Meet the new furry recruits at Northumbria Police

The six pawsome pups have started their journey to become fully qualified police dogs after they arrived at Northumbria Police today.

Three 8-week-old German Shephards and three 14-week-old Belgian Malinois have all joined the Force’s Dog Section in the hope of becoming the next crime-busting pooch.

They were bred especially for the role of a general purpose dog and will now be homed with a Northumbria Police dog handler who will guide them through their training.

Over the next three months they will be put through a series of drills that will prime them for a career of tackling criminals and reducing crime across the North East.

Between 1pm and 2pm the six pups will be joined by their handlers at Monument in Newcastle where they will get the chance to introduce themselves to the public.

None of them have yet been named so members of the public will also be given the chance to come up with names for each of the animals.

Northumbria Police Sergeant, Julie Neve, said: “These puppies arrived earlier this week and this will be the start of a long journey for them to become fully qualified dogs.

“They are absolutely adorable but the hard work starts here and they will be kick-starting their training next week after being picked up their dog handlers today.

“The most important thing now is to make sure we come up with a name for each of them. We’ve been struggling so far so we thought this event could give the public a chance to help us out.”

A box will be at the meet and greet event in which the public are encouraged to drop in their suggestion for names for the dogs. Pens and paper will also be available and a prize will be available for those who are successful.

As with their furry predecessors the pups will need to be named after a certain letter to signal the intake into the Force. That means that three of the animals will have to be given names beginning with ‘P’ while the others will need to called something beginning with ‘Q’.

Weather pending, the stand will be set up around 1pm and the pups will be around for about an hour before they are taken back home to have some rest and relaxation before their training begins.

The @NPDogSection Twitter account will be documenting their training and sharing updates and photos of their progress. They will be using the hashtag #NPpuppywatch.