SOME customers at a Lowe’s store in Texas, the U.S., are getting assistance from a military veteran and his service dog after both were hired to work at the store.

    The Abilene Reporter-News reports that disabled U.S. Air Force veteran Clay Luthy and his golden retriever, Charlotte, both wear red and blue Lowe’s vests to work at the home improvement retailer.

    Luthy, a former C-130 loadmaster in the U.S. Air Force, has had five surgeries on his knees and can’t bend his left leg. Charlotte is trained to help Luthy up if he can’t get off the floor.

    Charlotte has become a customer favorite in her two months on the job. Luthy says everyone loves the pooch, adding, “This definitely was not part of the job description.”

    A heartwarming photo of the pair that was posted on Facebook has been shared 170,000 times in just two days.

    Luthy told KTXS how he grew up in small town in central California and joined the Air Force after the 9/11 attacks, but his career was short-lived after injuring both of his knees.

    By 2006, his career was over and he had to leave active service.

    Since 2010, Luthy has been working as a handyman but in June he had an operation to rebuild his left knee.

    It meant he has been left unable to kneel and has had to look for a new job.

    His wife suggested he apply for a job at Lowe’s.

    “She told me ‘you’re there every day. You might as well get paid for it.’”

    Luthy took his service dog, Charlotte, to the interview and both of them got the job.

    Charlotte is trained for “medical alert and mobility” purposes — after knee surgery, Luthy attached a handle to her service vest and used Charlotte to walk instead of a cane.

    But, the duo clearly has had an effect on shoppers. A lady who saw them working the aisles took a photo and posted it to her Facebook, and the picture went viral.(SD-Agencies)