Working Dog Encyclopedia

A running list of all types of jobs for dogs!

Amira, Juris Dogtor

06 Aug 2026 • 1 min read

Image description: a black lab in an army green vest is standing on a mid-size boat, facing away from the camera and looking towards the ocean. The dog is wearing a lei collar and patches on his vest. One patch says California Task Force 4 in red and blue text, and the California state flag incorporated into the patch design. Photo credit: Amira Elsawi. 35mm film taken on my Minolta x-700, film developed by Treehouse Photo Lab on Oʻahu.

I'm stoked to share that the Working Dog Encyclopedia is now live. A running list of all types of working dogs. Categorization is a work-in-progress, but for now I've begun categorizing working dogs by field (ie environment/conservation, disaster response, etc). I'm working on building up the list to make it a resource/reference point for working dog handlers and aspiring working dog handlers, but I'm prone to letting perfectionism stop me before I've even gotten started: so, I decided to make the Working Dog Encyclopedia live while I'm still smoothing things out. You can find it linked at the top of my website.