London Fire Brigade has introduced six newly qualified wellbeing dogs to help firefighters recover from traumatic incidents.

The scheme sees members of staff volunteering to be trained with their own pet dogs.

One of the four-legged recruits is Blue, a miniature Australian Shepherd.

Blue’s owner and handler is the Borough Commander for Hammersmith and Fulham, Lucy MacLeod.

To date the duo have completed 20 intensive modules as part of the Oscar Kilo 9 Dogs Trust Handler’s course.

This includes a behavioural assessment which means Blue and Lucy are now qualified to support colleagues.

Working on a request basis, they can now visit any of the 102 fire stations across London to offer teams a morale boost.

Borough Commander MacLeod, explaining why Blue makes such an excellent wellbeing dog, said: “It does take a special type of dog to take on this work. Blue has the right temperament. He is happy to be stroked, adores being made a fuss of and he is very calm around people. He generally loves being around humans.

“Evidence shows that animals like Blue, can have a calming influence on people and provide a positive distraction; there’s no judgement from a dog. We’ve found that our staff are more likely to talk openly and honestly on subjects like mental health and wellbeing when four-legged friends are around.”