A merino lamb attempts to jump out of its enclosure to find its mother shortly before feeding time at the Educational and Reserach Station for Animal Breeding (Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt fuer Tierzucht und Tierhaltung, or LVAT) in Brandenburg state on January 27, 2012 in Gross Kreutz, Germany. Hundreds of lambs have been born at the LVAT in recent weeks in the midst of the station's lambing season. Many of the lambs will be sold just before Easter, when they will have grown to a weight of over 40kg, as lamb is the traditional German Easter meal. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

This photo taken on May 17, 2019 shows rough rubies displayed at the gems market in Mogok town, north of Mandalay. Burrowing deep underground, thousands of informal miners risk their lives to find gleaming red gems as a law change spurs opportunity in Myanmar's “land of rubies”. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)

An incredible view of daytime lightning on Saturn during one of the biggest storms the ringed planet has ever seen has been captured by a NASA spacecraft.

Photo: The huge storm which generated the lightning strike on Saturn can be seen in the top right of this image. (Photo by NASA)

A waitress displays a plate of animal penises and testis at the Guolizhuang pen*s Restaurant on September 7, 2007 in Beijing, China. The restaurant offers more than 30 types of animal-pen*s dishes which can cost from 500 yuan (76.99 USD) up to 90,000 yuan (13,857.67 USD). It is believed that eating an animal's pen*s can strengthen a man's sexual ability. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

A meteorite burns up in the atmosphere as seen in this photo taken near of Salgotarjan, 109 kms northeast of Budapest, Hungary, late 21 April 2015. The Moon and Venus can be seen on the left. (Photo by Peter Komka/EPA)

Lianah Flores with Coca Cola cans in her hair attends the Fourth of July Independence Day holiday parade during hot weather in Huntington Beach, California on July 4, 2024. (Photo by Etienne Laurent/Reuters)

At the end of a six-year relationship, photographer Laura Stevens needed to find a creative, external outlet for all the complicated feelings she was processing internally. “Another November” is the end product, a photo series that aims to mirror those agonizing emotions that Stevens felt at the time of the breakup – and the subsequent healing process. Here: “Jessica” is photographed at her Paris home in this scene staged by photographer Laura Stevens. (Photo by Laura Stevens)

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.