Almost every breed exists because someone needed a job doing. Understanding what your dog’s ancestors were for explains a surprising amount about what they do in your living room.
Detection
The largest category of modern working dog, and it rests entirely on the nose.
Explosives and firearms detection — airports, borders, event security.
Drug detection — customs, prisons, police.
Search and rescue — trained either to follow a specific person’s scent trail, or to air-scent for any human in an area. Disaster dogs work on unstable rubble; some are trained to find live people, others to locate human remains.
Conservation detection — one of the fastest-growing fields. Dogs locate invasive plants, endangered species scat, bumblebee nests, and even whale faeces from boats.
Agricultural detection — bed bugs, termites, tree diseases, and quarantined food products at borders.
Medical detection — dogs trained to detect certain cancers from samples, to alert diabetic handlers to falling blood sugar, and in some cases to alert before a seizure occurs. The research quality varies considerably, but the underlying olfactory capability is not in doubt.
Assistance
Guide dogs for blind and partially sighted handlers — notably trained in “intelligent disobedience”, refusing a command that would put the handler in danger, which is a remarkable thing to train.
Hearing dogs, alerting to doorbells, alarms, phones and a person’s name.
Mobility assistance dogs, retrieving objects, opening doors, operating light switches, and providing physical support.
Medical alert dogs for diabetes, epilepsy, and some cardiac conditions.
Psychiatric assistance dogs, trained in specific tasks such as interrupting a panic attack, providing deep pressure, or checking a room.
Autism assistance dogs, often working with a child and providing anchoring and routine.
Assistance dogs are working animals, not pets in public, and the standard etiquette matters: do not distract, pet, feed or call to a dog in harness.
Herding
The original job of a great many familiar breeds. Herding behaviour is a truncated hunting sequence — the eye, the stalk and the chase, with the grab and kill suppressed by selection.
Different breeds work differently: Border Collies work at distance with intense eye contact and crouching, while Corgis and Australian Cattle Dogs work close and use their teeth at the heels.
This is why a Collie stares at a football, and why a Cattle Dog nips at running children. It is not misbehaviour; it is the job showing through.
Livestock guardians
A completely different role from herding. Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherds, Maremma, Kuvasz — raised with the flock and left to live with it, deterring predators independently for days at a time.
They were selected for exactly the opposite traits to herding dogs: low prey drive, high independence, and a willingness to make decisions without a human. Which is why they are difficult pets and why recall is not their strong suit.
Sled and draught dogs
Alaskan Huskies pulling sleds over long distances are among the finest endurance athletes in the animal kingdom, covering enormous daily distances while burning an extraordinary number of calories.
Draught breeds — Bernese Mountain Dogs, Newfoundlands, Rottweilers originally — hauled carts and drove livestock.
Water work
Newfoundlands were bred for water rescue, with webbed feet, a water-resistant double coat and a powerful swimming stroke. Portuguese Water Dogs retrieved gear and herded fish into nets.
Hunting, in several specialisms
Scent hounds — Beagles, Bloodhounds, Coonhounds. Selected to follow a trail relentlessly, often out of earshot, and to bay so the hunter could follow.
Sighthounds — Greyhounds, Salukis, Whippets. Selected to spot movement and run it down.
Pointers and setters — to find game and freeze.
Retrievers — to mark where something fell and bring it back undamaged, hence the soft mouth.
Terriers — to go into a burrow after quarry, alone, and deal with it. Selected for tenacity, independence and a willingness to keep going.
Military and police
Detection, patrol, tracking, and apprehension. Belgian Malinois have largely replaced German Shepherds in many roles, being lighter, faster and with fewer orthopaedic problems.
Military working dogs have a long documented history, and in many countries retired dogs are now formally rehomed rather than treated as surplus equipment — a change that took a surprising amount of campaigning.
What this means for your dog
If your dog belongs to a working type and lives as a pet, the behaviour they were built for still needs an outlet. Otherwise it appears somewhere you did not choose.
- Herding breeds need to work at a distance and be given tasks with rules. Treibball, obedience, agility, and above all training
- Scent hounds and gundogs need to use their nose. Scentwork, tracking, scatter feeding, search games
- Terriers need to dig, shake and problem-solve. A digging pit, flirt poles, puzzle feeders
- Retrievers need to carry and retrieve. Fetch with rules, retrieve games, carrying something on a walk
- Livestock guardians need space, calm, and an acceptance that they will make their own decisions
A dog whose job is met is a settled dog. A dog whose job is not met invents one, and it is usually noisier and more expensive than the original.
