Campus police will soon welcome a bomb-sniffing Labrador retriever to its family.

The dog will be trained to sniff out explosives, including bombs and materials used to make bombs.

"The dogs are trained to detect over 19,000 different types of explosives through scent recognition," said Mike Conto, a member of the Tucson Police Department bomb squad and partner of Bliss, a black Labrador retriever.

UAPD is getting the dog through a governmental agreement with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

ATF will provide the canine and 10 weeks of training for officer Kyle Morrison. Sgt. Eugene Mejia, UAPD spokesman, said this is the first time ATF has assigned an explosives detection canine to a university.

"With this explosive detection canine, we will have a total of six dogs at UAPD," he said.

Mejia said four of the dogs are trained in patrol, search and rescue. They are at Mount Graham. The other dog is a drug detection dog, which is assigned to the Counter Narcotics Alliance. Morrison said although the dog will be assigned to the UA campus, it will be at ATF's disposal.

"After training, I will be a certified federal officer," he said. "(The dog and I) will be able to be deployed to anywhere in the world."

Mejia said the dog will help UAPD watch out for potential terrorist attacks.

"The importance of having this canine is the potential of us being a target," he said.

He said the UA could be a possible target for terrorists because of the large-scale, highly populated events that take place on campus.

Mejia said the UA has never been the focus of a terrorist threat, but there is a heightened awareness of the possibility of an attack.

"Our main function is to be prepared to address the potential for such acts," he said.

Morrison, who has been with UAPD for four years, competed with two other UAPD officers for the chance to go to the ATF Canine Academy.

Morrison will be training at the canine academy in Front Royal, Va., from Feb. 16 through April 26. Morrison is excited about the training.

"I'm thrilled. It's a great opportunity to do something that I've never done before," he said.

There will be 11 other people training with Morrison. Six are from the United States, including Morrison, and six are police officers from Egypt.

Morrison said the ATF only trains Labradors for a specific reason.

"They use Labs due to their mild nature," he said. "A hyper dog might knock over explosives when they found them."

There are two other ATF dogs in Arizona. One is in Phoenix, and the other is with TPD.

Conto said Morrison's dog will benefit the UA during special events.

UAPD's explosive detection canine will live with Morrison and his family when it is not on duty. Morrison has a wife, two young boys and two older dogs.

"The dog will make a good addition to the household," he said.