Police dog handler's emotional retirement after 45 years with the Guardia Civil in Spain

Juan de Dios Alonso Pérez, a well-known figure of Granada's Guardia Civil is retiring after 45 years' service. The dog handler says he would have his time again "a thousand times" and admits "I have been very happy".

Alonso Pérez reflects on his long career as he eats breakfast in the Guardia Civil's cafeteria and several people are surprised to see him in uniform as he's normally wearing a T-shirt.

It has been an intense week. "I've already cried twice," the 65-year-old admits, adding "I would have kept working a lot longer". He joined the Guardia Civil when he was just 19, in a very different era. There were no mobile phones, the Guardia Civil went to his house to inform him when his police exam would be and, incidentally, to find out in person whether he had a clean slate, as they used to do. He passed the exams easily and set off for Baeza.

He spent his first six years in the field of public safety in Torla (Huesca), a town with a population of 250 inhabitants at the time. "There were many young girls who were interested in us newcomers, but I went with my girlfriend, she was the one I liked. I loved her", he says. Rosa later became his wife and she didn't think twice about moving with Juan de Dios to the tiny village. They started dating when they were 15 and have been together for 50 years.

The couple's two children, Juan de Dios and Rosa, were both born in Torla. It was so cold that one night that his son put his hand out of the window and it turned purple. "I thought: the first job I get to go away, I'll ask for it and they posted the one for explosives and dog handler". He didn't have high hopes of being chosen, but, against all odds, he got in. He still remembers the blackboard on which they wrote down the internal vacancies. There was just one in Granada. That vacancy went to Juan de Dios. He was 26 years old.

They were difficult times. ETA was very active and Juan de Dios and his colleagues were called up to four times a day for possible threats, suspicious backpacks or abandoned packages. "There were no mobile phones, we had a pager. I remember perfectly what it sounded like," he recalls. He was involved in several attacks in Granada province. "My dog detected the explosive at the Aquatropic in Almuñécar, but there was no time to deactivate it. Fortunately, everything was cleared and nothing happened," he adds.

Has he ever been really scared? "We went to some towers that were mined. The dog kept going round in circles. I managed to catch it and we reversed, trying to walk back the way we had come. I literally peed my pants from fear," he recalls. The devices turned out to be smoke canisters for the concealment of tanks; they were army manoeuvres that had not been reported.

In recent years, fortunately, the work has been quite different. "We have had real cases of homemade explosives, but few, almost all the ones we find are fake. Even so, we treat them as if they are real threats," he explains.

Juan de Dios has been lucky, the dogs "have lasted a long time, an average of ten years", apart from a few exceptions. He has worked with five animals. "They never argue, they always agree with you, they never tell on you. Whatever you do, they kiss you, they look after you. They are the most loyal companions you can have," he says emotionally. He now has one at home that he is training for future service.

While he admits that he has made a few enemies along the way, overall he says "I've been lucky, I've been surrounded by good people". The Guardia Civil barracks will always be his home. He has not quite got his head around what his new life will be like without working there. "I'm a policeman and I always will be," he stresses. He faces retirement with the resignation of someone who doesn't want to leave, but with the peace of mind of a job well done. "My wife suggested the other day that we go to Almería and I said whenever she wants. Now I have all the time in the world", he says with a laugh. A well-deserved rest for Granada's best-loved dog handler.