INSTRUCTORS

Romeo Ingreso

I have worked for the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department for 22 years.  I was a Field Training Officer, gang suppression deputy and a gang investigator.  I was assigned to the Special Enforcement Bureau for approximately 10 years where I handled two different police service dogs.  For seven of those years I was the Canine Services Detail training coordinator.  I was responsible for police service dog procurement, mentoring new handlers, scheduling and monitoring on going canine maintenance training, firearms training and all related tactical training.  I have had the benefit of training with both SWAT and canine teams throughout the country.  I am currently a Sergeant at the Special Enforcement Bureau and am assigned to the Canine Services Detail.

Steve Sprouse

Steve Sprouse has been in Law Enforcement for 28 years and a K-9 handler/trainer for 23 years. He is currently the patrol dog trainer for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office in South East Florida. He is a Florida Department of Law Enforcement K-9 Instructor , K-9 Team Evaluator and USPCA regional judge. Steve is also certified as a Simunition Scenario Instructor.  In 2002 one of his dogs received “Honorable Mention” for the AKC Law Enforcement Dog of the year award.

He has had several K-9 training articles published in various police canine publications and has taught at numerous police canine training seminars and conferences throughout North America. Steve has placed as high as first place in numerous regional and national police K-9 competitions, but believes training for real deployments should be a priority. In 1989, Steve was shot and seriously wounded during a K-9 deployment and emphasizes the importance of selecting and training dogs for the reality of the street. Steve is currently working his 5th dog and has been involved in hundreds of K-9 use of force incidents during his career.

James Amann

Presently the owner of Trident K9 LLC and a full time K-9 handler for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.  From 2007-2009 he was the OIC (Officer-in-Charge) of Naval Special Warfare's Multi-Purpose Canine Program.  He has combat deployments as a K-9 handler to Iraq and Afghanistan.






Mark Green – Phoenix Police Department (Arizona)

Mark has been with the Phoenix Police Department for 30 years and has worked and trained narcotic detection dogs and cadaver dogs for his department since 1991. He is currently assigned to the Canine Unit as a trainer and works a single purpose Drug Dog named Rabbit.

Mark was assigned to his department’s drug interdiction unit from 1991 to 2005 and has a considerable amount of expertise in commercial narcotics interdiction and drug smuggling

Rodney Spicer

Rodney Spicer is the owner and training director of Gold Coast K9. He is recognized nationwide for providing challenging reality based training scenarios and utilizing contemporary canine training techniques. Rodney began training working sport dogs in 1985 and soon after began training police service dogs in patrol and detection.

Rodney is directly involved in the selection and training of police service dogs in patrol, narcotic and explosive detection. Rodney enjoys the unique position of being a certified working dog judge in four different organizations and being a certified agitator in five different working dog organizations as well as a California K9 POST Evaluator. He also personally conducts over 300 detection sniffs per year. One of Rodney’s talents as a coach, trainer, handler and agitator is his uncanny ability to motivate, reward and finish even the toughest Police Service Dogs.  Rodney is continuously striving to improve the Dog Teams in his programs to be the best they possibly can be.

Rodney is also a noted author having 16 published articles regarding police service dogs in national K9 magazines as well as being a featured speaker to K9 handlers and administrators from over 32 states and 4 different countries.

Resume available upon request