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Senna, Patsy, Lazslo and Millie were immediately put on their leashes when news of bomb attacks at two downtown luxury hotels reached the quiet and leafy headquarters in Kelapa Dua,Depok, where they are based with their handlers. The dogs and handlers headed quickly from their base on the outskirts of Jakarta to the South Jakarta crime scene.

“We arrived at 9:20 a.m. at the scene with 12 policemen and four dogs,” Djoko Sutikno, head of the special tracking unit of the Animal Police, said from in front of the JW Marriott hotel just a few hours after the bombings.

“However, we cannot enter the crime scene as broken glass is scattered everywhere and it could hurt the dogs.”

The group had been ordered to remain on alert until the police forensic team finished examining the bomb scene.

“Normally, when there is a bomb threat or a bomb attack, we sterilize the area by searching for bombs in case there are more that haven’t yet exploded. We work in coordination with the Gegana bomb squad, which disarms any bomb after the dogs find it,” said Adjutant First Insp. Nuryani, a senior pawang , or handler, on the squad.

When an explosives dog detects anything suspicious, it sits at the site to signal its handlers.

“That is when the Gegana bomb squad takes over to disarm the bomb,” Djoko said.

The four Labrador retrievers are among 146 trained dogs used by the Animal Police to control riots, detect illicit substances such as drugs or explosives, and otherwise assist the National Police with their work. They are referred to as the K9 unit, for canine.

Nuryani and Senna, the explosives-sniffing Yellow Labrador, secure areas from possible bombs during important events where there will be VIPs present or visiting foreign dignitaries. They were recently deployed at the Sail Bunaken event as part of a complement of eight pairs of dogs and handlers, comprised of four explosives- and four drug-sniffing dogs, along with 12 other personnel from the K9 unit. The group patrolled the Sam Ratulangi airport and Bitung seaport during the event.

Djoko said that Laszlo, Beddel, Patsy, Art, Peggy and Millie also gave final clearance that the area was secure before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped off her plane at Halim Perdanakusuma airport when she visited Jakarta in February. “These canine cops and their handlers were part of the Ring I security that combed the places where Clinton was staying and scheduled to visit during her two-day visit for any potential threats, including bombs,” Djoko said.

“They were divided into two groups, each comprised of three pairs of dogs and handlers, for the first and second day of Clinton’s visit.”

Djoko said it was not the first time that police dogs were part of the core team to secure an area ahead of visits by foreign heads of states and dignitaries.

The six retrievers are among 19 Labradors imported from the United States as part of a Diplomatic Security/Antiterrorism Assistance program that the US government provides for the Indonesian police.

“Senna is the fifth dog I have worked with,” Nuryani said. “The first one was a German shepherd named Anka. I handled him for two years and we worked together to detect explosives.”

Nuryani has handled explosives-sniffing dogs since joining the K9 squad 20 years ago and said an affinity with animals, especially dogs, is a must for squad members. He also spent four months in Virginia, the United States, learning to be a detection dog trainer, and now trains new dogs for the K9 squad.

“As a unit within the National Police headquarters, we provide assistance to regional police throughout Indonesia,” said Sr. Comr. Budhiono, chief of the Animal Police. “Some of them already have their own canine units, but we are ready to deploy our team if they request our support.”

The dogs from the unit, together with Nuryani and 11 other handlers, took part in an operation with the Armed Forces to free foreign researchers being held hostage by a Papua separatist movement in Timika in 1996. For that, each of the handlers was awarded a Satya Lencana GOM IX Raksaka Dharma medal by the then coordinating minister for political and security affairs and Armed Forces chief, Feisal Tanjung.

The police started using dogs to assist them in 1952, when the then Malang chief of police in East Java province initiated the use of a German shepherd and four Bouvier de Flanders. Later, Mochamad Husni Sumarto, head of the Army veterinary unit, was appointed to head the police K9 unit with the rank of an Adjutant Second Inspector.

However, the use of dogs in police work raised some doubts because many people in this predominantly Muslim country believed that man’ best friends were haram, or forbidden under Islam. Djoko said that while planning the establishment of the canine squad, the police force consulted the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) on using the dogs in its work.

The ministry issued a decree in 1956 stating that based on verses from the Koran and the Hadist — a collection of sayings by the Prophet Muhammad — the use of trained dogs is allowed for hunting food and activities for the greater good of society.

With that decree as support, the K9 Brigade — its original name — was formally established on July 4, 1959, with the formation of a special canine training unit at Kepala Dua. In 1966, the name was changed from K9 Brigade to Animal Brigade and horses and carrier pigeons were added to the squad, although the use of the latter was discontinued in 1980. In 1985, the unit was renamed the Animal Police and assigned as a subdirectorate of the National Police.

Since its establishment, the unit has assisted the police and the Armed Forces in operations against insurgent groups, drug trafficking and DVD counterfeiting, and taken part in security sweeps for foreign dignitary visits and international events.

Djoko, who is the unit’s veterinarian, said the breeds recruited for the unit are German Shepherds, Weimaraners, Doberman Pinschers, Rottweilers, Belgian Malinois, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and Beagles.

The last three breeds are used for the special detection group, mostly to sniff out drugs and explosives, while the former are part of a general detection group that tracks criminal evidence. This includes two Weimaraners that work as cadaver dogs, detecting human remains.

When considering a particular dog, a recruitment team that comprises a vet, a handler and instructors judges the dog’s ability and aggressiveness.

Training for the dogs includes detecting substances that have been carefully hidden or planted, so they must learn the scents of drugs and explosives that are commonly circulated and used.

Djoko said the dogs were exposed to 40 explosive substances, including trinitrotoluene (TNT), research development explosive (RDX), pentaerythritol tetra nitrate (PETN) and plastic explosive Composition 4 or C-4.

“A dog can actually detect and distinguish up to 19,000 chemical substances and explosives used to assemble a bomb,” he said.

Molly, a male Beagle and the only small- to medium-size breed in the pack, detects illicit drugs with his handler, Second Brig. Didin Rosidin, who uses English as his language of instruction with the dog. The 18-month-old dog is the first Beagle — known for their keen sense of smell — the squad has had, and is trained to scratch a spot or package if it detects illicit drugs.

A rookie handler and dog must undergo basic training for three months at the K9 police training center in Gunung Putri, Bogor, before the officer earns the title pawang, and then go through another three months of specialist training in detecting explosives, drugs, crime evidence, human remains or even polycarbonate optical discs such as DVDs to track down bootleg recordings.

Once a dog is selected and assigned to a handler, they become permanent partners, even after the dog is retired because of age or injury.

“A handler cares for his canine partner until it dies, before he is assigned to a new dog,” Djoko said. Retired police dogs can not be adopted as family pets because they are classified as state inventory.

Djoko said that recruitment for would-be handlers also included psychological testing to determine if they like animals.

“However, we would be glad to accept a police officer that shows genuine interest [even if they are unfamiliar with dogs] to join the squad,” Budiono said.

“To like animals is a special quality that not all people have” Djoko said.