Greaves - Dogs with jobs: inspirational tales of the worlds hardest working dogs

Its a steamy early summers morning and Im standing in a car park attached to a vast suburban Sydney reserve with a drop of petrol the size of a pinhead on my foot. Across the other side of the car park, in the back of a red truck emblazoned with the Fire & Rescue NSW logo, Viking the black labrador sits calmly in his travel crate.

It might take him a little while, says Vikings handler, Station Officer Phil Etienne. Its a big area and Ill start him well away from you so you can see what he does.

Phil lets Viking out of the vehicle and in an instant the rangy young canine has his nose to the ground. He roams quickly over the surrounding bushy terrain, moving closer to me by the second. Hes excited now, I can tell thrilled to have an opportunity to use his considerable smarts and motivated by the thought of the reward that awaits should he do his job well.

I stand statue still in the middle of the empty asphalt expanse, feeling vaguely guilty about the fuel on my big toe, though theres nothing untoward about it Phil put it there so that I can see first hand what a valuable weapon Viking is in the fight against arson. But if I feel a bit shifty when Ive done nothing wrong, I can only imagine how a person who had started a fire might feel watching the determined dog at work.

As it turns out, Phil is incorrect. It doesnt take Viking a while to find the tiny spot of petrol. In fact, it takes virtually no time at all. In under a minute, hes sitting next to me with his wet nose pressed against my foot. Phil tries to dissuade Viking, encouraging him to look elsewhere, but the dogs not having it. He doesnt budge. Come off it , his expressive eyes seem to say. I know petrol when I smell it, and I smell it right here .

Phil rewards Viking with a chorus of effusive praise and a few minutes of rough-housing with a rolled-up towel. Meanwhile, I stand there thinking, I am so lazy.

I have virtually no useful skills. Sure, I can string words together in a somewhat interesting fashion, but I cant do anything thats truly beneficial in a broader sense. My abilities dont solve big problems or save lives. And I definitely dont have the all-consuming drive to work that Viking has. If given the choice between working and not working, like most human beings I would choose naps and bad TV every time. And so would you. Its cool, you can admit it.

I often say that dogs are a gift we dont deserve. Thats true of all canines, but perhaps working dogs even more so. What did we do, for example, to deserve a creature with a nose so powerful it can smell a sick little girls plummeting blood sugar levels? What makes humans worthy of an animal that would literally throw himself under a bus to protect us? How did we get lucky enough to share our lives with four-legged mood boosters that can calm us when were angry and wake us when demons plague our dreams?

And why dont we appreciate how absurdly fortunate we are to be able to get away with paying these tireless workers in little more than cuddles and treats? Would you do your job in exchange for a brief chew on a towel? Me either.

If dogs could talk, the phrase I cant be bothered would not be in their vocabulary. Working dogs are on call 24/7. They will do their jobs in the middle of the night if we ask them to. They will show up and work whether theyre tired, hungry or not in the mood. They are conscientious in the extreme. If Employee of the Month awards were open to all species, working dogs would win every single time.