New dog recruits take leading role

Ola and Kaiser became the latest recruits to the police dog team and completed their training last Friday with a passing out ceremony to celebrate, complete with their previous owners being present to proudly watch them perform for the public. The public were shown a demonstration by the dog handlers which showed the hard work that had gone into training both dogs.

PC Daniel Lomas who is new to the police dog handling team had the additional challenge of training a new police dog − Ola - and getting it through its training.

Police dog handlers invest a lot of time in training their dogs and working with the dog’s personality for a closer bond so that they can use them on police operations. Once licensed and in the care of Cheshire Police, the officers take their own police dogs home, making sure to integrate them into their family unit.

PC John Reid, who is in the care of Kaiser, has 20 years of experience as a police dog handler. After retiring his last dog, he acquired Kaiser, a donated dog, who went through 11 weeks of training to finally make it as a police dog. He will be used for operations ranging from tracking, searching for evidence and public order.

John Reid says about training Kaiser "He was a pleasure to train, a challenge at times as he didn’t take to training exercises quickly but he made real progress in the last few weeks. He will make an excellent police dog and the fact that he is donated just goes to show the value that dogs - who are unwanted or whose owners are struggling to keep for whatever reason - can bring to the police force. Therefore, we are appealing to the public that if they know of any dogs or bitches, preferably of German Shepherd or Mallinois breed, to consider donating them to Cheshire Police."

Kaiser was referred to Cheshire Police from germanshepherdrescue.co.uk after his owner Linda Duff and her husband, from Cheshire could no longer look after him. Their change in jobs resulted in longer working hours and he was on his own for most of the day, which they didn’t feel was fair to Kaiser. He deserved a better life, and is quite a lively and enthusiastic dog, so his personality is suited to the police force where there will always be new challenges. Linda commented, "I have a mixture of emotions today, as I watch Kaiser in his passing out ceremony, but I am very proud watching him in action. I feel that I made the right choice in donating him to the police."

For anyone who has a dog they would like to donate, can you please ring and ask for Mike Jones on 01606 362681. For more information on police dogs please visit cheshire.police.uk.