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  Jamie looks cute. It is hard to associate its outlook with its nickname 'Holmes'. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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  Some people prefer to call Jamie 'Holmes' as it has successfully helped many dog owners to find back their pet dogs. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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  Jamie is a member of the ACC, a dog search unit in Kuala Lumpur. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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  Jamie is a member of the ACC, a dog search unit in Kuala Lumpur. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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  The missing Dolly is a three-year-and-two-month-old Pomeranian. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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  Jamie has successfully found Ozzie, a Golden Retriever. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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  Jamie has successfully found Eddie, a Poodle Cross. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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  Jamie has successfully found Arrow, a Golden Retriever. (Photo courtesy: Guang Ming Daily

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PENANG: After his pet dog, a Pomeranian, has gone missing for more than a week, a pet owner tried her luck by looking for help from a dog search unit in Kuala Lumpur.

Jamie, one of the "dog detectives" responsible for searching for missing pet dogs, is an English Beagle. Some people prefer to call it "Holmes" as it has successfully helped many dog owners to find back their pet dogs.

Jamie looks cute. It is hard to associate its outlook with its nickname "Holmes". Even though Beagles are not as burly as Rottweilers, they are still favourite anti-smuggling team members of the police and customs as they are born with highly sensitive sense of smell and naturally experts in tracing contraband. And now, they extend their ability to become experts in searching for missing pet dogs.

When Jamie's owner Anthony found that dog owner from Penang Wang Sixian, 22, was distraught after her pet dog Dolly had went missing, Anthony decided to lend her a helping hand and brought his beloved Jamie and other dog search unit members to Penang on Saturday 17 July 2010.

During an interview with the Guang Ming Daily on Tuesday 20 July 2010, Anthony said that Jamie and its comrades arrived in Penang at 1am on Monday 12 July. They went to the dog owner's house to collect scent from the missing dog's belongings, places it used to sleep and excrete. They started searching after that and three hours later, they believed that Dolly had not gone anywhere outside that residential area.

"It is because Jamie could trace the scent only until the guardhouse of the residential area. We had checked the CCTV and was sure that it only moved within the residential area and had never gone outside," Anthony said.

Anthony, a dog trainer, believes that he should do something when more and more dog owners have been upset when their dogs went missing.

"Out of a sense of mission, I started to train Beagles. And now, I have two Beagle detectives and 80% of the cases have been solved so far," Anthony told Guang Ming Daily.

"Beagles mainly trace by scent. Dog owners usually panic and have no idea how to look for their missing dogs. Distributing leaflets, offering rewards and advertising in newspapers seemed to be the only ways. It has given an opportunity to those with malicious motives and many dog owners have been deceived."

Anthony said that one of the advantages of letting a dog to search for the missing dog is that they would be able to collect more information about the missing dog.

"Jamie's task is only to trace places the missing dog has passed by and identify the searching area. The rest must be completed by humans."

He said that generally, Jamie could only carry out its task at night when there are fewer people, as people with different odors may confuse it. Also, it is cooler at night, giving Jamie more comfortable environment. The general time limit for each search is four hours.

Anthony said that the ancestors of Beagle were hounds specializing in tracing. They are born with highly sensitive sense of smell. They could find out places passed by the missing dogs after undergone a systematic training. He named his dog search unit the "ACC".

Guang Ming Daily