DIAL K999

PAW PATROL: MARION L McMULLEN LOOKS AT A NEW BOOK CELEBRATING AMAZING UK POLICE DOGS

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ALSATIAN Rex III was a superstar and possibly the most renowned British police dog.

He is certainly the only police dog in the UK to have a film made about him.

Police Dog came out in 1955 and saw Rex playing himself. Christopher Lee also appeared in the film as a police constable and Dad's Army actor John Le Mesurier was a police inspector. James Bond creator Ian Fleming made an uncredited appearance in the movie as a man out walking his dog.

Rex's handsome appearance, courage and intelligence made him famous and he was the best thief-taker of his day.

He made 120 arrests, was the first dog to help with the Flying Squad, and the first dog trained to detect drugs by the Metropolitan Police.

Rex also proved dogs could be used to track bandits in the jungle during the Malayan war of the 1950s and his handler, PC Arthur Holman, considered him the finest dog that he had encountered.

Rex's fame was such that a cartoon strip about his exploits appeared in a magazine called Look And Learn, in the 1950s, and continued to run for 20 years.

One of his early arrests involved helping to catch a gang of thieves who had carried out smash-and-grab raids at a radio and television shop in Cricklewood, a radio shop in Fulham and a jeweller in Regent Street.

The Flying Squad tracked them down to a block of flats and asked if they could have the help of a dog.