OTTAWA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- A dog in Canada's Niagara area tested positive for COVID-19, CTV reported on Monday.

Researchers said most pet owners shouldn't be worried as positive tests for the coronavirus in dogs are rare and they are typically asymptomatic and they get over the ailment quickly.

Scott Weese, the chief of infection control at the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College, is part of a study that found the positive case in the Niagara area.

Weese said that of about 40 pets tested in the study only the dog has been confirmed as having the virus. A cat in the study had some lingering antibodies from COVID-19, suggesting it had once been sick.

He said that any household where a person has COVID-19 should include their pets in the quarantine as a precautionary measure.

"It's a human virus," said Weese. "It likes people and there are some animal species that can be affected but that's a spillover. We've got probably not uncommon human-to-dog infection but the dogs rarely, if ever, get sick."