1 Most dogs are pets. They play, sleep and wait for their owners to come home. But some dogs have real jobs, and they work very hard to help people.
2 Guide dogs help people who cannot see. A guide dog walks next to its owner and helps him cross streets, find doors and stay away from dangerous places. When a guide dog is working, it must not play or eat food from the street. That is why people should never pet a guide dog without asking first.
3 Training a guide dog takes a long time. When the dog is a small puppy, it lives with a volunteer family for about a year. The family teaches the puppy to be calm around people, cars and noise. After that, the dog goes to a special school, where trainers work with it for several more months. Not every dog passes the training. Only the calmest and smartest dogs become guide dogs.
4 Other dogs work in search and rescue. After an earthquake, these dogs can find people under buildings that have fallen down. A dog's nose is thousands of times stronger than a human's, so it can smell a person even under many layers of stone. The dogs are trained to bark when they find someone. Rescue dogs and their trainers often travel to other countries to help after a disaster.
5 There are also therapy dogs, which visit hospitals and old people's homes. They don't do anything special. They just sit with people and let them pet them. But doctors say that this simple contact can make patients feel calmer and happier.
6 Whether they guide, search or comfort, working dogs show us that a dog can be much more than a pet. For many people, a dog is a helper, a hero and a best friend.