West Midlands Police dog handlers tie the knot

The marriage of West Midlands Police workers Damian and Lindsay was a first for the force's dog unit, however there were two noticeable absentees on their big day - their faithful four-legged companions, police dogs Shadow and Nina.

Determined their faithful pooches would not miss out on the celebrations, the pair, who live in the Black Country, arranged a special wedding blessing at West Midlands Police's dog training centre in Balsall Common flanked by their German shepherds.

The blessing was conducted by force chaplain, Reverend John Butcher.

Damian, 37, who met Lindsay, 33, in January 2010 on a police dog training refresher course, said: "We're both dog lovers we have five between us, including our police dogs but as the wedding venue didn't have kennelling facilities it wasn't possible for them to be involved on our big day. Plus paw prints wouldn't have looked good on Lindsay's white dress.

Pc Smart has been with West Midlands Police's Dog Unit for more than a decade and works from Wednesbury police station, whilst Pc Whitehouse, who handles specialist sniffer dogs alongside German shepherd all-rounders, joined the team in 2007 and is based in Aston.

The pair have been involved in several high-profile incidents including the Black Country mosque bomb attacks last year and have helped provide security at party conferences.

Shadow has caught more than 30 crime suspects in his three-year career to date including a car-jacker, a robber who stole a taxi driver's takings and torched his taxi and, just two weeks ago, a man wanted over an armed security van raid. He was also in the thick of 2011's summer riots .

Nina has only been operational for a matter of months.

The newlyweds also handle police dogs Jake and Ben, both of which are specialist search dogs and have a pet boxer called Lola.