More than half of the households in the United States have a canine that is a part of the family, but dogs are used for far more than just domestication. In fact, dogs have been utilized as working partners alongside humans for thousands of years, giving assistance in several different fields of labor. Employed canines are important additions to human workforces and are taught accordingly to promise the utmost efficiency. Jobs have been designed for canines in momentous fields, allowing furry friends to work alongside police, firefighters, search and rescue teams, border control, and even military units. Working dogs exhibit bravery and provide help for the government and public; certain canines are even awarded honors for their actions.

Modern police forces employ canines to support with tracking down criminals, sniffing out illegal materials, and searching buildings, as well as additional tasks a human officer may not be as competent of completing. There are presently thousands of working police dogs helping cities all over the United States, let alone the world. Typically police dogs are unneutered male German Shepherds, although Labrador Retrievers, Belgian Malinois, Bloodhounds, Beagles, and Rottweilers are also used based off of the assigned task; all police dogs must possess intelligence, aggression, strength, and a keen sense of smell. Special training classes are offered for canines selected to serve as a working police dog where the dogs are capable of achieving certifications and honors upon graduation. During police dog training dogs are trained to bite suspects, track down people and drugs with scent, as well as alert officers in different manners for various situations. A K-9 unit makes up a handler, which only the most dutiful of officers are eligible to be, and a carefully assigned graduated police dog. A police dog will work beside the same handler for its entire career, which is generally over a six year stretch. obtain

The United States Border Patrol instilled their own canine program back in 1956 after the Border Patrol gained extra guard dogs from the military, but Congress put a hold on the program and it wasn’t brought about again for another thirty years. However, after four Belgian Malinois dogs successfully completed training through a one-year pilot program in 1987 (where they were taught to pick out concealed humans, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine), their accomplishments within a year of work was remarkable and the pilot quickly turned operational. Since canines have a scent almost fifty percent stronger than humans, they are perfect for helping reveal smuggled people, goods, and drugs that try to make it into the United States otherwise undetected. As with police dogs, a Border Control dog is given a handler to work alongside; Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds, and Labradors are the preferred breeds for U.S. Border Patrol pups and their career is typically six to eight years. By the age of ten most Border Patrol dogs are retired; usually a retired Border Patrol canine will live out their life with their handler.

Firefighters also work with four-legged friends, solving arson fires with K-9 units that consist of trained arson dogs, typically Labrador Retrievers, who are taught to sniff out evidence at the sight of an alleged arson crime. When a fire is suspected to be set on purpose an investigation goes underway and arson dogs are permitted to assist with their smelling skills, searching for the scent of an accelerant, including materials such as gas, butane, kerosene, and naphtha. Before a dog can become an arson dog they must finish necessary training; once on the job, arson dogs are involved in different types of searches, including fire searches, equipment searches, vehicle searches, crowd searches, clothing searches, and area searches. Proceeding graduation an arson dog is paired up with a handler, most arson dogs even stay with their handler, and go to live with them upon retirement.

Today there are many types of service dogs for a number of assorted important tasks that humans need support with. While canines are lovely domesticated pets, they are also intelligent animals that are capable of providing useful work for various lines of work. With proper training any canine is capable of being a team player, use dog training products to help your own furry friend to be a well-rounded pooch too!