Dogs in rescue and police work

Dogs that helped in the Batang Kali tragedy: (From left) Lady, Grouse, Pop and Blake from the Fire and Rescue Department's K9 unit along with their handlers. — KPKT Malaysia/Facebook

Dogs have been used to track people for centuries. Every culture that has dogs, tells stories of them helping find lost children, lost sheep, camels or cows, and tracking down thieves and escaped criminals.

In recent times, dogs have been trained to become professionals in fairly select areas. Police dogs in Australia specialise in sniffing out currency, drugs, firearms and explosives.