California Highway Patrol celebrates graduation of 9 new canine teams
WEST SACRAMENTO -- The California Highway Patrol celebrated the graduation of nine new canine teams on Friday.
The first canine class of 2023 completed months of rigorous training at the CHP Academy and is now set to serve across the state.
"Sit" and "stay" are child's play for the four-legged graduates; during their ceremony, the handlers and canines displayed the skills they acquired during training. These teams will serve CHP in a number of ways: patrolling and detecting human scent, contraband and explosives.
Officer Alex Frazer and his canine, Olex, were among the graduates. Frazer inherited Olex from a previous handler. Knowing he had big shoes to fill, Frazer says it was important to spend extra time during the bonding period with the canine.
"After some time, him staying at my house, together 24/7 — he came around," Frazer said. "We were able to do some good work at the academy as time goes on."
The teams completed anywhere from 11 to 15 weeks of training at the academy. This experience laid the foundation for each team — however, Frazer says the real work has just begun.
"Although we had the 11 weeks of training, which seem like a lot, it pales in comparison to the knowledge you're going to be able to pick up on the street consulting more senior handlers, learning from experiences," Frazer said. "I hope that we can hit the ground running, learn quickly and just be a better partnership."
The duos are assigned to various regions across the state. This class makes 51 canine teams on the streets of California.
Following graduation, most of the teams are returning to their respective homes to begin work at the beginning of May.
