Reprinted from City of Dogs: New York Dogs, Their Neighborhoods, and the People Who Love Them by arrangement with Avery, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2018, Ken Foster and Traer Scott

In their new book, City of Dogs: New York Dogs, Their Neighborhoods and the People Who Love Them, Ken Foster and Traer Scott profile forty New York City dogs and their owners from all different neighborhoods spread across the five boroughs. The owners included in the book represent a wide variety of ages, races, occupations and life stories and their dogs are just as unique. What unites the diverse group of subjects is the deep bond that they all share with their pets. To give you a peek at what’s inside, we’ve picked out five dogs who are earning their keep in New York City. Whether they are protecting our safety or simply greeting customers in a store, here are five working dogs of New York City:

1. Riggs and The Fire Factory

Photograph by Traer Scott

Fire dogs were traditionally employed by firehouses as companions for the fire horses, but when fire horses went away (replaced by firetrucks), the dogs stayed. At Engine Company 58 Ladder 26, a firehouse on 5th avenue just above Central Park nicknamed the Fire Factory after a surge of arsons that occurred in the nearby areas of Harlem and the Bronx in the 1960s, their fire house dog is a bulldog named Riggs. Riggs is not the first bulldog this firehouse has adopted. The wrinkly faced dog has become their mascot and can be seen emblazoned on flags, signs, and even a stained glass window. Riggs, who is just a puppy yet, was a gift from one of the firefighters in the company. You can usually find him in his bed in the corner of the command center watching the fire firefighters come and go.

You can pick up your copy of City of Dogs here to read more stories of the relationship between New York City dogs, their owners, and their neighborhoods.