Mavi is a rookie compared to his veteran colleagues but the newest member of the Turkish gendarmerie proved his mettle in one year. The Labrador became an invaluable asset to the gendarmerie unit he joined in 2021 by helping them locate bodies.

Perched on the side of an inflatable boat, the canine member of the unit attentively smells the air and water as his handlers watch his every move.

He is on a regular training mission on Lake Mavi (Blue), which he is named after, in the capital Ankara. After a while, his head turns to the sky as he barks before turning it back to the water. Fellow officers stop the boat and lean over the surface of the water, pulling a mannequin from the exact spot Mavi directed them to. Attached to the leg of the mannequin is a cadaver, used for training missions. With his mission accomplished, Mavi retreats to another corner of the boat, awaiting his next training session.

The gendarmerie started training dogs, usually assigned to search and rescue or counter-narcotics missions on land, to accompany underwater search units, in a bid to speed up the work. They are especially valuable in finding bodies carried away by fast-flowing waters or sucked into depths.

With each training session, their perception is sharpened and they get more accustomed to the commands of their handlers. Their senses are essential in locating bodies regardless of environment, including in muddy waters and low visibility.

So far, dogs joined the gendarmerie units in 17 missions. Kerem Işık, a non-commissioned officer commanding a unit accompanied by dogs, says the canines helped them locate nine people who went missing during the floods in northern Türkiye’s Bozkurt in the summer of 2021. They also helped locate the body of one person who went missing in a flood in the western Turkish province of Çanakkale. Işık told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Friday that the dogs were handpicked among those who do not have fear of boats or water. "They are enlisted so that we can shorten the time of locating bodies," he says.

He says that each dog is cared for by officers and wears rubber-soled footwear to protect their paws on land and life vests, bearing the colors of gendarmerie uniforms, while on the boat.