Abandoned by her owner and left cowering in fear in her cage, the ball of fluff faced a very real danger of being euthanized.

But a chance encounter with a police dog trainer at a dog pound where the toy poodle was dumped proved to be the first stroke of luck in the canine’s short life to date.

Moved by the tiny puppy’s plight, the trainer was eventually able to take the animal home. 

Here’s the story behind the plucky canine that went on to make a name for herself in the field of investigative police work.

It was in spring 10 years ago that the toy poodle adopted by Hirofusa Suzuki began life afresh with a new name, Anzu.

Two and a half years later, she was chosen by the Ibaraki prefectural police to serve on the force.

SPOTS MISSING WOMAN

Fast-forward to one night in May of this year when prefectural police officers were searching for an elderly woman who had disappeared.

Anzu, now a veteran on the force, was deployed to the scene. She weighs a mere 3 kilograms.

After sniffing and memorizing the woman’s shoe smell, Anzu started heading without hesitation in the opposite direction to where the missing woman had been reported.

Anzu found her sitting outdoors 1 kilometer away a short time later.

The four-legged dogged investigator has been commended no fewer than three times for her accomplishments since she passed the prefectural police’s screening for privately owned police dogs in autumn 2015 for the first time.

Ibaraki prefectural police hold this kind of test each fiscal year.

Of 28 hounds ranging in age from 1 to 12 who were accepted via this fiscal year’s exam, Anzu is relatively old. She will turn 11, about 50 years old in human terms, this winter.

It is rare in Japan for a toy poodle to make the grade as a canine investigator, according to prefectural police.

TREMBLES IN FEAR

In March 2013, a man showed up at the prefectural animal protection center in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, with a toy poodle puppy in a cage.

“I no longer need this dog,” he told the facility’s staff.

The visitor tried to leave the caged canine behind, but a staff member tried to put him in contact with a nonprofit organization that would help find a new owner.

But the man was adamant. He didn’t want the dog and told the staff that they “should embrace it without arguing back, since I am saying I no longer need it.”

He insisted he had tried to “nurture the animal by following a book on how to keep dogs” but complained it did not defecate properly and “barks loudly so as to cause trouble to me.”

The puppy was initially shivering in fear in the cage. She eventually wore a blank expression and was lying listlessly.

Suzuki, who happened to be in the center to see an acquaintance, could not ignore what he was seeing.

He realized that if the facility accepted the dog, it might well end up being euthanized. So Suzuki spoke to the man, asking whether he “will give her to me.”

At the time, Suzuki kept and was training three German shepherds at home. Coming back with the puppy, his wife proposed naming her Anzu after an apricot flower blooming in their garden. The botanical species is known as “anzu” in Japan.

WORKS HARD WITH OTHERS

When Suzuki introduced Anzu to his German shepherds, she began sniffing the soil while rubbing her nose against the ground like them.

Some time later, Suzuki took Anzu to the site where he trains his dogs and noticed she eagerly yelped in a way that suggested she wanted to learn what the others were doing.

With nothing to lose, Suzuki decided to “do it anyhow and not give up” even though only large dogs from seven variants were eligible for the prefectural police test for private crime fighters at the time.

He started training Anzu about two years after she became part of his family.

Being so tiny, her stride is less than one-third of that of humans, unlike larger canines that easily keep pace. As a result, Anzu failed to track people’s footprints with her olfactory sense at times.

Despite these difficulties, Anzu gradually was able to do better.

It was then that Suzuki received news that was good for both himself and his dog: the prefectural police loosened the requirements for its screening so any breeds could now take its exam.

Anzu passed the test in October 2015 on her first attempt, becoming the first privately owned small canine to work with Ibaraki police.

“Anzu has the strength to see things through to the end,” even when it is difficult to pursue a certain smell due to many people coming and going, said Suzuki with a smile.

Anzu still shrinks back in horror if people raise their hands nearby.

“She must have been exposed to terrible treatment,” Suzuki said. “And yet, here she is working to help us humans.”

MERIT OF SMALL BREEDS

Data from the National Police Agency shows that 1,244 dogs from private owners and police units were serving as crime fighters nationwide at the end of last year.

Of that figure, 70 are classified as “other,” meaning they do not belong to the seven large varieties that include the German shepherd.

Ibaraki prefectural police sought Suzuki’s assistance on more than 50 occasions last year. Suzuki selects which hound to send given the parameters of the investigation and the condition of his dogs.

This year, Anzu had worked with police around 20 times by August. Suzuki said her forte is searching for dementia patients who go missing and elderly citizens stricken by illness when they are out and about.

“Demand is growing for police dogs with smaller bodies,” Suzuki, 73, noted.

Small breeds perform comparably to German shepherds and Dobermans when trained properly. While they are not suited for fighting criminals, they are adept at locating missing individuals.

Suzuki noted that small breeds do better in searches for people with health problems and disabilities whose families prefer that their neighbors remain unaware of their problems.

“In the eyes of passers-by, the small dogs simply appear to be out for a stroll,” Suzuki said. “This allows them to blend in with the surrounding environment in residential districts and elsewhere in town.”

(This article was written by Junko Miyasako and Daichi Itakura.)