German-raised Dog Arrives For Training

FABIO THE POLICE DOG NOT JUST ANOTHER PRETTY BOY

Virginia Tech's new police dog will be cross-trained to sniff out narcotics
and search through buildings or for missing people.

BLACKSBURG - As soon as the lanky German shepherd hops out of the (a
href="http://www.vt.edu"Virginia Tech(/a) patrol car, his ears take on a
life of their own.

The dog sniffs. The ears pivot and whirl in all directions. Forward. Back.
Forward. Back. Like a wayward antenna searching desperately for a signal.

He takes in everything at once. Sniffing this. Sniffing that. Wagging his
tail at officer Keith Weaver, who has the leather leash firmly gripped in
one hand and a big grin spread across his face.

The dog has spent the past week riding around campus in the back of
Weaver's patrol car, getting used to the sights, sounds and smells of
campus, and Tech has become the first university police agency in the state
to have its own police dog.

Weaver barks a command in German, and the dog sits.

Just call him Hokie.

Well, eventually call him Hokie.

"You want to know what his name is?" Weaver asked. "You have to remember
that this is a German dog, so he's got a German name.

"And that name is ..." Weaver paused, dramatically. "Fabio."

Fabio? As in the long-maned Italian male model?

"I know. Fabio. Can you believe it?" Weaver said. "I told them at the
kennel, 'I tested all those dogs and you let me walk out of here with the
one named Fabio?'"

But the powers that be at the university want a police dog with a name that
shows school spirit. So Hokie he will be.

Eventually.

"He knows 'Fabio,'" Weaver said. "So we're going to have to call him that,
part of the time at least."

The 2-year-old dog was bred and raised in Germany and imported to the
United States by a kennel in Ohio that specializes in police dogs. Weaver
visited the kennel Dec. 21, received an hour-long crash course in German
and worked with about a dozen available dogs before selecting Fabio.

They will spend the next several weeks bonding and working together before
heading off to a 12-week police dog training school in Roanoke. Classes
start Feb. 4.

Fabio will be cross-trained to sniff out narcotics and search through
buildings or for missing people. The effort and the equipment will cost (a
href="http://www.vt.edu"Virginia Tech(/a) about $10,000.

Police Chief Debra Duncan has said she hopes a dog will act as a deterrent
on campus and help boost communication between students, faculty and police
officers.

Fabio is the department's second try at recruiting a dog.

Sammy, a black German shepherd, arrived on campus in early December, but
X-rays showed that he could develop a type of arthritis in his front legs.
That could cause undue pain if he were asked to perform the day-to-day
duties of a police dog but shouldn't affect him as a pet.

The Pennsylvania kennel he came from refunded Tech's money and asked the
department to find Sammy a home. He's now the happy pet of officer Mike Spicer.

"He's a big old baby who likes to sleep on the couch," Spicer said.

Sammy is settling down into his new life as a pet, and Spicer couldn't be
happier. Although he said the dog is smart, he won't be getting any
specialized training.

"I just want him to be a good dog, and that's it," he said. "He can go
fishing with me, and we can have fun. That's all I need."

Fabio has been given a clean bill of health.