Dogs aren’t just loyal companions. They’re now helping to save forests and protect our trees — using their amazing sense of smell!
Their noses are so powerful they can sniff out tiny chemical signals from trees that are sick — long before we can see any signs.
Here’s how these incredible dogs are fighting back against tree diseases around the world.
Why Dogs?
A dog’s nose is a superpower. They have up to 300 million scent receptors (humans only have about six million).
That means they can smell tiny amounts of chemicals given off by stressed or diseased trees.
Early detection is vital. If we catch a disease early, we have a much better chance to stop it spreading and save healthy trees.
Real-Life Heroes: Dogs Detecting Tree Diseases
In the UK
A brilliant dog called Ivor, a cocker spaniel-Labrador cross, has been trained to sniff out a deadly tree disease called Phytophthora ramorum.
This disease has devastated larch trees, which are important timber sources, and can cause extensive damage and even death to more than 150 plant species.
Ivor’s work has been a huge success.
In tests, he got it right almost 9 out of 10 times — finding the disease in soil, bark, and tree material.
The project was run by Forest Research and Canine Assisted Pest Eradication.
🐶 Fun Fact: Ivor loves his work so much, his tail doesn’t stop wagging when he’s searching!
“The results from the trials have been incredibly encouraging … highlighting the huge potential of dogs in our fight against pests and diseases,” said Forest Research Pathologist, Dr Heather Dun. “Biosecurity is incredibly important and detection dogs like Ivor are an exciting new method for helping to protect our trees.”
Forest Research and Canine Assisted Pest Eradication have also successfully tested detection dogs to sniff out other harmful tree pests like the Great spruce bark beetle and Emerald Ash Borer.
Dogs were also used in 2012 to detect the Asian longhorn beetle in Kent, with help from Austria’s Plant Health Inspectorate.
Following these successes, Forest Research is now looking into using dogs to detect other pests, including the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus).
In the USA
In Florida, dogs have been trained to spot citrus greening disease — a major threat to orange trees.
They can detect it with over 99% accuracy, even before any symptoms appear!
The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service says dogs are faster and more reliable than lab tests in the field.
This is critical work because, according to the USDA: “In the past decade, citrus greening has caused more than 70 percent decline in the production of oranges for juice and the fresh fruit market in Florida and threatens other states, making it the largest economic threat to the $3.35 billion U.S. citrus industry.”
In Taiwan and New Zealand
- In Taiwan, dogs are helping find brown root rot disease in urban trees.
- In New Zealand, dogs are trained to detect Phytophthora in forests — helping to protect native ecosystems.
Wherever trees are under threat, dogs are stepping up!
How Are These Dogs Trained?
Training a disease detection dog is serious work.
Here’s how it happens:
- Learning the Scent: Trainers teach dogs the exact smell of a disease.
- Practicing Discrimination: Dogs learn to tell that scent apart from healthy trees or soil.
- Field Training: They practice in real forests, parks, and gardens.
It takes months of daily training, and the bond between dog and handler is critical.
But once trained, these dogs can check hundreds of trees a day — much faster than human inspectors or lab tests.
Why Use Dogs?
Here’s why dogs are a game-changer:
✅ Catch problems early — before it’s too late.
✅ Cover large areas fast — ideal for forests and farms.
✅ Non-invasive — no need to damage trees to test them.
There are a few challenges too:
- Training takes time.
- Bad weather can make scents harder to detect.
- And handlers must know how to “read” their dogs properly.
But overall, detection dogs are proving to be one of our best weapons against tree disease.
What’s Next?
Scientists are now exploring even more uses for these amazing dogs:
- Detecting other pests and pathogens.
- Protecting rare and endangered trees.
- Supporting conservation work worldwide.
As the climate changes and new diseases emerge, detection dogs could be crucial in keeping our woodlands healthy.
🌳🐕 Next time you’re walking your dog through the woods, remember — dogs might just be the secret heroes helping to protect those trees!
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Martin Cole has been an avid plant lover and gardener for more than 20 years and loves to talk and write about gardening. In 2006 he was a finalist in the BBC Gardener of the Year competition. He is a member of the National dahlia Society.
He previously lived in London and Sydney, Australia, where he took a diploma course in Horticultural studies and is now based in North Berwick in Scotland. He founded GardeningStepbyStep.com in 2012. The website is aimed at everybody who loves plants or has been bitten by the gardening bug and wants to know more.
Gardening Step by Step has been cited by Thompson and Morgan, the UK’s largest mail order plant retailer, as a website that publishes expert gardening content.