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Military to civilian · Army

31K MOS (Working Dog Handler): 6 civilian careers O*NET links to it, with pay.

The civilian occupations O*NET's Military Crosswalk relates to Army 31K, each with its BLS median pay and a TryHired career page where we have one.

Updated Nov 4, 2026 · Data: O*NET Military Crosswalk (site updated October 6, 2026), BLS OEWS May 2025
Quick answer

31K is the Army enlisted military occupational specialty Working Dog Handler. O*NET's Military Crosswalk links it to 6 civilian occupations. Among the civilian ones with a BLS wage, the May 2025 national median ranges from $35,360 (Animal Caretakers) to $106,040 (First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives). O*NET gives 2 of them its Bright Outlook designation (occupations expected to grow rapidly, to have many job openings, or that are new and emerging). A crosswalk link is a related occupation, not a guaranteed job or an equivalent license.

Civilian jobs

Civilian occupations related to 31K Working Dog Handler

In O*NET's order. Pay is the BLS national median annual wage, May 2025. Bright Outlook is O*NET's designation.

Data
Civilian occupations O*NET relates to Army 31K
OccupationO*NET-SOC codeMedian pay (BLS, May 2025)Bright OutlookTryHired guide
First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives33-1012.00$106,040
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers33-3051.00$76,210Police Officer
Animal Control Workers33-9011.00$45,660
Security Guards33-9032.00$38,020YesSecurity Guard
Animal Trainers39-2011.00$39,990Animal Trainer
Animal Caretakers39-2021.00$35,360YesZookeeper

The Defense Manpower Data Center's own record for 31K maps it to: Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers.

How to read this

What a crosswalk match means, and what it doesn't

Data

O*NET's Military Crosswalk Search combines several official sources: the Defense Manpower Data Center's crosswalk of military occupation codes, an enhanced analysis commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor with the Department of Defense under the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, a RAND study of Army knowledge, skills and abilities, and the services' Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL) sites. A listed civilian occupation is one O*NET relates to the military job's training and work. It is not an equivalence, a promise of a job or a statement that you meet the civilian job's requirements: many of these occupations need a state license, a certification or a degree that the military job alone does not provide.

Next steps

Turning 31K experience into a civilian job

Advice

Start with the civilian titles above whose work you already did most of. For each one, check its licensing and certification requirements in your state, then rewrite your service record in that occupation's language: the systems, procedures and results a civilian hiring manager recognizes, not unit names or acronyms.

Disclosure: TryHired makes HIRED, a paid job-search program, so we have a conflict of interest when we mention it. Every list on this page is free to use without buying anything.

FAQ

Questions people ask

What civilian jobs can a 31K get?
O*NET's Military Crosswalk relates 31K Working Dog Handler to 6 civilian occupations, including First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives, Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers, Animal Control Workers, Security Guards. Whether you qualify depends on each job's licensing, certification and experience requirements.
What is the civilian equivalent of 31K?
There is no single equivalent. The Defense Manpower Data Center maps 31K to Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers; O*NET's crosswalk lists 6 related civilian occupations.
How much do civilian jobs related to 31K pay?
BLS national medians for May 2025 run from $35,360 (Animal Caretakers) to $106,040 (First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives) across the related occupations with published wages.
Method

How this page is built

The civilian occupations on this page are exactly the ones O*NET OnLine's Military Crosswalk Search returns for the code, in O*NET's order, read on Nov 3, 2026 (O*NET site updated October 6, 2026). Official military titles come from the Defense Manpower Data Center file O*NET distributes. Pay is the BLS national median annual wage for May 2025. Where O*NET lists a specialty that BLS does not survey on its own, the figure is the BLS figure for the broader occupation and is labelled with that occupation's name.

What this page can't tell you
  • Duties, entry requirements and training: this page does not describe them; see your service's official job description.
  • Your fit: a crosswalk relates occupations, not people. Your rank, specialty training, clearances and credentials change which civilian jobs fit.
  • Pay: national medians for civilian workers in each occupation, not offers and not adjusted for your location or experience.
Sources
  1. U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, O*NET OnLine Military Crosswalk Search, read Nov 3, 2026. Military Crosswalk Search by U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
  2. O*NET Resource Center, Military crosswalk data (source: Defense Manpower Data Center).
  3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national estimates (public domain).