After a dog handler from the Israel Dog Unit was diagnosed with Covid-19, he was transported to a hotel-turned-quarantine compound with hundreds of other live cases.
His dog, ‘Donna’ is already trained to use his sense of smell to detect missing people. And to transition a detection K-9 from one scent to another is a common practice among detection dogs worldwide. This means that to take a dog who is trained to detect missing people to a one that can also detect a live virus could be done a matter of weeks.
“God put him in the right place at the right time” explained the unit’s founder Yekutiel Guzofsky. The handler, contacted Guzofsky suggesting he bring his detection dog there and use the compound as a training ground.
In the meantime, despite positive feedback from the Health Ministry, the Israeli Dog Unit is in its final stages of enabling the dogs access into the quarantine compounds. And since one of the patients has already tested positive for coronavirus, the training could be done by the handler with no risk to any outside professionals.
Breaking Israel News has sent a request to the Health Ministry asking what the hold-up is regarding the project. As of yet, they have not responded to our query.
