In Italy, their Coast Guard rescues about 3000 people every year. That’s a lot of work. Over 20 years ago they decided to get some help — from dogs.
After 3 years of training a successful candidate works with human rescuers to help reach people and, if necessary, retrieve them. It’s no surprise that while any dog over about 65 pounds can be accepted into the training, most of the dogs are Lab, Goldens, or Newfies.
Here’s a video from MSNBC with some footage of the training:


AWESOME video, thanks for sharing.
Steve.