Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/dogs-set-world-record-sniffing-diseases/

Four dogs have officially set the world record for detecting the most medical conditions.

The dogs set the Guinness World Record in 2023, breaking their previous world-record set in 2022.

The dogs were trained through the UK-based charity, Medical Detection Dogs.

According to the Guinness World Records, the trained dogs are able to detect several medical conditions including nut allergies, variations in blood glucose (e.g., diabetes), malaria, several forms of cancer, and heart conditions. Recently, they were able to add COVID-19 to the list as well.

On YouTube, the Guinness World records explained:

“The ability for dogs to detect certain diseases or conditions using their incredible sense of smell – between 10,000 and 100,000 times more acute than a human’s – that might otherwise go unnoticed has been gaining traction for around the last 30 years. Dogs have around 300 million olfactory receptors vs about 6 million in humans.”

According to the Guinness World Records, medical detection dogs can perform life-saving work. The organization wrote:

“Medical detection dogs are able to perform two critical roles in this field. In a controlled bio-detection setting, they can be used to indicate the presence of a disease in samples such as urine, sweat or breath. While in a home setting, medical alert assistance dogs can let their owners know of an impending episode or change in condition by noticing fluctuations in their body’s particular ‘smell print,’ enabling the owner to act (e.g., take medication or seek assistance) before it develops into an emergency.”

It takes a lot of work to train a dog to detect medical conditions, but the work is so worth it when a life is saved.

You can learn more about these impressive, record-setting medical detection dogs below:

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Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog