Dogs that can smell Covid-19

Czech customs officers will train six dogs who will be able recognize a person with Covid-19. The dogs would then work primarily at the airports or in nursing homes. Their training is supposed to be finished by the end of this year.

Among the six selected dogs are those that have been serving for several years, but also young dogs. They represent the breeds of Belgian Shepherd Malinois and German Shepherd, but there are also crossbreed dogs among them.

Due to the need for quick training, according to Petr Müller who is in charge of service cynology, the selected dogs have already completed service training and it is only necessary to teach them to mark another category of scent.

The ability of canines to detect the symptoms of various diseases by the smell has been discussed for a long time, which is why from the beginning of the Covid pandemic, dogs were trained to detect this disease. In mid-October, after more than six months, cynologist Gustav Hotový and his team managed to test the ability of dogs to smell people infected with covid-19 and to test the method in trained dogs.