Bodie the Belgium Sheppard, is one of the country’s longest serving police dogs and has been awarded a Chief Superintendents Commendation on his retirement, after working for Leicestershire Police for more than 10 years.
Bodie passed his police training in 2004 aged 18 months, and has been used as a general purpose dog within the force. A general purpose dog is used for a wide range of duties including tracking missing people and suspects, searching open areas and buildings and finding missing property.
Over Bodie’s years of service he has directly been involved in over 200 incidents, which resulted in an arrest being made. Bodie and his Handler PC Dave Oliver were awarded with a Chief Superintendents Commendation for outstanding work on his last day at work, which was today.
PC Dave Oliver said: “Bodie is retiring at the age of 12 and from the day he joined he has been outstanding in all areas of work. Generally we retire dogs at the age of nine, however due to his good health and willingness to work we have worked him until now.
“Bodie has been outstanding and a pleasure to work with, he really is a companion to me, as I have worked with him since he passed his training in 2004. Over the years his working ability has never ceased to amaze me.
“It is always key that we as handlers have trust and confidence in our dogs and that’s just what I have with Bodie.
“He will retire and remain at home with me where he is part of the family and has been since I first took him home. As he is the forces and potentially the oldest serving police dog in the UK, it’s about time he took a well deserved rest.”
