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Military Working Dog Handlers take a bite for training

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Aaron Oelrich
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
Ke Kula Maka'i Police Academy, Hawaii --  Military Working Dog handlers from the Air Force, Navy, Army, and Marines attend MWD handler decoy training, June 3 at Ke Kula Maka'i Police Academy, Hawaii.

The training is a four-day course designed to improve the MWD handlers decoy skills and increase their proficiencies as trainers of MWD.

The training was provided by Fanco Angelini. Angelini has experience as a MWD handler with the U.S. Army, as an officer with uniform division, United States Secret Service, and as a K9 handler/ trainer for the Harrisburg Police Department. After 25 years of law enforcement, he now concentrates on educating handlers in the art of decoying, problem solving, and behavior modification.

"The decoy is the sparring partner for a MWD, there is nothing more important than decoy work," said Angelini. "The handler can do a lot of things for the dog, that is why he is the dog's best friend. The one thing he can't do is make him a great fighter that is why decoy training is so important to the MWD and his handler."

According to Angelini, the decoy is a MWD handler that wears a personal protective suit allowing the dog to practice subduing a suspect in the correct way. He added that his course is another layer of training for the MWD handler, teaching them about animal behaviors, decoy mechanics, and decoy interaction with the MWD.

Throughout the training MWD handlers from the different services would rotate as the decoy, putting their new skills to the test.

"The best part is getting hit and feeling the dogs power," said Staff Sgt. Josh Chase, 647 Security Forces Squadron MWD handler. "I am so focused when I am in the suit on training the dog properly, just knowing as the decoy you are the trainer for the MWD."

In addition to the MWD handler learning some new skills, the MWDs showed their skills and learned some new ones as well.

"I have seen drastic improvements in MWD Bari from this training," said Master at Arms First Class Maura Johnson, lead Petty Officer for the Join Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Security Forces MWD. "He is jumping higher, taking down the decoy and he is more focused and calmer. This training has taught me that the decoy is not the enemy of the dog but the second best friend of the dog."

All six MWD handlers, from four different branches of the military, agreed that they will bring this training back to their units and that it will improve their training capabilities.

"One of the things  I am  getting out of the training today is decoy skills that I will take back to the unit and teach the other decoys to improve Chuck and the other MWDs," Said Army Staff Sgt. Jeremy Coleman, 520th MWD Detachment, Schofield Barracks.