The Dog Toy Covid Detection Kit enables dog owners to train their pet in detecting people infected with Sars-CoV-2.
Illnesses triggered by virusses and bacteria affect the human metabolism, bringing cells to produce certain compounds that are detectable via smell. Dogs can smell between 1.000 to 10.000 better than humans, which led to increasing research efforts during the pandemic worldwide about using dogs to indicate Covid infections. Technically most dog breeds are able to be trained to detect Covid-19, which leads to the question how it might look like if also pet dogs were able to sniff the disease.
The kit is not meant to be an alternative to clinical testing but an additional approach which builds on the abilities of other living beings around us. The booklet that comes with the kit introduces its content, explains its parts and illustrates different ways people might use their dog’s new ability, from normal, positive to more dystopic scenarios.
The purpose of the kit is to rethink our relationship with other living beings around us and to imagine how a better understanding of their abilities might inform new kinds of companionship between animal and human.