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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Police dog training to be held at school - Weston & Somerset Mercury

The agreement will see the dogs training at the school

A SOMERSET school has announced it will be entering into a partnership with the police dog training unit.

The agreement between King Alfred School in Highbridge and Avon and Somerset Constabulary will see training sessions for the dogs, which are used to search premises and vehicles, held at the site.

Although most of the sessions will be held in the evenings and on weekends and school holidays, once a month the dogs will spend an afternoon in the school.

Headteacher Andy Owen said: “We are delighted to build on our strong relationships with the police and to act as a training base for the search dog unit.

“The presence of the search dogs will also act as a deterrent. We are unapologetic in that we have a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and that anyone bringing illegal substances onto the school site will be dealt with most severely”

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Top police dog teams vie for national honours - New Zealand Police (press release)

10 May, 2011 - 10:43

It’s best nose and paws forward this week for ten police dog patrol teams and 11 detector dogs and handlers vying for national honours in the New Zealand Police Dog Championships.

Tracking, agility, obedience, searching, and detection capability are all being assessed in a series of demanding day and night time challenges at the Police Dog Training Centre, Trentham, and elsewhere in Hutt Valley and southern Wairarapa.

Senior Sergeant John Edmonds, supervising instructor, police dogs, said the championship is keenly contested with teams demonstrating excellent operational ability as well as putting in additional training to make the championship finals.

Wellington’s Senior Constable Jason Todd and his patrol dog Ila will be hoping to make it three in a row. The two times winners are up against their current co titleholder Senior Constable Logan Marsh and patrol dog Turk from Tauranga.

Also competing in the patrol section are dogs and handlers from Nelson, Auckland, Blenheim, Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Waikato, and Christchurch.

Six narcotic detector dogs and handlers are competing from Wellington Police, Auckland Police, New Zealand Customs in Auckland and New Zealand Corrections in Christchurch. Four of the entrants are newcomers to the nationals.

Five explosive detector dogs and handlers from Wellington Police, New Zealand Customs in Auckland and Aviation Security in Auckland and Wellington are taking part. Four of the five dogs are new to the national championships.

“It’s a gruelling few days of trials for all the dogs and handlers,” Senior Sergeant Edmond says. “Each of the teams starts with a set of points and they’re put through a range of realistic but testing scenarios with points deducted for mistakes. The team that loses the least marks is the winner.”

The prizegiving takes place at the Trentham Police Dog Training Centre, Dante Road, Trentham, at 2pm on Thursday, 12 May. Deputy Commissioner Viv Rickard will attend, along with representatives from the other agencies competing.

Media are welcome to attend Thursday afternoon’s prizegiving. Please note that due to the nature of the competition it is not possible to arrange ‘in field’ photos/filming during the competition itself.

Ends
Media contact: Kaye Calder, Public Affairs Police National Headquarters
Tel 04: 460 2986. Mobile 027 241 6305

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Valda the German Shepherd puppy begins police dog training at RAF Linton-on-Ouse - The Press, York

10:17am Wednesday 26th January 2011

A FOUR-legged crimefighter has started training in York to be part of a national Ministry of Defence security team.

Valda, a German Shepherd puppy, is based with the MoD police operational support unit at RAF Linton-on-Ouse and is taking her first steps towards becoming a fully- operational police dog.

While training on the base, she will work with her handler, PC Phil Bieda, and get used to meeting new people, travelling to unfamiliar places, and experiencing new and noisy environments.

PC Bieda said: “She loves making new friends and people here are getting used to seeing her out and about around the base with me.

“She’s proving very popular, and it really helps her training when people come and say hello, and she loves the attention of course.”

The Ministry of Defence Police is a civilian police force funded by the MoD to protect military bases from terrorism, criminal activity and illegal trespass. All its 3,500 officers have full constabulary powers, and are fully firearms trained.

In May, Valda will return to the MoD police dog training centre in Essex to complete her training before being sent to an MoD site in the UK.

The unit covers the North of England and Scotland in a variety of specialist roles, and can be called upon to provide support across the UK if needed.

Inspector Gordon Bruce said: “The operational support unit can be called in to support all military units and bases across the UK, but we have also been called in to help the civilian police on a number of occasions. “The specialist dog teams perform a vital role, not just in guarding but in specialist searches and Valda will become a vital team member when she finishes her training.”

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