BILLINGS – The Pints for Patriots and Paws Pub Crawl finished up their fundraiser on Saturday.

Dog Tag Buddies takes in stray dogs and trains them to help veterans as companions or therapy dogs.

Five Billings craft breweries participated in the three-day event: Canyon Creek, Last Chance Cider Mill, Montana Brewing Company, Thirsty Street and Uberbrew.

Three others from Helena also served as one of the stops for the pub crawl.

“It’s a competition and a fundraiser for Dog Tag Buddies between Helena and Billings,” said Alyssa Hertel, event coordinator for the pub crawl. “We rescue dogs and we train them to be service dogs for veterans. It’s amazing; the veterans with these dogs, they’re more sociable. They’re working in groups, so they’re connecting with people that are veterans like them and they can form new groups and new friendships, and they really just open up way more than they started. It’s all because of the dogs, so that’s really cool.”

In three years, Dog Tag Buddies has saved 40 dogs and helped 50 veterans.