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COVID-sniffing dogs are joining the fight against the virus

By Giovanna Mengarelli

KATHMANDU, NEPAL - 2021/05/09: A Nepalese Youth Volunteer representing 'Animal welfare Nepal' feeds a stray dog during the 11th day of the Prohibitory order due to a Second wave of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kathmandu.Along with hitting people's lives harder, the ongoing nationwide lockdown imposed by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19 has made it difficult for street dogs to survive. As the street dogs used to depend on food given by locals, prohibition on people to step out of their houses has led the street dogs to starve to death. (Photo by Prabin Ranabhat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
KATHMANDU, NEPAL - 2021/05/09: A Nepalese Youth Volunteer representing 'Animal welfare Nepal' feeds a stray dog during the 11th day of the Prohibitory order due to a Second wave of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kathmandu.Along with hitting people's lives harder, the ongoing nationwide lockdown imposed by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19 has made it difficult for street dogs to survive. As the street dogs used to depend on food given by locals, prohibition on people to step out of their houses has led the street dogs to starve to death. (Photo by Prabin Ranabhat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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For almost two years now, the world’s been in an uproar due to the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout all of this time, different things have been done to try and fight it; however in more recent times, something new to join the battle has been brought up.

In 2020, towards the end of the first year of the pandemic, researchers at Florida International University began to recognize that above all other different scents that dogs could sniff out, that COVID was one of them, thanks to the sheriff’s office sending two Labradors to be trained.

According to The Post, in fact, the data that those two Labs had collected presented a 99.6% accuracy – that’s pretty darn good.

How else can COVID-sniffing dogs help the fight against this deadly virus?

After being recognized as being able to sniff out the COVID-19 virus, COVID-sniffing dogs are now being deployed to additional locations, such as New York and Massachusetts. In fact, nowadays, out in Massachusetts, the pups are being sent to schools to detect the virus before students return back to in-person learning options.

As far as New York goes, while the dogs have been deployed there, the NYPD has yet to train their canines to be able to detect the virus…hopefully this happens super soon too!

According to John Darling of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, the dogs “love to work”, and when they’ve got the day or even just a moment off, all they want to do is “give you kisses”. I mean, come on, people…how adorable is that?!

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 29
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 29 /

We all know that dogs have super sensitive snouts with such severely heightened senses of smell that completely and totally surpass that of a human. Because of this, mostly Beagles, can be trained to detect the scent of the virus, just as well, if not even better, than that of when they can detect other things, such as drugs, bombs, and in some rare and interesting cases, even bed bugs…yes, you heard that right – totally unbelievable, but super cool if you ask me!

A company in Florida who was at the center of all of this called BioScent, had originally trained 22 furry friends to help sniff out COVID-19. While it may have been tough in the beginning, these pups are now at the center of the fight against this virus.

We can only go up from here with the help of these dogs! Go, dogs, go!

Hot. Rewarding careers for the biggest dog lovers out there!!. light

What do you think of these COVID-sniffing dogs? What other remarkable things have you seen dogs do? Let’s chat down below in the comments! Woof, Woof!

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