Meet the rescue pet being educated to avoid wasting lives by smelling ailments
An adorable rescue puppy from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home could soon be saving lives by sniffing out diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s after being selected for a special training programme.
Chilli was one of a litter of eight Labrador Retriever puppies born at the famous site in London after their mother was taken into its care due to a change in her owner’s circumstances.
He quickly stood out for his intelligence and ‘strong drive to sniff and smell’, leading to the pup being talent spotted for an elite £29,000 two-year training regime with the charity Medical Detection Dogs (MDD).
Chilli joined MDD in Milton Keynes at eight weeks old and is already being lauded by his trainers as a quick learner who is rapidly ‘growing in confidence’.
Chris Allen, head of canine supply, training and welfare at Medical Detection Dogs, says: ‘When the team at Battersea called to say they had a mum and her puppies in their care, and that they were still very young, I was immediately interested.
Chilli, a Labrador Retriever, undergoes training with the charity Medical Detection Dogs
After he was born at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, the puppy stood out for his intelligence and ‘strong drive to sniff and smell’
‘Ideally our recruits join us at around that age and we love to include rescue dogs when we can.
‘It was love at first sight for the whole team when we met Chilli. To think that he found himself homeless through no fault of his own and will now go on to do something so amazing is just brilliant.’
Chilli’s training is being supported by generous donations like the £2.3million MDD has received so far from People’s Postcode Lottery, which has handed a further £7.5million to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
There are two possible options for Chilli after he has finished the training course.
One is becoming a Medical Alert Assistance Dog, which support people with complex health conditions like Type 1 diabetes by being able to smell when they may be about to have a medical episode.
Alternatively, Bio Detection Dogs help scientists develop faster and cheaper ways to detect diseases by picking up the scent of conditions like cancer, Parkinson’s and bacterial infections from human samples.
Lucy Carter, Animal Partnerships Officer for Dogs at Battersea, said Chilli was given his unique name by staff after they decided to name his litter after different types of spices.
She said they knew ‘straight away’ that the puppy had the skills and temperament needed to become a super sniffer.
Chilli is already being lauded by his trainers as a quick learner who is rapidly ‘growing in confidence’
Videos of the energetic youngster during training suggest he’s enjoying the process!
Like the star he is, Chilli will receive VIP treatment throughout the programme – living in the homes of staff and volunteers rather than kennels
Chilli’s trainers will now hone his sense of smell by giving him lots of different odour samples to sniff.
MMD’s Chris Allen explains that the training will differ slightly depending on what kind of detection dog he becomes.
‘Bio Detection Dogs work on anonymous human samples in our training room, and learn to distinguish between disease negative and disease positive ones,’ she says.
‘These dogs will ultimately help lead to faster, more accurate and non-invasive diagnoses and inform the scientific community, including bio-electronic nose developers and AI.
‘Meanwhile, our Medical Alert Assistance Dogs are trained on samples collected from their individual client when they are experiencing an episode.
‘They can then identify the unique odours of these conditions so they can take the necessary action and avoid injury and hospitalisation.’
Like the star he is, Chilli will receive VIP treatment throughout the programme – living in the homes of staff and volunteers rather than kennels.
He will then go through a matchmaking process to find a suitable owner.
‘We create a profile of the client and the dog – then it’s a bit like dating: we look through all the profiles and match ones that we think work best,’ explains Chris.
‘After that we get the client in to meet the dog. A lot of the time this goes very well but sometimes what works on paper doesn’t work in real life and that’s absolutely fine.
‘We take into consideration how the client feels the meeting went and also how the dog behaves during the meet.
‘After this the dog will stay for the client for a week to really get to know each other. If everything goes well then we start scent training.’
MDD has trained up more than 200 super sniffers over the years, including Ashes – a Cocker Spaniel trained to detect Covid.
Many of these dogs have come from Battersea, which cares for thousands of animals every year with no government funding.
In addition to Chilli, MDD has trained up more than 200 super sniffers over the years
Chris Allen, head of canine supply, training and welfare at Medical Detection Dogs, says it was ‘love at first sight’ when the team met Chilli
Lucy Carter, Animal Partnerships Officer at the centre, said: ‘We are incredibly grateful for the ongoing support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery, who have been helping to fund the vital work that Battersea does for over a decade.
‘From supporting our dedicated staff and volunteers across our three centres who provide expert care for animals like Chilli, to sharing our knowledge and resources with owners and other rescues across the world, this funding allows us to go all in for dogs and cats everywhere.’
People’s Postcode Lottery is a monthly subscription lottery that donates 33% of the price of each ticket to charity. Prizes are split between the players in each winning postcode.
Chris, from MDD, adds: ‘In the future we plan to use the funds raised by players to expand our reach helping more people across the UK as we know many more people could benefit from a Medical Alert Assistance Dog if we had the resources to match them.’
