Survey on the importance of different traits for medical detection dogs

Medical detection dogs are used to remotely detect a range of diseases (biodetection) and assist patients with chronic conditions. There has been little research on the behavioral traits linked to performance for these roles. We developed a survey to investigate which attributes are most important in medical detection dogs and how these vary between dogs used for bio-detection and medical alert assistance. The survey was completed by 62 professionals working in 16 different countries. The most important traits were “Level of motivation when working”, “Health”, “Ability to learn from being rewarded, “Concentration”, and “Acuity of sense of smell”. Trait importance differed significantly between the roles: “Level of Attachment to human partner, “Confidence in different environments” and “Travel ability” were deemed significantly more important for assistance dogs. “Acuity of sense of smell”, “Tendency to be distracted when working”, and “Ability to solve problems when working” were more important for biodetection dogs. Ideal levels also differed between the roles, for example, biodetection dogs were thought to require higher levels of “Tendency to search by smell alone” but lower levels of “Attachment to human partner” than assistance dogs. When comparing ratings for the current dogs to the perceived ideal levels, there were significant deviations in several traits; e.g. dogs were generally rated as having higher than desired levels of “General excitability” and “Tendency to be distracted when working”. Paying particular attention to important traits and those that differ greatly from ideal levels when selecting medical detection dogs may aid future task success.