WANTED: New recruits for the police, must have four legs, fur and a good, wet nose.

Cumbria Constabulary is looking for new dogs to help them in the fight against crime.

The force wants to find ‘gift’ dogs, energetic animals who may make difficult pets, which can be trained to search out drugs.

Sergeant Mark Yielder, the officer in charge of the force’s dog team, told the News & Star it was looking to plug gaps.

He said: “We are going to be running an initial drug detection course in a few months’ time and we have got two dog handlers who do not have drug dogs at the moment, so we are going to be training them up with two new dogs.”

Sgt Yielder added that the force may take on even more animals. “The more the merrier,” he said.

Gun dogs are seen as ideal for the role and officers would be keen to hear from owners of spaniels, including cockers, springers and ‘sprockers’.

“They need to have a high- play drive,” Sgt Yielder explained.

“If you throw a ball they go all out to find it.”

Police dogs are trained to sniff out drugs as well as items which are commonly linked with crime such as cash and firearms. They are able to carry out tasks, such as searching a home, far faster than a team of human officers.

“They are brilliant. On a job they can do the job of 15-20 police offices in a fraction of the time,” added Sgt Yielder.

“People hide drugs under the floorboards or carpets and it could take a team all day to search that whereas a dog could do a whole house in half an hour.”

He added that dogs are trained to treat their work like a game.

Dogs from across Cumbria or anywhere else for that matter can be volunteered for training.

To discuss the issue with officers call 101.