CANINE ON DRUG TRAIL; GLENDALE POLICE DOG TO GET NOSY IN SCHOOLS.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

Unless she has a cold, 4-year-old Fergie is always on call for the Glendale police and other law enforcement agencies in need of her nose.

The yellow Labrador retriever has been honing her olfactory senses for a new job this year, when she will make random drug-sniffing stops at secondary schools throughout the Glendale Unified School District.

``It is not our intent to criminalize or embarrass our youth,'' Glendale police Lt. Mike Rock said. ``We are confident that simply knowing a drug-detection dog may visit a campus will create a strong disincentive for a student to bring any illegal substance onto our campus,'' Rock said.

The program was not precipitated by drug problems or any specific incidents in the schools, said Sgt. Ron Insalaco of the Youth Services Bureau, but is intended to help keep schools safe, he said.

Known among her human colleagues for remarkable narcotics-detecting skill, Fergie has been detecting dope for 2-1/2 years, said her handler, Officer Kim Lawrence. Although there are few large drug busts in Glendale, Fergie has sniffed out kilos of cocaine, methamphetamine and bags of marijuana for other departments, she said.

Drug-sniffing dogs are rarely found on school campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Richard Page, LAUSD assistant chief of security. In that district, only Venice High School has used a dog to check for narcotics, he said.

In Glendale, the drug checks will begin in the fall and will be unannounced to the students. A school resource officer will accompany Lawrence and Fergie, sporting a Glendale police badge on her collar, on strolls through the schools. Students will be allowed to come up and pet the dog, Lawrence said.

Fergie loves children, Lawrence said.

If, as the students are petting the police dog, anyone should have drugs in a backpack, Fergie will start barking. Her sense of smell for drugs is so keen that even from a few hundred feet away, depending on the air currents, the dog could pick up narcotic odors from a locker. She can smell them just by walking down the hall.

The officer and dog have been introduced to student councils, other student groups, principals and other administrators at all secondary schools in the Glendale district, said Ken Biermann, assistant superintendent of student services. Fergie also has given some demonstrations, he said.

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Photo: Fergie, a yellow Labrador retriever with a Glendale Police De partment badge on her collar, will sniff for drugs in Glendale schools.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer