Eight dogs had their day Wednesday afternoon as the NYPD ushered in its newest graduating class of highly-trained canines — which are now tasked with keeping New Yorkers safe in the wake of the Brussels attacks.

“Ironic, in the sense of the horrific events in Belgium yesterday, that we are having this graduation today because one of our front line defenses in the line against terrorism are these wonderful canines,” boasted Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, as he honored the bomb-sniffing K9 unit during a ceremony at the College Point Police Academy in Queens.

The police pups, all of which are Labradors, are known as “Vapor Wake Detection Dogs” — which means they are able to detect airborne particles from explosives moments after a person carrying or wearing them has left an area.

They can even track a suspect through crowded city streets and train stations.

“These eight dogs were almost a half million dollar investment of federal funds,” Bratton said. “The threat we are facing by bombs carried by people in suicide vests or in luggage, they are highly trained to help detect those in a a very unobtrusive manor. The public loves to see them and they are great tools to work with and wonderful animals to work with.”

Each pooch bears the name of one of New York’s fallen police officers, one of which is Randolph Holder, the patrol cop who was fatally shot in the head while chasing a gunman during a shootout in East Harlem last October.

The other cops who were honored on Wednesday included three detectives and two officers who were shot and killed in the line of duty, one officer who died while attempting to rescue victims trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and a sergeant and an officer who died of cancer, which they contracted while working at Ground Zero.