My dog's name is Cara, and she is a Belgian Malinois. She started life out as a bomb detection dog, in Ukraine. She was most likely imported for a breeding program, though I found her at a local shelter. We have no idea how she ended up on the street, but I had her evaluated by one of the lead trainers from Lackland Air Force Base where they train many of the military's working dogs and she turned out to be as good of a bomb dog as the ones they train. They told me that it is very common for countries to sell dogs back and forth, and since she's trained in Russian she likely came from Ukraine as we (the USA) have been importing a bunch of dogs from there over the last few years. While I was not a dog handler in the Air Force (I was an intelligence analyst) I did work side-by-side with bomb dog teams in the Middle East working counter-IED ops and I feel very comfortable with Cara's breed and training background. I needed a service dog that made me feel safe, and given my issues a former bomb dog has turned out to be the best service dog I could ever have!
Since she came to me with amazing obedience skills we were able to go straight into her service dog training, and we had her trained up in about six months. She was going everywhere with me within a few weeks, however, and we have rarely been apart since. It turns out that she is as scared of explosions and gunfire as I tend to be now (the 4th of July is not our favorite time of year, lol) and that may be why she never entered active service. She was about two years old when I got her, and we've been a team now for 2 1/2 years.
I got my first motorcycle about the same time that I got Cara, and when it came time to replace my car I sold the old bike and got a "new" one with a sidecar. Our transportation has been solely the motorcycle for nearly a year and a half now, and we wouldn't have it any other way now. She has "doggles" to protect her eyes while we ride (I bought the nice ones from RexSpecs) and boots to wear when the pavement gets too hot (though, she hates the boots, lol!). I've also got a line on a pair of ear muffs like what the military dogs on the flightline wear, and I'll be picking them up when funding allows...they'll mostly be for when we're on the bike all day long, since even my ears can end up ringing a bit after 8-12 hours a day on the bike.
Cara, and to a slightly lesser degree the motorcycle, saved me from ending up in a worse and darker place than I already was in when I got her. It is because of my service dog that I stayed in college, and now have my associate's degree. She still goes to class with me every day, and in about 16 months we should be graduating from TX A&M San Antonio with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration. Once we graduate we're taking a bit of a sebbatical with our teardrop camper (which hopefully will be finished long before then) and visiting as many nature preserves, natural areas, landmarks, parks, etc as we can on our two-to-three month trip I am planning. It will be a fun, and much needed vacation after nearly four years of year-round classes.
And now, the photos of Cara for your enjoyment: