Police dog finds Ontario senior missing for hours in ravine

Police Service Dog (PSD) Rudy. (Niagara Regional Police Service)

A missing senior has been located by a police dog after being stranded for hours "at the bottom of a ravine" in southern Ontario on Monday.

Niagara police said in a news release issued Tuesday that officers were called to a residence on Lake Street, north of Lakeshore Road, in St. Catharines, Ont. just after 7 p.m.

Responding officers were told that a man in his 70s left his family home on foot on Monday, and did not return.

Additional officers and Niagara police’s K9 unit were called in to search for the senior.

According to Niagara police, Const. Tim Wiley and his K9 companion, Rudy, started to travel down a path that led to a ravine by Lake Ontario.

“Const. Wiley looked down the pathway but did not see anything,” the release reads. “As Const. Wiley was about to continue to look elsewhere, Rudy indicated that he wanted to go further down the pathway.”

Wiley, "trusting his partner's nose," followed Rudy’s lead, police said, and the pair found the missing man who had been lying "at the bottom of the ravine" for about four hours.

According to police, St. Catharines firefighters rescued the man who was transported to the hospital by paramedics for further assessment.

Niagara police say PSD Rudy is a four-year-old German Shepard cross-trained in patrol duties and narcotics detection.