Estrus-Related Odors in Milk Detected by Trained Dogs

Dogs trained to identify vaginal mucus samples and other fluids from estrous cows were used for further studies of estrus-related odors in milk. In the first experiment, milk was collected from 10 cows during estrus and luteal phase of the estrous cycle and tested in trials of 9 samples each; 1 or 2 of the samples were from estrous cows. Dogs responded to milk from estrous cows in 76% of the exposures to such samples with significant differences among cows and significant improvement by the dogs during the experiment. Responses to milk from luteal-phase cows, averaged 6%. In a second experiment, milk was frozen and thawed four times without decreasing the frequency of response to samples from estrous cows. In the third and fourth experiments, milk was collected from four cows on several days of the estrous cycle. After the dogs were trained to respond to milk from pre-estrous cows (1 or 2 days before estrus), they responded to 64% of these samples; after the dogs were retrained to not respond to milk from pre-estrous cows, they responded 21% of the time to milk obtained 1 to 3 days before estrus. In these two experiments, responses to milk from estrous cows averaged 83% and to milk from luteal-phase cows, 8%. Trained dogs can distinguish milk of pre-estrous cows from milk of either estrous or luteal-phase cows.