These hounds are as stout and strong-willed as their dwarven masters. Despite their heavyset build, dwarven mine dogs are quite flexible and adept at squeezing through small crevices. These traits help them to fulfill their most common duty of clearing mine shafts of verminous pests hiding within small nooks and crannies.
A mine dog's second and arguably most important, duty is to alert a dwarven mining crew of potential ambushes by other subterranean creatures. Their alertness and lightning-fast response time ensure dwarven crews are not caught off guard by such attacks, and mine dogs will always rush into the frey to protect their charges. In the most deadly attacks, mine dogs have been known to lay down their lives to ensure the survival of a dwarven crew. Such hounds are given a hero's burial, and it is said they continue to protect and serve the dwarves' ancestors in the afterlife.