Some of the world's top police dogs have arrived in Bradford to learn the latest in canine crime-fighting techniques.
The dogs and their handlers have travelled from as far away as America, Finland, Norway, and Denmark to take part in a prestigious police conference where they will learn the specialist skills needed to help crack stalled murder cases and find missing bodies.
The conference, being held at Bradford University, has been organised by the world-leading Forensic Search Advisory Group (FSAG) whose experts are called in by UK police forces to solve difficult crimes.
Conference organiser and founder, FSAG member Sergeant Mick Swindells, of Lancashire Police, said: "We're a group made up of experts from all areas of crime detection, from forensics, archaeology, dog handlers, and field crafts and we're here to help pass on that expertise to other police forces around the world.
"We hope the delegates who are here will take away new ideas and techniques to use in their investigations."
Sgt Swindells said the object of the workshop was to show how dogs can be used alongside other scientific techniques to locate hidden human remains.
The week-long workshops will include subjects such as the mentality of a dog, basic bone identification, blood detection and gaining homicide convictions without a body.
One of the police officers taking part in this week's workshops is senior police constable Steen Riewe Henrikksen, of Odense Police, in Denmark, who has travelled more than 1,000 miles by car with his Alsatian Dingo, pictured, to attend the conference.
Dingo is the first foreign police dog ever to be allowed to take part in UK training exercises after the recent relaxation of quarantine laws.
He said: "I'm here to exchange ideas and to get some practical experience of working with Dingo using these new techniques.
"When I go back to Denmark I will write a report which will hopefully help the investigators on murder cases."
Sgt Swindells said he had successfully used the group's groundbreaking techniques to find the body of a murdered seven-year-old girl in Manchester in 1997 which had been hidden in a sports bag and dumped.
He has also been called on to use his expertise searching for bodies as far away as the Falkland Islands.
John McIlwaine, of Bradford University's Department of Archaeological Sciences, said: "We hope the workshop will encourage an interesting exchange of ideas and working practices.
"These are specialist dogs used by the police to recover bodies. This is a prestigious event for both the university and FSAG as it will be the first time foreign police dogs have been able to train in the UK after the relaxation of quarantine regulations."
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