Dog handlers learn Dutch for new recruits

-- Dog handlers in a British police force are having to take language classes to communicate with their latest recruits.

Finding it increasingly hard to find suitable German Shepherds in Britain, some British police forces are bringing in dogs from continental Europe.

But there is a problem.

Although the latest arrivals possess all the attributes needed for police work, they only respond to commands in their native language.

Dog handlers at Avon and Somerset police for example, which has recruited three dogs from the Netherlands, have been given a sheet of practical commands in Dutch.

"We have learned a few Dutch phases which the dogs have been trained to respond to," said Sergeant Hardy Hussain, who travelled to Valkenswaard in the Netherlands with PC Paul Nesbit-Bell and PC Andy MacDonald to choose the dogs. --