I agree, this is one of the advantages of the standard CI [1].
You can update 'check-patch.sh' or 'check-merged' with the maven command you'd like to add via a commit to gerrit, and we can help with the review.
I think the best way will be to add it either as a new Make goal (like validations) and then add a line to the check-patch.sh to run the goal,
You can also add a new maven profile for animal sniffer so just running mvn test -Panimal will do the trick.
I think Juan sent already something for it..