Dog Lifeguards Certified In Italy

Three hundred dogs have become certified to save drowning swimmers across the beaches and lakes of Italy, The Guardian reports.

The dogs are trained to look out for swimmers in distress and will leap from boats and helicopters to lend assistance.

Instructors accompany the dogs into the water, and can be towed by the dogs out to sea to give medical attention where needed.

Watch this ITN video of the dogs in action:

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Comments

[valkyrie607]

05:05 PM on 08/11/2009

Aww. Hooray for dogs and people: creating effective working partnerships for 10,000 years!

[Tulka2]

03:56 PM on 08/11/2009

What the heck is wrong with youtube? Has anyone else noticed? It's been goofy for a few days now.

[Beth Boyle]

01:33 PM on 08/11/2009

This is a cool program!

[piul05]

07:37 AM on 08/11/2009

Beautiful..I love dogs!

[CR46]

10:53 PM on 08/10/2009

What a great thing to do. Many dogs are natural lifesavers. Labs, Newfies etc.

[KinkyGirl]

07:46 AM on 08/11/2009

I once watched a news clip that showed a German Shepperd rescuing 8 people during the 1998 mudslide at La Guaira, Venezuela.

[CR46]

09:21 AM on 08/11/2009

There are many cases of "untrained" dogs saving people from all kinds of situations. I love these types of stories!! And I'm going to google the one you told me of.

[Trickywoo]

08:37 PM on 08/10/2009

Yay and hooray for the dogs! I hope that this plan is successful and that it saves many lives. Dogs do so much for us--and here's just one more example.

[LMPE]

05:11 PM on 08/10/2009

Cats will never allow themselves to get trained like this. Cats have a real "leave me alone" attitude.

[StopGlobalWarmingBeVegan]

06:29 PM on 08/10/2009

I think pigs can do this too.

[StopGlobalWarmingBeVegan]

06:29 PM on 08/10/2009

wait, can pigs swim?lol

[The Ogre]

12:23 PM on 08/11/2009

Cats don't even like to get wet. So...no, they wouldn't do this.