Police Dogs Can Bone Up on Skills

Gnawing on his hot pink biting ring, Xaver does not see a new, $30,000 training facility meant to hone his skills. All he sees is a really big playground.

But with a hand signal from his commanding officer, Dick Jones of the Santa Ana Canine Unit, the 7-year-old German shepherd will leap over the 3- to 5-foot high walls, hunt down a person behind a blind or scoot across a catwalk.

Xaver’s new playground, the Laverne M. Wheeler Canine Training Facility, officially opens today at 2353 N. Main St., and the public is invited to visit between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The first such facility in Orange County, it is open to police dogs and their trainers from all local agencies.

The training ground was built with some of the $611,000 willed to Santa Ana’s canine unit by the Newport Beach woman for whom the facility is named. The bequest has been supporting the city’s canine unit since 1993.

Until now, Orange County officers have brushed up their canine partners’ training once a month in Riverside or in an empty baseball field, said Sgt. Doyle Smith, supervisor of the Santa Ana canine unit.

“Every dog has its own personality,” Smith said. “Some don’t like the dark. We had one that didn’t like walking on linoleum. The dog and officer have to develop trust in one another.”

To simulate real situations, an adjoining field has been filled with crawl spaces, stairs that lead to platforms meant to replicate an attic, scattered boxes to imitate a warehouse and enclosed mazes that make a dog comfortable working in the dark.

“The dogs are trained to search for drugs or explosives by getting the scent onto their toys,” Jones said. “For the dogs, training is actually play time. Play is their reward for doing what we need them to do.”

David Reaver, owner of a police dog training school in Riverside named Adlerhorst International Inc., said the Santa Ana facility is “state of the art.”

“They have replicated a lot of what the dog will see in a controlled environment, which will be invaluable,” he said.

Smith, who also hopes to add a junked car to train dogs in automobile searches, said the facility will be continuously updated.

“This place will be open to an officer’s imagination,” Smith said. “Whatever they see out there, we will try to replicate in here.”