Dogs have a much better sense of smell than we do. In fact, their nose is so good that they can smell things that no human or machine can detect. Dogs have highly developed noses that are between 10,000 and 100,000 times more effective than ours! Find out more about your dog’s sense of smell by watching this cool video!
Dogs are well known for their ability to be able to sniff out tiny changes in our normal scent that indicate disease. We can’t smell that we are unwell, but our furry best friends can! Dogs are best known for being able to detect cancer, with studies showing that they can successfully pick out blood samples from people with cancer with around 97% accuracy.
As well as detecting existing disease, dogs have also been shown to help owners prepare for suddenly getting sick. These dogs are sometimes known as medical alert detection dogs and they can be trained to identify tiny changes in the smell that happen just before an emergency, helping the patient to take action to stop becoming sick or making sure that they are somewhere safe. This could mean taking their medicine or something as simple as sitting down so that they don’t fall over.
Can dogs smell Covid?
With dogs able to sniff out other diseases, why not coronavirus? One study has found that people who are infected with Covid-19 have a distinct smell. It can’t be detected by humans, but it can be picked up by dogs. So, while you can’t tell if your best friend has Covid just by sniffing them, a specially trained dog could!
Experts say that it takes around 8 to 10 weeks to train a dog to detect coronavirus, which is done by using clothing belonging to people who have tested positive for the disease. The study showed that the dogs were very successful, and could correctly identify 94 out of every 100 people infected with Covid-19.
Although dogs aren’t as accurate at detecting coronavirus as the other tests we use, they are faster. This means that there are some situations that they could be very helpful in – such as screening people at busy places like airports, shopping centres and concert venues. Anyone detected by the dogs could then have a PCR test to confirm if they are infected or not and be asked to quarantine until the result come in. Using dogs to detect Covid-19 could help to stop the spread of coronavirus and keep more people safe! Watch this space!
You can learn more about dogs and their ability to detect coronavirus infections by come in watching this video.
For other cool and interesting facts about dogs and tips on caring for your furry pal, sign up to the Zara Dog Dog Club today!
