Dogs learning to detect COVID-19 in Massachusetts’ schools

FAIRHAVEN, Mass. — The pandemic makes keeping kids in school a challenge, but now a new tool is helping some Massachusetts communities increase safety for their students.

This new tool has four legs, soft fur, and a really sensitive nose.

The Bristol County Sheriff’s office has two dogs – Huntah and Duke -- trained to detect the odor a human creates if they’ve been infected with the coronavirus.

The dogs are now deployed to area schools to check for the presence of the virus. “They’re looking for the COVID odor that’s on any surface, whether it’s a chair, tabletop, garbage pail, or air purifier,” explained Captain Paul Douglas.

While humans are unable to pick up this scent, which can emerge long before any symptoms, dogs can smell it will ease. “A dog’s olfactory system is about 100 times stronger than humans,” added Douglas.

The dogs were trained over a couple of months. “We used masks from positive COVID patients. We took the mask, put it in a jar, and then basically we put the dog in a sit and when they nosed the jar and they were rewarded with their toy,” explained Douglas.

Sheriff Thomas Hodgson says they’re the first law enforcement agency in the country to implement a program like this.

He reached out to a Florida University when he heard they were researching whether dogs could detect COVID and offered his office to try it out.

“I believe we believe we ought to be using every resource available to us to give the taxpayers back a return on their investment, whether it’s by making the community safer thru this initial covid program,” said Hodgson. “Or by the work we do in the prison.”

While Boston 25 News followed the dogs thru the Leroy Wood Elementary School in Fairhaven, Huntah and Duke found positive alerts at a milk case, in the gym, in a classroom, and in the library.

When the infected area is detected, a cleanup begins right away. School officials can also identify which students visited a specific area or checked out a book or a video.

“It’s the first thing in awhile that’s given us some positivity and hope. It feels more pro-active,” Fairhaven school superintendent Tara Kohler said.

“My biggest view on this is that we have children in 2nd and 3rd grade who have only known school to be scary, only known to be nervous about the surroundings around them, and this allows them to have some peace of mind,” Kohler added.

Handler Officer Teddy Santos said the program is incredible. “The dog doesn’t stop amazing me.”

Huntah and Duke are visiting more than two dozen schools a week right, and Sheriff Hodgson says they’re able to add more.

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