Bond between man and dog not to be sniffed at 

However, she had developed cancer and the decision was taken to put her down.

“She was a very, very good dog,” he says. “She was my first ever garda dog and I had some fantastic findings with her. She got sick and I remember going to the vet and asking what the story was and he said it's not good.”

Pat, who is based at Togher Garda Station in Cork city, had no choice but to have her put down.

“I read between the lines and I knew what he was telling me," he recalled. “The vet then turned to me and said to me ‘I’m going to put her to sleep so, do you want to be there?’. I said I do. Up to that point, I had thought all along that this was just a working dog.”

However, in just a few seconds came the moment that changed his attitude to the dogs he has had over the 16 years he has worked in the Southern Region Dog Unit.

“She was put to sleep and she went limp in my arms,” he said. “And the vet said ‘I will give you a few minutes’ and he came back to me 20 minutes later. He opened the door and I was still balling my eyes out. At that point, I realised that these dogs are not only a work colleague but they are most certainly my best friends. To lose her that way was just horrendous.”

Of the bond he has had with every other dog, he said: “I spend so much time with them, it's unreal. You form such a bond with the dogs, and the dogs form such a bond with you. It’s hard to explain.”

He pauses and then he adds: “Doggy people will understand, that's all I will say. "

His two current dogs are Rex, a black labrador, and Laser, a sable-coloured German shepherd.

Rex’s job is to sniff out drugs, guns and cash, while Laser’s is crowd control and searching for missing people.

Although it is Rex that has been in the limelight due to his involvement in helping the seizure of large amounts of drugs recently, Laser had had significant successes himself. However, their roles are very different.

Pat laughs when asked what Rex would do in a public order incident, admitting he “would probably lick people to death”.

Laser, on the other hand, would be very different.

“If a public order dog is deployed to an incident, it can have quite a sobering impact on people,” he says.

“This is because most people don't want to tangle with a big angry German shepherd. If the Armed Support Unit are also there, they probably would be dealing with any person who is armed because they have less lethal options compared to the dog.

“If the dog gets you, you get a mouthful of teeth and it is better to get the pinpricks of a Taser than a mouthful of teeth.”

In his latest tally of ‘finds’, Rex has helped locate up to €250,000 in suspected drugs in the past two weeks or so.

The finds include the seizure of an estimated €40,000 in suspected cocaine and two guns near the riverbank of St Mary’s Park, Limerick city on November 9.

Three days previously, he discovered a grow house in the attic of a house in West Cork, leading to a seizure of over €27,000 of suspected drugs.

Gardaí also seized over €20,000 of suspected drugs and cash in Cork City on November 1, again thanks to Rex.

The four-year-old rounded October off with his discovery of €16,000 of suspected cocaine and €800 of suspected cannabis herb in Mallow.

Seizures he has helped with elsewhere in Munster include the discovery of €3,600 of suspected drugs Seized in Roscrea, Co Tipperary on October 22.

Other seizures during the year included €53,000 in suspected heroin in a house in Cork in February.

Ask Pat how many arrests have followed Rex’s finds and he just shrugs his shoulders.

“It's definitely more than 50 a year,” he says. “But after that, I don’t know. I wouldn't be keeping track of the number of arrests.

“To be honest, we just go from job to job and we do what we do to assist local units. I love being able to assist my colleagues all over the country in taking drugs, guns and money off the streets.”

Painfully polite, Pat apologises for not having shaved before he posed with Rex for this article.

It turns out, he is taking part in the Movember challenge. It is his first charity venture in memory of one of his two sons. Conor died of cancer just 12 days after his tenth birthday, on October 28, 2016.

“I didn't feel I had the strength up to this year to do anything to be honest,” he said. “Family and friends have been unbelievable in supporting my fundraiser.”

Money raised will go to the children’s charity Little Blue Heroes, which helps families of seriously ill children.