Last Wednesday a group of dogs started a large scale trial at Helsinki airport screening sweat samples from travellers for COVID-19. In a similar project in Dubai dogs have already been shown to have at least 90% accuracy.
How it works in Finland is that people agreeing to be tested (this is a trial remember) swab their own necks, then the samples are placed through an opening in a wall for the dogs to sniff. Each person then has a standard COVID test so that these results can be compared the samples the dogs indicate, which will tell the researchers how accurate the dogs noses are.
The standard COVID PCR (polymerase chain reaction if you’re interested) test itself is not 100% accurate – the odd case is missed and the odd person who doesn’t have COVID tests positive. There are some indications that dogs are more accurate than the PCR test and can detect people who then become test positive later in the week.
The amazing scenting power of dogs has been used for some time now to detect all sorts of things, from explosives, to cash, and drugs, as well as the find lost people and track criminals. Dogs can be trained to detect cancer, to warn people with diabetes when their blood sugar is dropping, and to warn people with epilepsy of impending seizures, so it was no big stretch to find that many countries are using dogs to try and detect COVID-19, including here in the UK.
Not every dog can cope with the demands of this type of role. In Finland, 16 dogs started training, four have been trained, and it is these that have started work, and six more are still in training. But six dogs from the original cohort have been withdrawn because they could not cope with the busy airport environment.
It’s interesting to think how dogs could be used to help with the current problems, of needing to stop people meeting but needing to keep the economy going. Trained dogs could work in places where groups of people come into contact regularly, such as nursing homes, or schools. But it is very time-consuming to train these dogs and it can be very difficult to scale.
Training any dog takes time. But we make it as simple as we can for you with our game-based training systems. As we approach what could be a difficult autumn for everyone, I thought it would be useful to let you know what’s happening.
Even if you can’t go to visit your family and friends, you can come to train your dog!
Keep training and stay safe,
Carol