'Covid-19 has an odour, and the dogs are detecting it': meet the canine super-squad sniffing out the

[Judi Lynn]

They’re loyal, diligent – and have unbeatable noses. Could dogs play a key part in the fight against the pandemic?

Sam Wollaston
@samwollaston
Sat 12 Dec 2020 02.30 EST

Asingle-storey building in a lonely rural business park, a few miles from Milton Keynes on a grey autumn day. It looks like a location for a bleak thriller: where a kidnap victim is held, perhaps, or the scene of a final shootout. Inside, though, something kind of cool is happening.

In a brightly lit room, four inverted metal cups have been placed on the red carpet, each containing a small glass jar. One of these contains a smell: a “training odour”. Into the room bursts Billy, followed by Jess. Billy is a labrador, and Jess his human trainer. Billy bounces about the place, clearly super excited. He sniffs at everything – furniture, people, the cups – wagging ferociously. When he sniffs at the cup that contains the smell, another trainer, Jayde, indicates success with a clicking noise. Billy is rewarded with his favourite toy, a well-chewed rubber ball, and a chorus of “good boy”.

So far, so unremarkable. Dogs have excellent noses, everyone knows that. They are estimated to be at least 10,000 times better than ours. It’s not immediately clear just how good Billy is. Did he really find the smell, or did Jayde just click when he sniffed the right cup? To be fair to Billy, he’s young, 18 months old, and this is only his second session. The trainers – Jess, Jayde and Mark – have high hopes for him. And after a couple more goes, it becomes clear that he is definitely finding the right cup, quickly. He is also clearly enjoying the game. What Billy lacks in refinement, he makes up for in youthful enthusiasm and exuberance, and he learns fast.

Which is good news: this is just the first stage for Billy, who is on a fast-track training course to learn to sniff out Covid-19. He’s not working with the actual virus, of course, but a training sample, which will teach him to do that job.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/12/covid-19-has-an-odour-and-the-dogs-are-detecting-it-meet-the-canine-super-squad-sniffing-out-the-virus

[niyad]

1. Very encouraging. I know that some dogs can detect cancers, and others can detect blood sugar

issues.

Blessings to our canine friends.

[Wicked Blue]

2. +100 nt

[Lefta Dissenter]

3. My daughter's maltese

My daughter’s Maltese used to sniff out... ZITS! He’s sniff around on your face and just bury his nose into any zit or coming zit. Almost as significant and important as smelling out coronavirus...