'Star Paws': Force is strong with new police recruits

And they are always on the lookout for new dog walkers to raise their puppies who could eventually become fully-trained police dogs.

The latest litters have been given names with a Star Wars and Dad's Army theme. Police officers, at the dog training centre in Balsall Common, will also be coming up with more names in the future, including those based around Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.

Officers are getting creative with the names because as police breed a lot of litters they are running out of regular names to use.

The litter of Star Wars puppies, nicknamed 'Star Paws', have all found dog walkers. But a new litter of puppies, which are one-week-old and have been given names of the popular TV programme Dad's Army, will soon be needing walkers to raise them.

The role of the walkers is to raise the puppies until they are at least six-months-old – at which point they will undergo a crucial assessment to see if they can continue their training.

Puppies which are successful are then returned to the dog walkers for around four months.

Dog walkers are asked to socialise the puppies with other dogs and people, and are encouraged to take them into public places, which will be important for their potential later roles.

West Midlands Police breed scheme manager David Raymond said: "Without the dog walkers, we would not have a dog unit really.

"They do a lot of hard work helping the dogs through socialising and getting used to environments before they are allocated dog handlers.

"The roles that dogs will be trained up for is general purpose, and there will be specialist roles for used for tracking, searching drugs or identifying explosives.

"We have about 12 litters throughout the year, and currently we have 70 German Shepard puppies and 30 English Cocker Spaniel puppies in our system.

"It is difficult when the dog walkers hand over the puppies.

"For some people they will say it's not for me. You are going to form emotional bonds with animals. But some people have been doing it for 30 years and love a new challenge very 12 months. It makes walkers proud to hear about the dogs they have helped raised catching criminals in the street.

"We supply most forces around the country with police dogs who have undergone basic training, we are the only sufficient breeding scheme in the country."

People wishing to be walkers need to be at least 18-years-old, and must have a lot of time free to be able to look after the puppies and allow them play time in a happy and care-free environment.

West Midlands Police has its own breeding scheme and supplies puppies and police dogs to police forces across the country, and even around the world – including countries such as South Korea, Australia and Mauritius.

The Star Wars puppy litter, all German Shepherds, were given the names of Darth Vader, Jabba, Trooper, Luke, Hans, Binx, Bibi and Saber.

Police appealed at the start of the month for dog walkers to help raise the puppies and their advertisement generated a lot of interest on social media.

Handlers

Once puppies are given back to the dog walkers for the second time, they spend a few months with them before being returned to police for the final time.

The young dogs are then assigned handlers where the real training begins.

West Midlands Police are always on the lookout for new walkers and are constantly appealing for people to get in touch. The names of the Dad's Army puppies include Captain, Pike, Godfrey, Fraser, Lance and Mavis. "We have supplied dogs to the army and police forces in Singapore," added David. "Specialist dogs have gone to Samsung to South Korea who will help sniff out termites. We have also sent tracking dogs who have gone to Bahrain."

The main breeds West Midlands Police has are German Shepherds and English Cocker Spaniels. But they also have Sprockers (a cross between a Springer and Cocker Spaniel) and Dutch Herders. Anyone interested in being a dog walker is asked to email their interest to breedscheme@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk. They must also live in the West Midlands area or on the outskirts.