British scientists says dogs could soon play large role in sniffing out COVID-19, page-30

I used to be in the Army Reserve - I did a lot of work for the Sydney Olympics in venue search teams.

We used explosive detection dogs in some venues - they typically can only work in short bursts before needing a rest - their attention starts to wander and they aren't the be all and end all - you still have to search the venue.

Then there is the issue that you spend a lot of time training a dog that is great at detection but suffers from a personality deficit and likes getting aggro with people while working. I worked with a handler that had a dog like that - but they kept him on because they had spent years training him for that role. My team just knew to stay well out of the way while he was working.

You don't want an aggro dog being a Covid sniffer.

The key takeout is if you can train a dog to detect COVID, then you can be confident that you can develop a device that does the same thing - we know pretty well how a dogs olfactory system works so we can use that to guide the development of a device.