Police Dog Duke's tracked down a new job with Northamptonshire Search and Rescue volunteers

Meet Duke, a former police dog putting his very special nose to good use saving lives in Northamptonshire.

The two-year-old German Shepherd has swapped careers to team up with medic specialist Emily Cockerill as one of the county’s Search and Rescue volunteers.

Sergeant Chris Monday, of Northamptonshire Police Dog Section, said: “Duke is an amazing dog and showed great aptitude for tracking and finding people.

"However, he wasn't confident in other aspects of the work which, unfortunately, are vital for police dogs.

“We were really pleased to see Duke join Emily and begin training with our colleagues at Northamptonshire Search and Rescue.

"He will be a great asset to the team in helping those in need and we’re looking forward to following their story as Duke establishes himself as a search and rescue dog.”

Northamptonshire Search and Rescue is a group of trained volunteers who are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help full-time emergency services but relies solely on fundraising and donations.

Training takes around 18 months to meet national search Lowland Rescue standards so he can work alongside the team’s current search dog, Ted.

Duke’s new ‘mum’ Emily, a veterinary nurse by day, has been a search technician and advanced medic for more than five years.

She said: “I've been on the team for several years and have been helping with the dog team since its inception so I’m really looking forward to training my own dog.

"He's already a brilliant dog at home and we have a lot of fun going out on adventures together.”