The Queen celebrates 15 years of Medical Detection Dogs at Clarence House

Her Majesty has welcomed guests to Clarence House in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Medical Detection Dogs (MDD).

Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to save lives using their amazing sense of smell. It does this with Medical Alert Assistance Dogs and Bio Detection Dogs, both of which can be trained to detect even the tiniest trace of the smell caused by a medical condition.

Her Majesty has been Patron of MDD since 2014. In recent years, Her Majesty has seen many Bio Detection Dogs at work such as Covid-19 detection dogs.

Medical Alert Assistance Dogs support people with complex health conditions like diabetes, PoTS and severe allergies when they are in danger of having a potentially life-threatening medical event, so they can take the necessary action and prevent hospital admission.

During today's reception, The Queen met Michelle, who is supported by MDD and was accompanied by her Medical Alert Assistance Dog, Spring, who helps to save her life daily by alerting her when she is about to have a medical emergency caused by Addison’s disease. 

Her Majesty also met Demi, who was accompanied by her dog, Bear, who alerts her to Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) episodes.

Bio Detection Dogs are trained to detect diseases like cancers, Parkinson’s, COVID-19, malaria and bacterial infections on samples in the charity’s training room. 

Following the reception, Her Majesty watched a demonstration by a Bio Detection Dog, who will detect Urinary Tract Infections from a selection of samples on stands. Another dog then demonstrated how MDD’s dogs are making this research a reality, by detecting the odour of UTI on people through passive searching, demonstrating the work of the charity’s new project.

UTIs can be complicated and life threatening if left untreated, especially for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly. For these individuals, UTIs may progress rapidly and are the leading cause of hospitalisation. This latest research will investigate the ability of dogs to detect these infections at a very early stage.

Before concluding the reception, a puppy in training, Maggie, delivered a gift to Her Majesty. Standard Poodle puppy, Dasher, was also in attendance as part of her socialisation training.