15 January 2008: Woof Woof

British police dog handlers are having to learn German to give commands to their new police dogs.

Due to the shortage of locally bred dogs suitable for police work, forces are now importing dogs from Germany for the job. But the imports cannot understand commands in English. "If you say, 'let go' in English, they just look at you like you are crazy," one dog handler reported.

A Police spokeswoman said they are now also repeating the German commands in English, in the hope that the dogs will become bilingual.