Still “Serving” Us? Mutualism in Canine Scent Detection of Human Illness

Abstract

Noting the human inclination to extend ability by “harvesting” nonhuman animal powers, there are calls for greater equality in the multispecies rendering of services. In this study, medical alert assistance dogs who coexist with chronically ill human individuals illustrate the possibilities of mutualism in symbiotic relationships. The dogs are trained to alert and are used in the scent detection of symptoms of hypo- or hyperglycemia in their human partners so that preventative treatment can be effected and unconsciousness or coma avoided. The canine-human collaborative partnership is based on the dogs’ keen sense of smell and cooperation to attain a reward. The article illustrates a cross-species embodiment of moral interdependence that extends the biomedical armamentarium.

Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and Affective Encounters: An Ethnographic Account of Medical Detection Dog–Trainer Relationships

“…This is in contrast with medical alert assistance dogs that are trained to detect odour "on a person", for instance alerting their human companion to changes in the human's blood glucose levels. The use of such medical alert assistance dogs by individuals with Type 1 diabetes has been explored in work by Fenella Eason (2019;2020), who argues that these interspecies relationships are mutualistic as both parties benefit in having their needs met in the partnership. So far, however, little attention from within the humanities and social sciences has been paid to the work of medical detection dogs and their trainers.…”