"Dogs at Work"

Dogs and humans share a special bond.

The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the enduring partnership between dogs and people with the Dogs at Work issuance. This set of four stamps depicts four hard-working canines: a guide dog assisting a woman who is blind, a tracking dog on the trail of a scent, a therapy dog visiting an elderly woman in her home, and a search and rescue dog standing in a field, ready to tackle the next assignment.

Artist John M. Thompson created original paintings for the stamps, which were designed by art director Howard E. Paine.

Dogs today excel at a variety of jobs. Currently, some 10,000 guide dogs in the U.S. and Canada serve as an extra set of eyes for people who are blind. Therapy dogs, chosen for their friendly dispositions, bring comfort and joy to the elderly and the ill. Dogs that work with police and military personnel are trained to detect drugs, guns, and explosives. Search and rescue dogs speed up search efforts, increasing the odds of survival for disaster victims.

Work and Play

Some dogs love to sniff out drugs, locate explosives, and dig for contraband. This type of work is their play for K-9 dogs.

Mark Rispoli, owner and president of Makor K-9 Training Center in Napa, California, trains and selects dogs for these purposes and more, including search and rescue, patrol work, and personal protection.

He says when choosing a dog to train, he looks for dogs with a high retrieve and play drive. They also must be confident and not skittish, and able to work well around loud sounds and people. But most important, they must love to hunt and investigate with a pure desire to find what they are looking for.

He usually selects herding and hunting dogs such as German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, retrievers, shepherds, and mixes of these type. He looks everywhere for just the right dog considering that only about one in 25 dogs makes the cut.

Since his dogs are sometimes used for life-threatening jobs, he is very selective in finding the right dog who meets the task with enthusiasm. The dog must be outgoing and think of his job as a game.