Within this patchwork of human-dog interconnectedness, working dogs represent a small subset of the dog population, but one that can have profound effects on human health and well-being. On the other end of the spectrum, pet dogs are welcomed into our homes ( 5) and beds ( 6), valued for their companionship, and can evoke emotional reactions analogous to those in the parent-child bond ( 7– 9). On one end of the spectrum, free-ranging dogs live largely on the outskirts of society, interacting minimally with humans other than to scavenge for food ( 4). Since their domestication more than 10,000 years ago ( 1– 3), the nature of dogs' interactions with people has taken many forms. We summarize key findings from the empirical literature regarding best practices for assessing, selecting, and improving working dogs, and conclude with future steps and recommendations for working dog organizations, breeders, trainers, and researchers. In this paper, we review two main approaches for achieving this goal: (1) developing selection tests and criteria that can efficiently and effectively identify ideal candidates from the overall pool of candidate dogs, and (2) developing approaches to enhance performance, both at the individual and population level, via improvements in rearing, training, and breeding. Therefore, enhancing the selection process is critical for the effectiveness and efficiency of working dog programs and has the potential to optimize how resources are invested in these programs, increase the number of available working dogs, and improve working dog welfare.
However, success in these roles, which requires dogs to meet challenging behavioral criteria and to undergo extensive training, is far from guaranteed. Dogs perform a variety of integral roles in our society, engaging in work ranging from assistance (e.g., service dogs, guide dogs) and therapy to detection (e.g., search-and-rescue dogs, explosive detection dogs) and protection (e.g., military and law enforcement dogs).