I am not an animal person but I would like to share an incident:
This happened during trek to the Taktsang monastery in Bhutan. We were a group of 6 people and were climbing down the monastery. It was after 4 pm that we started the trek down and darkness was spreading quickly. Our group decided to stick together as we were the last group to climb down. The trek down consists of a main tourist track and a shortcut route used by local people. At 3 or 4 places there were two tracks and we were confused which to take but a dog came to our rescue. We used to stop at the bifurcation of the road and the dog used to take the right path and guide us. He remained with us the entire way down and guided us through the right path. We were so grateful for his company that we decided to give him biscuits and milk when we reached down but as we came to the end point of the trek he simply went his way and we could not find him. After this incident my attitude towards dogs has definitely changed!