Dog Owners’ Survey reveals Medical Alert Dogs can alert to multiple conditions and multiple people

Reeve, Catherine; Wilson, Clara; Hanna, Donncha; Gadbois, Simon

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0249191

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…We assume that this dog was successful because he had a very highly developed sense of smell, he was quick at learning new targets, and he had already mastered several different odor targets, including early-stage cancers. In fact, research has shown that dogs with more trained targets tend to learn a new one more easily [44,45], and only 2 to 3 exposures are needed for such dogs to learn to respond to a novel target odor [46]. Individual differences between the scent detection dogs, as seen here in our study, have been observed in most studies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Scent Detection Threshold of Trained Dogs to Eucalyptus Hydrolat

Turunen,

Paavilainen,

Vepsäläinen

et al. 2024

Animals

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Dogs’ (Canis lupus familiaris) sense of smell is based on a unique anatomy and physiology that enables them to find and differentiate low concentrations of odor molecules. This ability is exploited when dogs are trained as search, rescue, or medical detection dogs. We performed a three-part study to explore the scent detection threshold of 15 dogs to an in-house-made Eucalyptus hydrolat. Here, decreasing concentrations of the hydrolat were tested using a three-alternative forced-choice method until the first incorrect response, which defined the limit of scent detection for each tested dog. Quantitative proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to identify and measure the contents of ten commercial Eucalyptus hydrolats, which are used in a dog scent training sport called “nose work”. In this study, the dogs’ limit of detection initially ranged from 1:104 to 1:1023 but narrowed down to 1:1017–1:1021 after a training period. The results show that, with training, dogs learn to discriminate decreasing concentrations of a target scent, and that dogs can discriminate Eucalyptus hydrolat at very low concentrations. We also detected different concentrations of eucalyptol and lower alcohols in the hydrolat products and highlight the importance of using an identical source of a scent in training a dog for participation in canine scent sport competitions and in olfactory research.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Scent Detection Threshold of Trained Dogs to Eucalyptus Hydrolat

Turunen,

Paavilainen,

Vepsäläinen

et al. 2024

Animals

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“…Reports of dogs' abilities to detect human conditions have historically emerged first as anecdotes, which have later been corroborated by in-vitro laboratory studies (e.g., diabetic glucose fluctuation: [29][30][31] and epileptic seizure: [24,32]). When considering dogs' abilities to detect stress in humans, it has been reported in the media that dogs can sense when the humans around them are experiencing stress (e.g., [33,34]), and a recent study by Reeve et al [35] found that, in a questionnaire to owners of trained Medical Alert Dogs, stress was the most common condition to which dogs were reported to alert. The current study addresses this reported phenomenon using a controlled, in-vitro, bio-detection paradigm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours

et al. 2022

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Previous research suggests that dogs can detect when humans are experiencing stress. This study tested whether baseline and stress odours were distinguishable to dogs, using a double-blind, two-phase, three-alternative forced-choice procedure. Combined breath and sweat samples were obtained from participants at baseline, and after a stress-inducing (mental arithmetic) task. Participants’ stress was validated with self-report and physiological measures recorded via a Biopac MP150 system. Thirty-six participants’ samples were presented to four dogs across 36 sessions (16, 11, 7 and 2 sessions, respectively). Each session consisted of 10 Phase One training trials and 20 Phase Two discrimination trials. In Phase One, the dog was presented with a participant’s stress sample (taken immediately post-task) alongside two blanks (the sample materials without breath or sweat), and was required to identify the stress sample with an alert behaviour. In Phase Two, the dog was presented with the stress sample, the same participant’s baseline sample (taken pre-task), and a blank. Which sample (blank, baseline, or stress) the dog performed their alert behaviour on was measured. If dogs can correctly alert on the stress sample in Phase Two (when the baseline sample was present), it suggests that baseline and stress odours are distinguishable. Performance ranged from 90.00% to 96.88% accuracy with a combined accuracy of 93.75% (N trials = 720). A binomial test (where probability of success on a single trial was 0.33, and alpha was 0.05) showed that the proportion of correct trials was greater than that expected by chance (p < 0.001). Results indicate that the physiological processes associated with an acute psychological stress response produce changes in the volatile organic compounds emanating from breath and/or sweat that are detectable to dogs. These results add to our understanding of human-dog relationships and could have applications to Emotional Support and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) service dogs.

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“…Additionally, specially trained pets can provide service to their owners, and even save their lives (e.g. Medical Alert Dogs (MADs) [ 12 ]). People have a strong social and emotional attachment to their pets [ 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pet primates for sale in the United States

Seaboch

Cahoon

2021

PLoS ONE

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Our research goal was to investigate the primate pet trade in the United States. While dogs and cats are the most common type of pet, there are an estimated 15,000 pet primates in the United States and the demand for exotic pets in general has been rising. Most research on pet primates occurs in habitat countries and little is known about these pets in the United States. We collected data from six exotic pet-trade websites twice a month for 12 months. We recorded the type of primate for sale, sex, age, location, and price. We used Chi-Square Goodness-of-Fit tests to compare whether the number of male and female pet primates for sale and the number of different age categories of pet primates for sale differed from equality and Spearman Correlation to examine associations between price and size and price and supply. We recorded 551 pet primates for sale between June 2019-June 2020, with 69.1% platyrrhines, 21.6% strepsirrhines, and 8.9% catarrhines. Marmosets were sold most often (36.7%, N = 202) followed by lemurs (21.6%, N = 119), capuchins (11.3%, N = 62), and squirrel monkeys (10.5%, N = 58). Almost two-thirds of the pet primates for sale were male (Chi-Square = 16.056, df = 1, P = 0. 00006) and 78.7% were under one year old (Chi-Square = 440.264, df = 2, P<0.00001). The median price was $3,800 though price was highly variable, even for the same taxa. There are several potential drivers for the primate pet trade, including media influence, fashion/status, and profitable breeding though these are not mutually exclusive. Primates do not make good pets and even when captive-bred, pet primates impact the conservation of their wild counterparts. Advertisement campaigns focusing on disease transmission and legal consequences and a federal ban on pet primate ownership are two avenues to pursue to end the ownership of pet primates in the United States.

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Dog Owners’ Survey reveals Medical Alert Dogs can alert to multiple conditions and multiple people

Cited by 5 publications

References 56 publications

Scent Detection Threshold of Trained Dogs to Eucalyptus Hydrolat

Scent Detection Threshold of Trained Dogs to Eucalyptus Hydrolat

Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours

Pet primates for sale in the United States

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