An activist takes a selfie during a protest ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, in Paris, Sunday, November 29, 2015. More than 140 world leaders are gathering around Paris for high-stakes climate talks that start Monday, and activists are holding marches and protests around the world to urge them to reach a strong agreement to slow global warming. (Photo by Christophe Ena/AP Photo)

Migrants prepare their food outside shelters in a muddy field called the Grande-Synthe jungle, near Dunkirk, northern France, January 12, 2016. The Grande-Synthe jungle is a camp of tents and makeshift shelters where migrants and asylum seekers from Irak, Kurdistan and Syria gather. (Photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

A boy uses a mobile phone as he sits inside his father's snacks shop along a road in Kolkata, India, February 22, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Transgender Kendra Ferrari, 21, performs during Miss Night Queen beauty contest in Guatemala City, Friday, June 15, 2012. Ferrari won the pageant and will represent the transgender community for one year. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

An Israeli soldier of the Caracal battalion smiles during a 23-kilometer march marking the end of their training in Israel's Negev desert, near Kibbutz Sde Boker February 14, 2013. The “Caracal” battalion, two-thirds of whose members are women, was established in 2004 with the purpose of incorporating female soldiers in combat units. The main mission of Caracal is routine patrols on Israel's border with Egypt to intercept infiltrators and smuggling from the Sinai desert. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

President Woodrow Wilson speaks on telephone. Woodrow Wilson was the 28th U.S. President serving from 1913 – 1921. (Photo by Corbis)

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

Unwanted phones recreated as interactive birds, part of “Escape III” by Anthony Goh and Neil Mendoza seen on display at the Barbican's Digital Revolution exhibition on July 2, 2014 in London, England. The exhibition brings together artists, designers, film makers, musicians and architects who push the boundaries of creativity that digitial technology can offer, and runs from July 3 until September 14, 2014. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images for Barbican Art Gallery)