When you work for the police, every day is different.
This is what senior staffer Amber likes most about her job.
Some of her shifts are spent catching thieves and dangerous drivers.
Others are dedicated to locating missing people and bringing them to safety.
Sometimes, they are focused on recovering drugs.
Also, Amber is a dog.
Police dog Amber finds missing person on Arbroath Cliffs
The eight-year-old Belgian Malinois, who works across Tayside and Fife, joined Police Scotland when she was just 11 months old.
She lives with her human, police constable Scott McMaster, in Perth and Kinross.
The pair can be called to action half a dozen times per shift.
For Scott, 38, an incident at Arbroath Cliffs often comes to mind.
He and Amber were deployed to the scene after reports of a concern for a person.
It was feared that the person, who could not be found, would harm themselves.
Scott recalls: “It was night time – around 3am, pitch black, fog, mist – there were other specialist searchers out but we couldn’t see anything.”
Amber tracked the main coastal path for nearly one mile before turning right.
“She came off the path and headed to the cliff edge,” Scott says.
“I couldn’t see much myself, it was so foggy, so I followed her and we’re just getting closer and closer to the edge.
“And then I thought, ‘That looks like a head, that looks like some shoulders – yup, that is somebody sitting at the edge of the cliff.'”
Police dog Amber locates vulnerable woman near Perthshire woods
After negotiating with the person and bringing them to safety, Scott learned they had been there for four hours.
The dog handler says: “It was the middle of the night, so you could see hypothermia kicking in. They were seizing up after sitting there for so long.
“I always look back on it and think – how would we have found that person if it wasn’t for the dog?”
On another occasion, Amber was called to action after a vulnerable woman was reported missing in Perthshire.
It was snowing heavily that night, and footsteps showed she had disappeared into the woods.
Scott says: “We tracked through the woods and to the other side.
“We then went through a few fields before following a river to a really steep drop.
“We found the person sleeping on the ground intoxicated.”
Amber caught man hiding in cupboard at Dundee nightclub
As well as finding missing people, Amber is experienced in apprehending law-breakers.
Earlier this month, she was called to action when a man broke into a Dundee nightclub.
Amber’s nose led straight to a cupboard, where he was hiding.
The man quickly gave himself up and was arrested by Scott.
On another occasion, she found a drunk driver about half a mile from a crash in Brechin after he fled the scene.
The feat was celebrated widely online, with one Facebook user calling Amber the “best-looking member of Police Scotland.”
Another wrote: “Is she single? Asking for a friend.”
Amber is also adored by Scott’s wife and two children, aged seven and four.
Amber named UK’s ‘most obedient police dog’
Scott says: “The family love her.
“On days off, the kids love to go on dog walks with me.”
She is one of Scotland’s top police dogs, having won the regional police dog trials twice in recent years.
She has also been awarded top marks at the UK trials on three occasions, which saw her named the country’s “most obedient” dog in 2023.
The annual three-day competition sees police dogs and their handlers compete for points in exercises in agility, obedience, searching and policing skills.
With the trials taking place across the UK, Scott jokes that he has enjoyed more hotel stays with Amber than his own wife.
Police dogs usually stop working between the ages of eight and 10, meaning Amber is forecast to retire next year.
Will she remain by Scott’s side when the time comes?
“Absolutely,” he replies immediately.
“She has been there for me for more than seven years.
“I will be there for her when she retires.”
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