If an Electromagnetic Pulse ever hits, all hell will break loose, and then where will we be?  The likely scenario is catastrophic damage to a nation’s electricity grid resulting in long-term, national power outages…….

……and in that cheery introduction is a rebuttal to the people who dismiss purebred dogs, or sneer that most breeds aren’t even needed anymore since their original jobs vanished long ago.

Maybe EMTs are the stuff of fiction (and for the sake of discussion, play along), but we can’t think of any EMP nightmare scenario in which our breeds won’t be an asset. Bad guys and bombs need to be detected, and from Springer Spaniels and Belgian Malinois to Labrador Retrievers and German Shepherds, there’s a dog for that. People will need to eat, and there’s a dog for that too. We refer to any of the Retrievers, Pointers, Spaniels, and Hounds, or just call in a Toller or Poodle (one of the original retrievers). While we’re at it, gather up the Newfoundlands and Portuguese Water Dogs for the fishermen. Without power to warm us in the winter, we’ll need clothing, so send in the sheepdogs to manage the stock, and throw in Livestock Guardian Dogs to protect them. We’ll have to rely on old fashioned methods to deal with vermin, so let’s hear it for terriers. You get the idea. In that fictitious nightmare scenario, our breeds just might save the day.

Perhap an EMPs is grist for doomsdayers and conspiracy buffs, but there’s nothing fictional about power outages, terrorism, vanishing species, and natural disasters, and in each real scenario, our dogs do make a difference. From Search and Rescue dogs and Conservation Dogs, to Military and Police Dogs, there’s a breed to do a job. We not only appreciate these dogs, we appreciate the people who work with them in field, earthdog, and herding trials, and train in SAR and species detection work.

Industrialization saw an end to many of the jobs our breeds once performed, but it doesn’t mean that the instinct to do the work vanished with the jobs. We reckon it’s been many generations since anyone’s livelihood depended upon, say, a herding dog, but in 1993, HC CH Theriot’s Red Baron UD became the first dog of any breed to earn an AKC Herding Champion title showing that this Belgian Tervuren still retained his natural herding ability. Just saying.