Odor Detection by Domesticated Dogs

Domesticated dogs are used to detect a variety of odors for a variety of purposes: illicit narcotics, explosives, human-scent tracking and identification, cancer, and COVID-19. Although we know a great deal about how dog’s sense of smell works, we know little about how the effects of artificial selection (breeding) have influenced a dog’s ability to gather scent and then detect odor at the lowest concentrations possible.

Currently, the Waldrop Lab has a grant funded through the Office of Naval Research focused on studying this problem in collaboration with Lauryn DeGreef at Florida International University.