USA's Jake Paul (L) and Mexico's Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight during their cruiserweight boxing bout at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, on June 28, 2025. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Photo)

Jasmine Entz gets a kiss from her Guinness Book of World Record-breaking 8-year-old Holstein steer called “Beef”, who weighs 2,400 pounds and stands nearly two meters (6 feet) tall, on her ranch in Vulcan County, Alberta, Canada, on Friday, September 26, 2025. (Photo by Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP Photo)

Afghan children wait as their mothers receive treatment at a USAID-funded health center on September 7, 2011 in Farza, Afghanistan. Almost 10 years after the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. government funds some of 500 Afghan health facilities nationwide, most run by non-governmental organizations contracted by the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

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.

Jean Pierre Augustin falls out of the ring after being hit by Chris Arreola during a Premier Boxing Champions Heavyweight Bout at AT&T Stadium on March 16, 2019 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Mil Mi-8 combat helicopter flies over Moscow, Russia on May 7, 2019 during the dress rehearsal of a Victory Day air show marking the 74th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, the Eastern Front of World War II. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/TASS)

A woman carries her son in a bucket after collecting water from a municipal water tanker on the outskirts of Chennai, India, July 4, 2019. (Photo by P. Ravikumar/Reuters)

Rescuers attempt attempt to push stranded whales back into the ocean at Ujong Kareng beach in Aceh province, Indonesia, Monday, November 13, 2017. An official said a small pod of whales was stranded at the beach and attracted hundreds of onlookers who posed for pictures with them. (Photo by AP Photo/Zulkarnaini)