They might look cute and cuddly, but these canines are part of a million-dollar Australian Federal Police crime-fighting squad.
Controllers use a combination of hand gestures, silent whistles and even lasers to give directions to the four-legged team members, who are mostly labradors.
There are 13 "technology detection dogs" across Australia, specially trained to find electronic goods including mobile phones, USBs and storage devices.
The dogs have gathered hundreds of pieces of evidence which are used to prosecute offences including the creation and dissemination of child abuse material, and money laundering.
The federal government has provided $1.3 million over four years to fund training the specialist dogs, and head of AFP Canine Capability Mark Holmes said their "evolutionary capabilities" are attracting plenty of attention.
"When I (mention) a level of competency, I guess it's more a level of confidence. I can entrust the teams to go out and support an AFP investigation or external client investigation to the very best that we're able to deliver," he said.
There are also 58 "explosive detection dogs" in AFP ranks across Australia.
Each hound starts training from about 10 weeks of age, before a career spanning up to nine years.
"Dogs conducting detection work sniff between five to 10 times a second, inhaling with one nostril and exhaling through the other," AFP Commander Geoff Turner said.
"Their smell processing capacity is 40 times stronger than humans, and studies have shown they can find a scent as faint as one part per million."
The sensitive snouts can find items that would have been missed by traditional search methods.
"Technology detection dogs have been successful in locating such devices hidden everywhere from wall cavities, Esky's full of food and even hidden in plain sight as pieces of fruit within a fruit bowl,'' Cmdr Turner said.
A couple of the dogs visited Canberra's federal parliament on Wednesday to demonstrate their skills.
