The use of trained dogs to discriminate human scent

Sommerville, Barbara A.; Settle, Ray H.; Darling, Frances M.C.

doi:10.1006/anbe.1993.1174

Cited by 32 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The discriminating ability exhibited by mice in the present study provides circumstantial evidence that mice have greater olfactory sensitivity. It has also been reported that the dog is able to discriminate the human odor (Sommerville et al 1993). Dogs and rats are reported to detect estrus-specific odors in bovine milk (Ladewig and Hart 1981) and urine (Kiddy and Mitchell 1981), respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Discrimination of bovine estrus-related odors by mice

Sankar

Archunan

2005

J Ethol

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The present investigation was carried out (1) to evaluate whether the mouse is able to discriminate vaginal and other bovine body fluids and (2) to determine which bodily fluid will most efficiently be used to detect estrus. The time spent by the male mice in investigating the different bovine odorant samples clearly demonstrated the mouse's ability to discriminate between estrus and non-estrus fluid samples. Estrus vaginal fluid was found to be the most attractive followed by saliva, feces and milk. Thus estrus vaginal fluid may act as an additional/secondary factor along with urine in eliciting copulatory behavior in bulls. The results of this study revealed that bodily fluids such as saliva, feces and milk also have estrus-related odors and that these may be involved in bovine biocommunication.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Discrimination of bovine estrus-related odors by mice

Sankar

Archunan

2005

J Ethol

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“…It has long been suspected that dogs can recognise certain aspects of human body odour. For example, bloodhounds have been used for centuries to track specific people starting from a trace of body odour on an item [ 1 ] and dogs have been trained to discriminate individual people by their scent [ 2 , 3 ]. However, it is only relatively recently that investigations have begun to explore the utility of detection dogs for medical diagnostic purposes, for diseases such as epilepsy [ 4 ], diabetes [ 5 ] and cancer [ 6 - 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key considerations for the experimental training and evaluation of cancer odour detection dogs: lessons learnt from a double-blind, controlled trial of prostate cancer detection

et al. 2014

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BackgroundCancer detection using sniffer dogs is a potential technology for clinical use and research. Our study sought to determine whether dogs could be trained to discriminate the odour of urine from men with prostate cancer from controls, using rigorous testing procedures and well-defined samples from a major research hospital.MethodsWe attempted to train ten dogs by initially rewarding them for finding and indicating individual prostate cancer urine samples (Stage 1). If dogs were successful in Stage 1, we then attempted to train them to discriminate prostate cancer samples from controls (Stage 2). The number of samples used to train each dog varied depending on their individual progress. Overall, 50 unique prostate cancer and 67 controls were collected and used during training. Dogs that passed Stage 2 were tested for their ability to discriminate 15 (Test 1) or 16 (Tests 2 and 3) unfamiliar prostate cancer samples from 45 (Test 1) or 48 (Tests 2 and 3) unfamiliar controls under double-blind conditions.ResultsThree dogs reached training Stage 2 and two of these learnt to discriminate potentially familiar prostate cancer samples from controls. However, during double-blind tests using new samples the two dogs did not indicate prostate cancer samples more frequently than expected by chance (Dog A sensitivity 0.13, specificity 0.71, Dog B sensitivity 0.25, specificity 0.75). The other dogs did not progress past Stage 1 as they did not have optimal temperaments for the sensitive odour discrimination training.ConclusionsAlthough two dogs appeared to have learnt to select prostate cancer samples during training, they did not generalise on a prostate cancer odour during robust double-blind tests involving new samples. Our study illustrates that these rigorous tests are vital to avoid drawing misleading conclusions about the abilities of dogs to indicate certain odours. Dogs may memorise the individual odours of large numbers of training samples rather than generalise on a common odour. The results do not exclude the possibility that dogs could be trained to detect prostate cancer. We recommend that canine olfactory memory is carefully considered in all future studies and rigorous double-blind methods used to avoid confounding effects.

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“…Human society has successfully detected and evaded dangers in war zones, airports and terrorist targeted public places because dogs have been helping us with detecting explosives ( 10 ). Apart from this they have also helped us control drug/narcotics trafficking, tracking people ( 11 ). Other detection methods for explosives ( 12 ) also exist and have been proved to be effective in controlled lab environments, but sniffer dogs still have been the most effective method for this purpose outside the laboratory ( 10 , 13 – 16 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zinc Nanoparticles Enhance Brain Connectivity in the Canine Olfactory Network: Evidence From an fMRI Study in Unrestrained Awake Dogs

et al. 2018

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Prior functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies have indicated increased neural activation when zinc nanoparticles are added to odorants in canines. Here we demonstrate that zinc nanoparticles up-regulate directional brain connectivity in parts of the canine olfactory network. This provides an explanation for previously reported enhancement in the odor detection capability of the dogs in the presence of zinc nanoparticles. In this study, we obtained fMRI data from awake and unrestrained dogs while they were being exposed to odorants with and without zinc nanoparticles, zinc nanoparticles suspended in water vapor, as well as just water vapor alone. We obtained directional connectivity between the brain regions of the olfactory network that were significantly stronger for the condition of odorant + zinc nanoparticles compared to just odorants, water vapor + zinc nanoparticles and water vapor alone. We observed significant strengthening of the paths of the canine olfactory network in the presence of zinc nanoparticles. This result indicates that zinc nanoparticles could potentially be used to increase canine detection capabilities in the environments of very low concentrations of the odorants, which would have otherwise been undetected.

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The use of trained dogs to discriminate human scent

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

Discrimination of bovine estrus-related odors by mice

Discrimination of bovine estrus-related odors by mice

Key considerations for the experimental training and evaluation of cancer odour detection dogs: lessons learnt from a double-blind, controlled trial of prostate cancer detection

Zinc Nanoparticles Enhance Brain Connectivity in the Canine Olfactory Network: Evidence From an fMRI Study in Unrestrained Awake Dogs

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