all,” said Czitrom of Pixie. “She’s very easy-going and very adaptable. That’s what makes her so good at her job.”
She may be easy-going and low-key, but she is one pooch who has made a difference, whether it’s going out into the community to provide comfort to victims of crime or when inside the police station where she provides a calming influence to officers and other PPS personnel.
Czitrom said Pixie has accompanied her on more than 100 calls into the community over the past year. The assignment could be to provide comfort to victims or survivors, or to a court accompaniment, or to go on-scene of a tragic circumstance where it’s safe enough to attend, or to a critical incident de-brief with members of the PPS. As well, the duo may also attend a school event in the Peterborough area.
The award, said Czitrom, means a lot as it is validation that her and Pixie’s roles within the Victim Services Unit of the PPS are making a difference in the community.
“Being able to celebrate the work that Pixie does has to do with the fact she had become a success in the community in supporting people who’ve experienced trauma, who have experienced tragic circumstances and in some ways it’s a validation that we’re on the right track, we’re doing the right things and we need to continue to listen to the community and to find ways to interact with them, support them and connect with them,” said Czitrom.
The PPS’s Facility Dog program came into being in late January 2020 just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pixie is the first dog brought into the program, after the Accredited Facility Dog was obtained from the National Service Dog facility in Cambridge, Ontario where she was trained. Czitrom said the Peterborough Facility Dog program is one of only a handful of similar programs within police forces in Canada, with others taking root in Ottawa and Kingston and in Delta, B.C. where it originated.
Czitrom describes Pixie as “magical” in how she works to defuse the hurt and pain that people experiencing trauma are going through.
“When you’ve experienced trauma you lose trust in other humans and being able to be with other humans and having to share your trauma, so Pixie what she does is she helps us address that gap where she is able to provide that trusting relationship with another person without having to interfere with that and having to feel intrusive or to feel scary for another person,” said Czitrom.
Jeff Chartier, president of the Peterborough Police Association, said not only has Czitrom and Pixie provided a valuable community service, but also to the 230 members of the PPS.
“The majority of Dixie’s work is clearly done out on the road helping the victims but dare I say it that Dixie provides some comfort to the people here at the station when they go and see Alice and see Pixie and they give her a little pat on the head or a little scratch behind the ears and they know the comfort of an animal and what they can give to people,” said Chartier.
Accolades aside, Czitrom says she’s in awe of the work that Pixie does on a daily basis to take some of the sting and hurt away from those in need of comforting.
“We go home every day, we go to work every day. It’s a bond like no other and I’m so incredibly proud to watch her go to work, too,” said Czitrom.
