In Italy, if you find yourself in trouble at the beach, a four-legged lifeguard might just give you a helping paw.
If you think of a lifeguard, someone big and brawny with a hairy chest might come to mind. But on the beaches of Italy, you wouldn’t have seen Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff saving any lives this summer—instead, if you find yourself in danger, you just might be rescued by a Newfoundland, Labrador, or golden retriever.
Italy’s canine rescue crew comes courtesy of the government’s National Civil Protection Agency, which has sent about 70 dogs to patrol beaches throughout the country. If it seems a bit sketchy to outsource the saving of lives to a species that’s typically more concerned with fetching sticks than drowning children, never fear: the dogs are carefully selected, and receive as much as two years of training before beginning their jobs. Working with human partners, they scan the waters for signs of stress, and, if they see someone who needs help, will swim out to bring them to shore. The dogs wear life vests, so swimmers are able to simply hold onto them to be guided back to shore. If the swimmers in need of rescue aren’t able to hold on, the dogs have been trained to gently pull them back to shore with their teeth.
“If need be, the dogs are strong enough to pull in three people holding on to each other, or a raft with three people on it,” Bruno Piccinelli, who heads the rescue-dog trainers’ association UCIS, told Time Magazine.
However, Piccinelli added, “they are not meant to replace human lifeguards, but to complement them.” We’re sure all the Hasselhoffs of the world will be very relieved to hear that.