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Incredible Sniffer Dogs
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Dogs have incredibly sensitive olfactory organs so in theory they can detect almost anything. The trick is to get them to react to specific smells while ignoring others.
I have my doubts about how the treat method will work reliably when ultimately they will only get a treat for a positive result. As soon as the dog cottons on to the fact that it isn't getting a reward unless it demonstrates a particular behaviour then it will learn to do whatever gets it a treat regardless of what it has detected in the sample. I would have thought that training people to read the dogs reactions in every instance, and giving the dog a treat no matter what the result appears to be, would be a more scientific way of proceeding. But then perhaps the dogs are the smarter members of the operation.
It's long been known that uncontrolled diabetics can have breath smelling of acetone. I gather there are some others that humans can smell also (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl...SMELL-like.html ). With dogs having an enormous better capability of smell, it makes sense that they can detect even more diseases.