Puppy love for Police Dog Gus

Rex, the new police recruit

Police Dog Gus became the proud father of eight puppies on Saturday 14 July, and now one of his little offspring is on his way to the City.

At just seven weeks old, Rex must surely be the youngest City recruit ever. The German shepherd puppy spent his early weeks with his mum, Cass, who’s a West Midlands police dog, at the puppy block at Keston, the Metropolitan Police dog-training centre in Kent.

At the start of this month, however, Rex moved into his new home with City dog handler PC Steve Raison. But he won’t get his warrant card just yet. Rex has to go back to Keston each month for training and testing. After ten months, he’ll go through a full test, which will determine whether he’s police-dog material.

'This is the first time a City dog has been used to sire police-dog puppies, as we weren’t part of the Met’s breeding programme before,” explained dog handler PC Tracey Brydon-Brown, whose husband Rob, also a City dog handler, kept an eye on the puppies at Keston. “Gus was chosen because he has a really good pedigree and has turned out to be a really good police dog.'

German shepherds are particularly hard to come by, because they’re used extensively in Europe for both general purpose and drugs dogs.

'We usually have to rely on dogs from Battersea and unwanted dogs that are given to us,” Tracey said, “so having a puppy from the Met breeding programme will be really welcome.'