Scent Trained Dogs May Soon Be Able To Find People Infected With Coronavirus
Dogs are amazing animals. I’m kind of obsessed. I have 4 and would totally have more if I had the room for them. One of those dogs is a service dog.
The cool thing about dogs is they can be trained to find certain scents.
Some dogs are naturals at this and will alert to changes on their own. But you can also scent train them for specific scents. For example, some dogs can sniff out malaria in humans, and scientists say we may be just weeks away from allowing them to sniff Coronavirus.
When we say sniff the virus, we are talking about scents from the body. Even subtle ones that mean a chemical change or illness.
My dog alerts to chemical changes in my body. She smells them and can tell me when I need to sit down and she will keep me down until the seizure, dystonia storm, or even a stroke-like migraine has passed enough for me to safely stand.
@habituallyawesome One of the conditions I have is Dystonia a movement disorder under Parkinson’s. Here Furiosa is tasking. ##greatdane ##dystonia ##servicedog ##petlife
♬ Hold On – Moguai,Cheat Codes
With coronavirus, many people do not know they are sick at first. The illness is there and traveling with them wherever they go. But what if a dog was scent trained to sniff it out and alert to it?
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is crowdfunding a project to train dogs to detect COVID-19. I think this is a brilliant idea!
There is a very, very good chance that Covid-19 has a specific odor, and if it does I am really confident that the dogs would be able to learn that smell and detect it.
James Logan, head of LSHTM’s Department of Disease Control
Like I said, scent training is nothing new and I really feel this could be a great thing. Dogs can even sniff out cancer!
If the project succeeds then the dogs could be used for hospital staff, long term care centers, or even travelers that may not know they are carriers of the illness.
Watch this video to learn more about scent training dogs for COVID-19!
