ABSTRACT
The human partners in these interspecies dyads consider their canine assistants to be working companions and family members, for the most part avoiding the problematic connotations attached to the ‘pet’ label. Their symbiotic partnerships, involving dependence, independence, and interdependence, fluctuate among parasitism, commensalism and mutualism with mutualism deemed the closest form of harmonious canine–human relationship. The working dogs’ domestication over millennia and their current situation as possession or stray are investigated from an anthrozoological perspective that enables observation and discussion of characteristics, breeding and training of dogs for scent detection. The charity Medical Detection Dogs provides extensive criteria for human acceptance onto a waiting list for a medical alert assistance dog. Chronic illness is viewed through a sociological lens, examining illness identities and less-able existences that become majorly altered by the alerting dog’s able and nonjudgemental presence.
