West Yorkshire Police has dismissed suggestions it is set to ditch its traditional four-legged recruits in favour of a "tougher" breed.

The pledge to stick with German shepherds for general police work follows recent claims that the animal has become too soft for the job.

Sergeant Graham Armitage, of West Yorkshire Police dog training school, said: "The main dog for us, and forces nationally, is the German shepherd and I don't see that changing for at least the next 10 years."

His comments follow suggestions in the national press that West Yorkshire is turning to Belgian shepherd dogs as a replacement breed.

The Force has recently signed up Sparky, a Belgian shepherd of the rare Malinois breed, to work in the Halifax area.

Sgt Armitage said: "It's a dog which has good ability and it is a breed we are trying out. But we are not getting rid of the German shepherds.

"There's been a lot of confusion in the press about this. We started a basic dog handlers' course yesterday and all six dogs are German Shepherds."

The Force currently has 51 general purpose dogs on its books and 50 of those are German shepherds.

Sgt Armitage said there had been an increase in demand and a decrease in supply of quality German shepherds.

"We look for qualities like confidence, good physical condition and dogs which have the ability to be trained," he said.

"It's better to train them to the standard we require than have to control an over-aggressive animal. We need quality dogs for the future because there is a shortage, but the breed we are looking at is the German shepherd."

Police dog handler PC Matthew Lee said: "There are very high demands on police dogs now and the most important thing is that they have the right mental and physical qualities for the job.

"We look for qualities like loyalty and courage as well as strength, intelligence and agility.

"Most of our dogs are German shepherds but if Belgian shepherds have these qualities we will consider these as well."