Exploring olfactive performance in a non-specialized breed dog to detect parasites in lambs’ feces

Abstract

Our aim was to explore the performance in a non-specialized breed, mixed-breed dog to find lambs’ feces with high egg counts of gastrointestinal nematodes. A female 7-month-old dog of a cross breed of some type of Daschund and mestizo breed was used. Dog and trainer were inexperienced in training. The study was implemented in Mérida, México using a six stages program with 20 min. interactions in non-continuous days, using operating conditioning through positive reinforcement. Stages 1-3 were used to familiarization between dog and trainer and learning of basic obedience commands to sit, search a bait by sniffing and point position by sitting. Stages 4-6 were used to move the search of the bait to a positive sample (feces with 4000 eggs of gastrointestinal nematodes (EPG) mixed infection), then to find a positive sample among negative ones (feces with 0 EPG), and finally to find a positive sample among negative ones and positive controls (feces with < 150 EPG). The percentage of point correctly and incorrectly on first and last day on stage 3 to 6 were compared using Fisher test and resulted significantly accomplished on five days. Three to 17 sessions were required on the first three stages, learning to point position demanded higher number of commands (155). The dog accomplished the task of identifying the positive sample, among negative and positive controls. Six to 11 sessions were required during stages 4-6, the incorporation of negative plus positive controls required more commands (105). The results should be taken with caution due to the exploratory nature but suggest that using this type of dog could work on this specific task and that its worthing developing further studies.