Personality and Skills of Medical Detection Dogs Medical Alert Assistance Dogs These dogs need to be confident in many challenging environments which pet dogs wouldn’t usually encounter. In addition to an excellent sense of smell, their trainability, gentle nature and bond with humans are very important. They also need to be tenacious so they ensure their client pays attention when they alert them to an imminent medical episode. Bio Detection Dogs These tend to be selected from working lines as they need the drive to consistently indicate when they detect the odour on which they have been trained. The connection between a client and their assistance dog is paramount, but a Bio Detection Dog needs to be more independent as they must trust their nose without looking to their handler for reassurance: To ensure accuracy, their handler will not know which of the stands being sniffed holds a positive sample of the disease. Manage Cookie Preferences