8 March 2010

Research by police dog handlers has helped develop innovative techniques for training police dogs across the country.

North Wales police force's dog section, based at Rhuddlan in Denbighshire, is leading the way with new ideas for other handlers working with dogs, and the techniques used by the dog handlers have been used in the national police manual which is consulted by regional forces across England and Wales.

The ten-strong dog unit and their handlers help catch criminals, find missing people and sniff out drugs and stolen money.

Instructor PC Howard Watts told the Daily Post North Wales that the national rule book has changed because of the training developed by his section.

"The way in which handlers and the dogs now work at incidents has changed," he told the paper.

"As a result, decisions are made far more quickly and in such a way as to leave no room for doubt or ambiguity."

The police officer said he could not expand on the particular training techniques used because the force did not want to alert criminals as to how the dogs operate.

The section has broken away from the traditional type of dogs employed as police dogs, choosing Belgian shepherds over German shepherds.

North Wales police has 11 Belgian shepherds, also known as malinois, which work with the firearms team to track down and disarm violent criminals to reduce the need for shots to be fired.