A dancer sanitizes the pole before performing on the outside patio at Cheerleaders Gentlemen's Club in Gloucester City, New Jersey, U.S. July 17, 2020. (Photo by Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters)

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.

A jockey drives a buffalo in the annual water buffalo race, part of a week-long festival in homage to the animals and in celebration of the rice harvest in Chonburi, Thailand on April 1, 2016. (Photo by Vichaya Pop/Barcroft Media)

Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais Camille Cerf (C) is congratulated by Miss Ile de France 2014 Margaux Savary (L) and Miss Auvergne 2014 Morgane Laporte after Cerf won the Miss France 2015 beauty contest on December 6, 2014 in Orleans. (Photo by Guillaume Souvant/AFP Photo)

A young woman holds a weapon during a basic combat training for civilians, organized by the Special Forces Unit Azov, of Ukraine's National Guard, in Mariupol, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, February 13, 2022. The United States is evacuating almost all of the staff from its embassy in Kyiv as Western intelligence officials warn that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is increasingly imminent. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A Pataxo woman listens to her cell phone as she waits for the start of the Indigenous people's meeting with Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as part of the 18th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp, in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, April 12, 2022. (Photo by Eraldo Peres/AP Photo)

Indonesian soldiers wearing facemasks and personal protective equipment take a part in a sack race during games to celebrate ahead of the country's 75th Independence Day in Surabaya, East Java on August 14, 2020. Indonesia will mark its 75th Independence Day on August 17. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto/AFP Photo)

A performer wearing a lion mask performs the Ise Daikagura lion dance at the remote village of Yamanawa on February 08, 2021 in Ryuo, Japan. Ise Daikagura is a group of traditional Lion Dance performers who pray in front of farmers houses and businesses for good grain harvests and disease-free lives. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)