Pam Bruce: Crime Scene Investigator and Dog Show Judge

Canadian and AKC judge Pam Bruce recounts her background working as a police investigator for the elite Special Victims Unit in Toronto in part two of her interview with host Laura Reeves. Bruce, a cancer survivor herself, (10 years ago in April she was given three weeks to live) reminds us that dog shows are not curing cancer or solving world peace.

Dog people are fascinating

Bruce was a real-life Mariska Hargitay in Toronto. Her professional life and dog life frequently intertwined in cases in which Dr. Richard Meen (CKC/AKC judge and long-time breeder) was called as an expert witness in cases dealing with young offenders in which she was the lead investigator.

“When I first came on (police work), there was a horse and a woman assigned to every platoon,” Bruce said. “Women were assigned to strip searches, sex assault and child abuse cases. They gave us the janitor’s closet to change in.”

Bruce spent only a year in uniform. Fascinated by sex offenders and dangerous offenders, she went back to school and specialized in DNA. In another dog show and professional crossover, Bruce finds her “resting bitch face,” while useful in interviewing dangerous offenders, comes across as stern in the show ring. “I learned it in interviews,” Bruce said “because you’re going in with dangerous offenders – all male – who know they can take you on physically, but are really interested in taking you on mentally.”

Do the research

“I am frequently shocked by the fact that exhibitors don’t know who they’re showing to. They don’t do their research to find out what the judge’s background in dogs is,” Bruce said. “I have never once enabled anyone to speak badly to me about any dog,” Bruce noted. “And I’ve never denied a dog based on who’s on the leash – it doesn’t work that way.” Listen to part one of the interview from last week.