How specially trained Covid-detecting dogs are helping gigs go ahead

Virgin Radio

11 Jan 2022, 14:30

Clever canines are being used by some bands to prevent them from having to cancel shows.

With the live music industry already having taken a massive hit over the past couple of years, it comes as another tough blow when bands continue to have to postpone gigs, especially given that they have likely rescheduled them once or twice already. 

Cancelling concerts at the last-minute is costly, causes logistical problems, and is, of course, incredibly frustrating for musicians and ticket-holding fans. Some acts have, therefore, begun to adopt a novel way of helping to ensure that performances can go ahead. 

They are employing the services of specially trained dogs, such as German Shepherds and Labrador retrievers, who can sniff out Covid-19.

As reported by Rolling Stone, bands including Metallica, The Black Keys, and Tool are already using dogs to detect Covid-19 cases within their entourage. 

Similarly to how sniffer dogs can be used to detect drugs, these pooches are able to sniff for traces of the virus in crew members and anybody else who is involved behind the scenes and, if they detect the virus after sniffing people’s hands and feet, they sit down next to them.

There are currently 12 dogs being used, with a few more in training. They all come from a company called Bio-Detection K9 in Ohio. Metallica recently used them during their 40th anniversary gigs. 

Bio-Detection K9 president Jerry Johnson told Rolling Stone: “People say, ‘What’s that dog doing?’ It surprises them and they’re pessimistic, but if you understand the instincts of a dog’s behaviour, it makes a lot of sense. Dogs sniff each other to see if that other dog has a virus. We’re training them to look for something they’d be interested in anyway.”

With the recent surge of the Omicron variant, Johnson explained that the dogs have also been trained to sniff people’s masks. “The new variation is different,” he said. “It localises in the bronchial passageways. So the dogs weren’t nearly as accurate the way we had been searching. We had to change it up.”

Clever, right? As if we needed another reason to love dogs, it turns out they are helping to keep the music industry going!