2 police officers, dogs to graduate from training Friday - Utica Observer Dispatch

Two police officers and their canines will be graduating this week from a police dog school sponsored by the town of Webb Police Department.

Webb police Officer Trevor Tormey and his partner — K9 Timber, a nine month old German shepherd — completed the five week narcotics course that started June 27. They were trained in the discovery of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and hashish.

Utica police Officer Christopher Faniglula and his partner — K9 Rex, a 2½- year old German shepherd — started their training for explosive detection June 20. They were trained in the discovery of both commercial and military explosives.

Both Faniglula and Rex previously had attended an eight-week patrol course. They learned obedience, tracking, agility, building and area searching and reasonable force. All courses were taught by Webb police Officer Anthony Sege.

Sege recently retired from the Oneida County Sherriff’s Office after working there for 25 years. He went to school for dog training in 1998 and offered these courses after being approached by the city of Utica and the town of Webb departments.

“Both places needed a dog school,” he said. “The town of Webb offered to sponsor the course to train the dogs in a matter of necessity.”

Tormey has been a police officer for five years. He said that he was interested in working with dogs after watching handlers and seeing the bond between them and their dog. He said that he has a good bond with his dog.

“In the beginning, it’s hard,” he said. “It’s kind of difficult because she’s young and a puppy. They want to do puppy things. It takes a lot of work to get her interest level up.”

Faniglula said working with dogs was one of the reasons he went into law enforcement. His department wanted a dog that it could use for explosive detection after it received a grant from homeland security.

“My department wanted a dog that would do the tracking and aggression work,” he said.

Graduation of the teams is at the town of Webb Police Station at 11 a.m. Friday in Old Forge. There will be demonstrations from both teams.

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