When we see a dog we automatically think of a pet, but not all dogs are pets. Some dogs are working dogs and have very specific jobs to do. Some dogs search through the rubble of natural disasters like earthquakes. Other dogs assist in finding people trapped under feet of snow in an avalanche. The military and police have specially trained dogs to search for drugs, bombs and people who are hiding from them. Dogs also assist people who have medical conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, blindness and autism. Dogs have the ability to sense and smell things humans cannot, making them very useful in many different ways. These dogs are highly trained and may look like pets but they are not.

It is not something you see every day but assistance dogs are everywhere. The Americans With Disabilities Act protects the rights of people with disabilities. This act also protects the animals that assist them. Dogs who work as assistants are very specifically trained and are called partners. For instance guide dogs work with people who are blind. They have been trained to lead or guide their humans through the obstacles of life. They become the eyes for someone who is blind. Epilepsy and Diabetic patients go through a chemical change when they are about to have an episode. For example as sugars spike or drop in a person with diabetes the chemicals in their body changes. The dog can smell the change long before a human feels it. The dog then alerts its human partner and medical treatment can happen before the change becomes a crisis. All service dogs wear a vest. If you see a service or assistance dog don’t run up to it. It is very cute but it has a job to do and you might distract it.

When a dog becomes a police animal it's called a K-9. There are many jobs a K-9 can be trained to do like sniff out explosives, search for drugs and chase criminals. A K-9 is a police officer who works with a human partner. They also live together and will protect each other no matter what. Military dogs are also called K-9s. They help the military police but they can also train for combat. These dogs have gone to war many times and are used to smell for bombs and landmines, pass messages and detect enemy soldiers. One very special military dog is Sergeant Stubby. He was in WWI. Stubby caught a German Spy once, saved his soldiers from poisonous gas and delivered messages. He came back to the United States as a war hero. He has been in movies, books and has his very own statue. He isn’t the only canine military hero but he was the first.

Avalanches happen everywhere there are high mountain peaks and lots of snow. An avalanche happens when a large mass of snow breaks away from the rest of the snow and begins flowing downhill like a river. Everything and everyone in the path of this flood of snow is in danger. A person who is buried in an avalanche has 15-30 minutes to live under the snow. Avalanche dogs are trained to sniff out humans, dig through the snow when they find them and then pull them out of the hole they are stuck in. Avalanche dogs work with people on the ski patrols and they have saved 109 people in the last 12 years.