Dogs are not only known for their keen sense of smell and fine hearing, they also have other amazing characteristics. Some are particularly fast, extremely adaptive, highly attentive or very sensitive. Many dogs have abilities that neither humans nor machines can match. It’s no wonder, then, that our best friend is trained for and used in a wide variety of activities these days. There are many exciting jobs that dogs (accompanied by their humans, of course) can do today. Would you have known them all?
Therapy Dogs
They can help people with very different challenges and can be used for a variety of reasons. Among other things, they can help relieve stress, act as emotional support, provide security, or activate movement enhancement in people. Therapy dogs can be used in nursing homes, homes for the elderly, and many other social settings. They have in common that they have a very balanced mind, perceive their environment very intensively and are stress resistant at the same time.
Search and rescue dogs
Depending on the area of operation, they jump out of flying helicopters, search vast terrain or climb over mountains of rubble. Their fields of activity could hardly be more diverse. Water rescue dogs help people who are in distress in a body of water and can bring them back to shore. Avalanche search dogs can locate missing people under large amounts of snow. And missing person search dogs are able to search very wide areas to find missing persons – often even minimal scent samples are sufficient. With these capabilities, it’s not surprising that the training itself is as demanding as the actual job. And of course, only the best of the best are selected and can even begin training as a search or rescue dog.
Tracking dogs
This animal occupational group also needs an exceptionally good sense of smell. Unlike their colleagues in rescue, however, they do not necessarily search for people, but usually for objects. Most often, they are used by police forces to track down illegal items. Sniffer dogs are often used at border controls or search buildings. Once they have found what they are looking for, they can indicate this in very different ways. By barking loudly, they can draw attention to certain objects. Sometimes, however, just this is not desired and they must lay down very carefully directly in front of the searched and may hardly move.
School and daycare dogs
Dogs that are used in schools or daycare centers often support the educational staff. There is also special training for school or daycare dogs and even exams that must be passed. School and Kitahunde can positively affect the everyday life of the children and provide for example for more concentration and a more relaxed learning. The subject of some studies is also the question of whether school and Kitahunde children with ADHD can not even help to increase their attention. These dogs can also have a calming effect on children who suffer from anxiety or social isolation.
Companion and guide dogs
Guide dogs are dogs that are specially trained to help blind or visually impaired people. They accompany their humans everywhere and help them to recognize obstacles and to be able to orient themselves in the environment. What is also particularly exciting is that while these dogs learn to listen to their humans very reliably. At the same time, they must also be able to disregard commands in extreme cases if it means they can avoid a potentially dangerous situation.