Dogs’ powerful sense of smell has many uses. In the olden times, pups were used for hunting. But in the modern era, they are also used for detecting diseases, such as cancer.
But in the midst of the pandemic, dogs have also been trained to detect people who are possibly harboring the COVID-19 virus. Buffy, a Labrador retriever, is one of them.
Meet Buffy, the COVID-detecting dog
The two-year-old Labrador retriever wasn’t only trained to greet the visitors at the Doctors Hospital of Sarasota in the state of Florida. She was also trained to sniff them for the COVID-19 virus.
Laska Parrow, Buffy’s trainer, explained that apparently, the virus had a distinct smell. The dog was actually reacting to how the human body fights off the virus.
The idea of using dogs to detect COVID-19 came from Bob Meade, the CEO of the hospital. Bob was also a board member for the non-profit called Southeastern Guide Dogs. At the said non-profit, Buffy failed the service dog training program because she kept getting distracted by smells. In the end, she was trained to sniff for the COVID-19 virus.
For context, Labrador retrievers like Buffy had about 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses. To perform her duty, Buffy trained with Laska by working with deactivated COVID saliva samples. At the end of the training, Buffy and her fellow dogs were about 95% effective at detecting the virus on a person.
Everybody loves the pup!
Laska said that it was less intimidating for people to be sniffed by a pup than to be approached by a health specialist with a face mask. When people were around Buffy, one could see that stress just came off them.
Bob agreed to this. He ended up adopting Buffy, and at his home, the dog continued training with a deactivated saliva sample.
Bob said that Buffy had also become the hospital’s mascot. Of course, everybody at the facility loved Buffy, and having her around was like therapy for all of them.
Video and Photo Source: FOX 13 Tampa Bay via YouTube
When They See The Dog In The Car Beside Them, This Family Can’t Stop Laughing… And Neither Will You
While out for a drive with her family some time ago, Kristina Magner spotted something in the car next to them.
Although, you could not miss him. An extremely happy dog whizzed along in a car alongside Magner and her family. It seems that the other driver had opened the roof of the vehicle in order for his pup to have an enjoyable ride.
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