Page last updated at 11:51 GMT, Monday, 22 June 2009 12:51 UK

Wordsmith wonder dog wows force


Police dog Frog is "a bit silly and a bit mad" but very good at sniffing out drugs

A police dog who found a huge drug haul is also a keen student of the word game Scrabble, his handler says.

Frog the spaniel became the most successful police dog in Sussex after he found drugs worth £600,000 in a day.

Police said Frog turned a major search into a two-hour operation. The £600,000 haul is already more than half the yearly quota for the unit's 11 dogs.

In his downtime, Frog helps his handler to win at Scrabble, giving her clues by staring intently at the board.

Pc Steph Barrett said: "He's just a bit strange. He doesn't think he's a dog.

"He enjoys playing Scrabble at home on a daily basis and he's just very odd."

'A bit mad'

She said: "He'll sit and watch and give me tips. He watches and stares quite intently at the board, helping me."

And she said the energetic springer spaniel, who went running with her every day, had turned out to be a fantastic dog because "he's just very good at his job".

Frog - who was given his name because he is "a bit mad and a bit silly" - is only one year into his career but has already impressed his boss.

Insp Di Lewis said she had run the police dog unit for three years, but Frog's drug haul - found buried two feet underground - was the biggest in that time.

In his first year, Frog has not only uncovered the amphetamines, but also £30,000 in cash from an armed robbery.

Ms Lewis said: "It would have taken an enormous amount of police hours to actually find those, and it took Steph and Frog two and a half hours to search that ground."

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