Northumbria Police has a highly skilled and trained dog section, made up of six sergeants and 49 PCs.

All have General Purpose (GP) dogs – these are mainly German Shepherds but there are also a few Belgian Malinois and Dutch Herders.

Eight of these dogs have been trained to work with firearms teams.

There are also seven licensed to detect drugs, weapons and cash and 12 who detect explosives.

Their duties include:

• General Purpose
• Firearms Support
• Searching
• Tracking
• Criminal Work
• Football Match Duties
• Drugs Detection
• Explosives Detection
• Scanning people for drugs
• Weapon Detection

Police dogs are trained to be obedient. This is very important as the dogs must be under control at all times. Commands are given verbally or with a hand signal. Due to the physical demands on police dogs they must be in good physical condition, they are trained to scale a six foot fence, clear an foot long jump and complete a hurdle and agility course.