'He was exceptional police dog': St. Thomas K-9 handler writes children’s book about Trax

Const. Sean James has a “special bond” with his dog.

“We've been together since 2013,” said James. “We’ve been through a lot of hard times, both on work and off work. He was an exceptional police dog.”

Trax was the first Police Service Dog (PSD) in the history of the St. Thomas Police Service.

He retired in 2017 after a career ending diagnosis of Gracillis Myopathy, which restricts movement and has no cure.

“He actually saved a woman's life back in 2015 or 2016,” said James. “She was lost in the winter and I think it was up to ten hours. He was able to track her and find her in the woods. He's he found lots of drugs and arrested lots of bad guys, but that’s definitely one of the ones that makes me proud, because we had no idea where this woman had gone.”

With stories to tell, and knowing how popular Trax was with children, James and a co-worker wrote and illustrated a children’s book. Proceeds go to the Phoenix Canine Initiative, which provides therapy dogs.

‘Tails with Trax’ is a children’s book written by Const. Sean James of the St. Thomas Police Service. (Source: Amazon)

“I'd been working in the criminal Investigations branch when I was diagnosed with PTSD,” said Helaine Hindley, the book’s illustrator. “It became an outlet for me to use art every single day to help me in my healing journey.”

On Saturday, James will be at the St. Thomas Public Library for a book reading and signing.

“He will be reading the ‘Tails of Trax’ to children during story time at the library,” said Samantha Wakefield, Corporate Communications Coordinator with the STPS. “We will be joined by Phoenix Canine Initiative (PCI) as well, who will have their dogs with us during the story time. The library will actually be adding it to their collection.”

Const. Sean James of the St. Thomas Police Service reads a page from his children’s book ‘Tails with Trax’ on June 4, 2024. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

James did not want to give too much of the story away, but said in the book, “Trax’s mom was a police dog in the book, and he looked up to her and wanted to kind of achieve that goal in life.”

Tails of Trax has quickly sold almost 1,000 copies around the world.

However to raise enough funds to provide a therapy dog, PCI said they need to sell about 6,500 copies.

James hopes to be able to get into schools and make speaking appearances with the book.

Retired Police Service Dog Trax’s career stats include seven successful tracks, 18 arrests, and four article searches for evidence. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“We got to do a lot of demonstrations visiting senior citizen homes, retirement homes, schools, daycares,” said James, of the first ever K-9 unit with the STPS. “Right away, I could tell that the K-9 unit gravitated towards children. It was really good at bridging that gap, with policing and children.”

Since Trax retired, the STPS has a new PSD named Axle.

James has brought Trax home as a pet, “He's 12, so he's getting up there, but he's still got lots of life left in him.”