They leap from helicopters or speeding boats, bringing aid to swimmers who get into trouble off Italy's popular beaches.

For these canine lifeguards, the doggie paddle does just fine.

Hundreds of specially trained dogs form Italy's corps of canine lifeguards. They are deployed each summer to help swimmers in need of rescue.

These "lifedogs" wear a harness or tow a buoy that victims can grab, or a raft they can sit on to be towed back to shore, and unlike their human counterparts, they can easily jump from helicopters and speeding boats to reach swimmers in trouble.

With millions flocking to Italy's crowded beaches each summer, the Italian Coast Guard says it rescues about 3,000 people every year - and their canine helpers are credited with saving several lives.

It takes three years for the canines to reach expertrescuestatus, and currently 300 dogs are fully trained for duty, said Roberto Gasbarri, who coordinates the Italian School of Canine Lifeguards program at a center outside of Rome in the seaside town of Civitavecchia.

"Dogs are useful in containing the physicalfatigue of the lifeguard, to increase the speed at which casualties are retrieved, to increase the security of both the casualty and of the lifeguard," Gasbarri said.

The Civitavecchia center is one of a dozen around the country for the school founded more than 20 years ago in the northern province of Bergamo by Ferruccio Pilenga, whose first trainee was his own Newfoundland.

The school will train any breed, as long as they weigh at least 30 kg (66 pounds), but Labradors, Newfoundlands and golden retrievers are most commonly used because of their natural instinct for swimming. Each dog works in tandem with a human lifeguard, who also acts as the animal's trainer.

(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)

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(Agencies)