Working dogs?

Question

Apart from pulling sledges and guide dogs what other jobs can dogs perform?

Answer 1

Drugs/bomb/buried people sniffer dogs.
Dogs for the deaf.
Pat dogs (taken into retirement homes for the residents to stroke. proven to lower blood pressure, give a sense of well being)

Answer 2

Sniffer dogs, usually gundogs, for detecting drugs, blood, and they can even be trained to detect the smell of death!

Sheep dogs, collies, for herding sheep and cattle.

Gundogs, spaniels, pointers, retrievers, for assisting on a shoot.

Hearing dogs - any breed/mongrel, used much like a guide dog, except they are the owners ears as opposed to their eyes.

Police dogs, in the UK usually German Shepherds.

Pat dogs, any breed, used in hospitals and homes, they visit the ill and elderly.

Search and Rescue dogs, usually hounds or gundogs, used by mountain rescue to find people lost on hillsides. Also used to find people in earthquake damaged areas.

I'm sure there are more, but can't think of any off hand!

Answer 3

Some dogs are trained to act as 'ears' for deaf people, some are trained to detect when a person is going to have an epileptic fit, there are sniffer dogs trained to sniff out drugs, some are trained to sniff out corpses, others are trained to sniff out explosives, there are sheep dogs, gun dogs, .....really, the possibilities are endless! Dogs are extremely intelligent, and with time and effort can be trained to do so many amazing 'jobs'

Answer 4

Well guide dogs are in a category with other assistance dogs such as hearing dogs for the deaf, dogs that assist severely disabled people, and 'mental health' dogs which are used to help control depression and other severe mental and psychological disorders in humans.

Other dog jobs:
-Search and rescue
-Bird hunting (pointers, setters, retrievers, and spaniels)
-Deer hunting (deerhound)
-Vermin hunting (coondogs, small sighthounds)
-Rodent control on property (terriers)
-Guarding
-Personal protection
-Farm work- herding, guarding livestock
-Law enforcement- bomb/drug detection, K-9 police dogs
-Military service/ war dogs
-Water rescue

Answer 5

Hunting, gathering, herding,in Italy they have ones that jump out of helicopters into the lakes to rescue people (it was on the news last week).
Therapy for sad or poorly peoplem in homes, hospitals.
Guards dogs. Prisoner programme in US (the prisoners learn responsiblity and friendship thru caring for the dogs - reduces fighting and suicide in jail)

Answer 6

I have three alaskan malamutes and we sled, weightpull and backpack (yes, the dogs carry 30% of their bodyweight in their own backpack).
Dogs are also used in police rescues, K9 Police for disarming dangerous criminals, drug detection, bomb detection, cadiva dogs (ie, looking for bodies after a natural disaster), hunting, herding of livestock, protection of livestock (by maremma's), also trained to be use by the disabled for operating light switches etc around a house.

Answer 7

My dog doesn't pull sleds but, he is in training to pull a cart in order to assist with yard work. Its called drafting and he will pull whatever weight tied to his harness. Once my female gets full grown we have tossed around the idea of having the pair pull a sled.

Answer 8

Herd sheep, herd cattle, police use them for finding drugs and explosives etc, some dogs are used by the deaf, some are used to track people. Loads and loads of things.

Answer 9

Nearly all dogs were originally bred for a purpose hence the different groups:
Gundogs - bred for retrieving/finding/flushing game
Hounds - bred to hunt/kill prey
Pastoral - bred for herding/general farm work
Terrier - bred to go to ground/hunt vermin
Toy - bred as companions
Working - bred for guarding/protection
Only other group is the utility group where the dog's orignal purpose is obsolete, eg Dalmatian
http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk

Answer 10

Sheep dogs. Guard dogs. Mountain rescue..