The use of dogs in fields such as military, police and service is of great importance. Dogs within these fields allow things to be done that would otherwise be impossible to perform. Within the field of military and police the dogs' duties includes, for example:

- Searching for missing people
- Searching for lost, hidden, and stolen objects
- Investigating crime scenes
- Monitoring and patrolling, for example during demonstrations
- Searching for drugs, weapons, explosives, flammable liquids, body fluids, and dead bodies.

Dogs in the field of service have duties that include, for example:

- Guiding blind people
- Detecting epileptic seizures
- Detecting low blood sugar for diabetic people