5 Jobs Dogs Can Do
The great personality of dogs allows them, in addition to being great companions, also be allies of humans in many fields. Dogs not only love to work, but with good training they can do it very well. These are some examples of jobs dogs can do.
Jobs that dogs can do
The cooperative spirit of dogs and their forgiving nature makes it possible for many of them to have jobs. There is a wide variety of jobs dogs can do: some need excellent physique, lots of innate skills, and dedicated training, but others are simpler.
With a little training almost all dogs can work. They can even help with the housework! If he’s not too young or too old, and he’s in good physical shape, a dog will always be willing to learn new skills.
What we have no doubt about is the fact that all dogs work every day: comforting us on a bad day, helping us to relax after work, or helping us to abandon sedentary lives by taking us for a walk. Even if they don’t have a salary, they strive every day to be better and that counts as a job too.
-
drug detection
One of the best-known jobs dogs can do, but at the same time more difficult to train, is drug detection. The training of these agents begins when they are puppies and continues throughout their lives.
Drug-sniffing dogs can work on the street, at airports, or at customs. They are dogs that work for government institutions such as the police or the army: they are not house dogs. They then, when they retire, move to live with a family like normal dogs.
-
Rescue of missing persons
If there’s a natural disaster or a landslide and people are trapped, like when a person disappears and you have to search a large area, rescue dogs can find them. Whether in an earthquake in the middle of a city or in a forest at night, these animals use their sense of smell and hearing to find victims.
Like drug detectors, these dogs begin their training when they are very young and continue to learn skills and develop throughout their lives. In addition to having a much more developed sense of smell, they learn to work in extenuating conditions, day and night, alone and among crowds, among many other variables.
This is not one of the jobs that all dogs can do: training the animal is just as important as training your human guide. In the event of a disaster, only trained dogs should have access to places where help is needed.
-
Detection of epileptic seizures and hypoglycemia
Dogs also help with the health of their families on a daily basis, for example, in people with epilepsy or diabetes. In some hospitals they are starting to train dogs to detect tumors and other health problems.
At home, dogs that help people with epilepsy notify them when an attack is approaching and help them when it does: they stay calm and put their bodies in a way that prevents the human from getting hurt during the episode.
Hypoglycemia detection dogs are able to sniff the blood levels of people with diabetes. This way they are notified when the level drops or rises too much. In this way, patients know when to measure sugar, take medication or eat, depending on each case.
-
Protection of battered women
In a pilot program in Spain a few years ago, they trained some dogs to accompany and serve battered women. These women’s former partners had restraining orders, but even so, the police believed they needed more protection than usual.
The function of these dogs is to accompany these women in their daily lives. They are trained as defense and guard dogs, and only women know the signals to activate them if they feel threatened. Fortunately, they rarely needed the animals to intervene and say the biggest contribution these dogs make is to encourage them to go out without fear.
-
Comfort in hospitals
Of all the jobs dogs can do, comforting and monitoring in hospitals is one of the most passive and simple. For a dog to work with patients in hospitals or clinics, he just needs to be very friendly and tolerant of people.
Of course, there are puppies trained dogs, but there are also many dogs rescued by protective associations that meet the necessary skills but don’t enter certain areas of the hospital. The main function of these dogs is to make patients happy with their presence and with the desire to please.
With the dogs that accompany us at home, it is proven that petting, observing and interacting with him, reduces stress, increases happiness and calm, reduces blood pressure… Living with a dog has many health benefits. And, as we’ve just seen, they can help our society in other ways.
