Whoever said a dog was a man’s best friend obviously never met Natalie Ray, female dog handler for the WA Police Force.

Bona fide narcotics search dog at the Western Australia Police Dog Squad, Dawn is a five-year-old, muscle-rippled Labrador who, if it came to romance, would have no time for such a thing as her work is her life. She gets up at 5 am, goes for a walk then goes to work with handler Natalie Rae.

After joining the police force in 2002, Nat waited until the dog squad relaxed their rules about handlers being allowed other dogs at home before she considered joining the department.

Owning a 10-year-old dog already, Nat wanted to be sure that her personal life and her career could work together so when the rules were changed, Nat applied for the position of dog handler along with eighteen other police officers. There were only six successful applicants and only three were then given positions.

Nat claims that the competition is tough because it's such a rewarding career. "It's better than I expected it to be; working with dogs is awesome, it's good fun," said Nat.

Once paired together, a dog squad trainer will ensure that the relationship between dog and handler begins well and continues to do so. There is a primary visit made to the handler's home to assess their house and if there is a domestic dog, they then have to keep a careful eye on the situation to make sure that the trained narcotics dog doesn't become too submissive and pick up any bad habits while at home.

Because of this, Nat is careful about the treatment of Dawn and her 'pet' dog which is used to sleeping inside, so Dawn sleeps outside in a kennel.

"She doesn't relax unless she's in her kennel. If she's inside she thinks she has to work so she doesn't relax and lay down like a normal dog. She's watching me wherever I am and moving wherever I am, she won't lie down and sleep until she's in the kennel." Nat said.

But before you feel too sorry for Dawn, she has all her fun when she gets to work. The theory is that home should be boring down-time for them so they're motivated to come to 'work', as for them, work is actually play.

Although they don't even know it, the dogs are under constant assessment. To be selected for the Police Force they go through rigorous checks to make sure they have strong retrieval instincts and strong motivation to work and to play. Once they are part of the department, they are evaluated every day and are constantly getting feedback.

If the dogs aren't on call for a job, they go through a real-life simulation of a drugs raid where trainers hide packages of cocaine or other narcotics and then handler and dog go through a sweep of the room or warehouse. "It's my job to make Dawn's job easier," said Nat.

Nat claims that the competition is tough because it’s such a rewarding career. ‘It’s better than I expected it to be; working with dogs is awesome, its good fun.’

No two days are ever the same, starting between 5 and 11 a.m., depending on the job.

"The first thing we do is take the dogs to the toilet," [the dog's toilet on command], "they get fed in the afternoon so we get dressed at home, get in the car and book onto the radio then go to the job."

After a briefing, Nat is told about the house or the person they are searching and then they go to work. During a drug bust, Nat does a check of the house to make sure there are no visible drugs or syringes which could harm the dog and then Dawn is brought in to do a sweep of every room. If she smells something suspicious, she is taught to scratch at the area, then if anything is found she is immediately rewarded with her play toy and lots of praise. It is customary for trained police officers to do another sweep of the house afterwards, but the dogs are there to indicate where a stash might be hidden.

"The biggest fear for us is that they don't find something and then the coppers after us do.... they are still dogs, they make mistakes and miss things and have off-days like we do but not very often."

But so far Dawn has had a great track record for searches. "She loves her job," said Nat.

And it's not only houses, but people and cars that the narcotics dogs are trained to search. Nat laughs at one story where she had pulled over a car and the entire boot was full of cannabis. Normally the dog will scratch where she indicates a find but when Dawn started to do a search she just sat down near the boot, looked at the car, looked at Nat, looked at the car again then gave Nat a look that said "Are you kidding?" To her it was so obvious where the drugs were that she couldn't work out why Nat didn't know either.

In a job which is so varied, challenging and exciting, Nat claims that "it's not so much that the dog surprises you, it's that people surprise you."

Clearly from experience, Nat can remember some extreme situations the pair have been faced with but what seems to overcome the negativity is the bond established between handler and colleague; Nat and Dawn.

Nat recalls a time when the drug-busting duo was searching a house and she asked one of the police officers to hand Dawn up to her to search a higher level. Nat jumped back down and was going to ask another handler to pass Dawn back through a cavity but the dog just leapt after her. "She has to be wherever I am."

Despite the dedication to her job, it's clear that there's only room for one person in Dawn's heart and that's her handler, Nat.

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