Dogs certainly have the potential, with training, to be rescuers. Even the untrained dog may come to your aid—but without knowing exactly what to do. Their success is due instead to what they do know: that something has happened to you, which makes them anxious. If they express that anxiety in a way that attracts other people—people with an understanding of emergencies—to the scene, or allows you leverage out of a hole in the ice, great.
