17-month-old German Shepherd Stan and his handler, PC Leanne Kavanagh have this week started working across Wiltshire after being given their licence.
After 13 weeks of training, PD Stan was awarded the licence last week, which means he is safe and controlled in his role.
PC Leanne Kavanagh said: “Stan came from Devon and Cornwall Puppy Scheme. He had been living with a puppy walker, a lovely family. He’s been out of the beach and to festivals, he’s been very well socialised. Stan is very driven to work; he’s a really nice balanced dog.
“When we go out in the morning and I lift the lid of the dog van, he knows he’s going to work. He’s crying to get in, because he loves it. It’s all games to him, it’s all fun.
”I feel like I've won the dog lottery with him."
General Purpose police dogs like PD Stan are used for a number of things including tracking/searching for offenders or missing people, searching for property discarded by offenders and keeping public order such as at football matches or throughout the night time economy.
Paul Glennon is the Canine Development Officer for Devon and Cornwall Police. He presented Leanne and Stan with a certificate and watched Stan perform some criminal work.
He said: “We brought him in, with his two brothers at eight weeks old, to our puppy programme. They were immediately allocated to families who raised them, came to see me every two weeks for training and when they get to the age they are now, around 18 months old, they’re ready to be allocated to police dog handlers.
“I like them to go to a force where they go directly to a handler and they’re supervised. I know Wiltshire look after their dogs.
“I’ve been up already sort of mid-point to see how he was doing and I was really pleased with that and today the icing on the cake was seeing him completing all those tasks that he has done.
“I always try to find out how they (our pups) are doing, mainly for the puppy walkers. The families that they started out with, they need to know how they’re doing. It’s almost like one of their children have gone off to university.”
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