Two week-old Manx German shepherd puppies are set to embark on their journey to become Cumbrian police dogs

They come from a lineage of former operational police dogs, bred by Ian Kelly, a retired police sergeant who ran the Manx force’s dog unit for more than 10 years.

It started when Ian sourced the litter’s grandparents from the UK, then trained them on the island to become effective police dogs.

Of their 17-puppy litter, nine became operational police dogs, with eight being sent to the Cumbria Constabulary, and one remaining on the island - the father of the current crop, Danno.

The dogs went to Cumbria because of the long working relationship that Ian had with their police force, and in return the island’s force received ’thousands of pounds worth of training, along with numerous specialist search dogs’. Ian described the Manx breeding programme and its Cumbrian ties as having been been ’extremely cost effective and beneficial’ for the island, and said that numerous other UK forces had now enquired about future Manx litters.

The Manx-bred dogs were ’worked to great effect’ in Cumbria and were responsible for the apprehension of burglars, armed robbers, car thieves, domestic violence perpetrators, as well as saving the lives of vulnerable people.

They became ’renowned’ for their high standard of tracking, and most gained the specialist qualification to be able to work with firearms teams.

For the new litter, Danno was paired with another police dog, Kelly, whose career on the island had been cut short by an ear infection.

Ian lives in Laxey and runs a dog training business, K9 X, which branched out into the breeding of German shepherds and the supplying of future police dogs under the name ’IOM Shepherds’. His wife Saskia is also a dog handler.

He concluded: ’It fills both me and Saskia with enormous pride that almost 15 years of hard work to produce quality dogs on the Isle of Man, will continue and once again Manx dogs will be on course to have their names in lights in the UK.’