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They’re loyal, diligent – and have unbeatable noses. Could dogs play a key part in the fight against the pandemic? A single-storey building in a lonely rural business park, a few miles from Milton Keynes on a grey autumn day. It looks like a location for a bleak thriller: where a kidnap victim is held, perhaps, or the scene of a final shootout. Inside,...

What does a disease smell like? Humans might not have the answer, but if they could talk, dogs might be able to tell us. Able to sniff out a range of cancers and even malaria, canines’ extraordinary noses are now being put to the test on Covid-19. Nicola Davis hears from Prof Dominique Grandjean about exactly how you train dogs to smell a virus,...

Study of brain activity shows no difference when dogs see back or front of a headDog owners might love their pet’s endearing puppy dog eyes and cute furry features, but it turns out the doggy brain is just as excited by the back of our heads as the front.For despite having evolved facial expressions that tug on the heartstrings of owners, researchers have found...

Research finds animals are less responsive to instructions from their carer during adolescenceMoody, unpredictable and with an striking disregard for the rules, teenagers can be hard to handle. Now it turns out the same is true for adolescent dogs.Researchers say they have found that pooches become less responsive to instructions from their carer during adolescence. Continue reading...