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Using Dogs to Detect Covid-19 Could Be a Big Help During the Pandemic

Dog handler and senior firefighter Alex Withers of the Metropolitan Fire Service SA and the SA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force with his English springer spaniel Floki.
Dog handler and senior firefighter Alex Withers of the Metropolitan Fire Service SA and the SA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force with his English springer spaniel Floki. Photo: Kelly Barnes (Getty Images)

Chaber and Hazel say that once operational, covid-19 detector dogs in Australia could be used to screen people at airports and borders, as well as staff in elderly care facilities and hospitals. Properly training a dog to detect the novel coronavirus takes time, however. The researchers say it can take six to eight weeks to train a dog that is already trained to detect other scents, or three to six months for a dog that has not received training in detection.

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