Dog Detects Cancer in His Owner

Maureen Burns noticed that something was wrong with Max, a Red Collie mix.  “I thought he was nearing his end,” recalled Maureen who had been Max’s owner for his entire 9 1/2 years.  “He wasn’t happy.  He wouldn’t come to me, wouldn’t come and sit in my lap.  He would come up to me touch his nose to my breast and back off whining and very unhappy.”

Finally, one day as Maureen sat before the mirror, she saw Max in the reflection behind her lying on the bed with his paws over his head with such a sad look on his face.  “I have cancer,” she said.  She immediately went in for a biopsy and indeed, she did have cancer.

“As soon as I got home from the hospital, he was his old self again,” recalled Maureen happily.  “He put his nose up to my breast and wagged his tail.  Now, even before I go to the hospital, I know if Max is okay, I am okay.”

No other animal on the planet watches us the way dogs watch us.  Not cats or horses or any other animal we may refer to as domesticated.  Dogs need to watch us and understand what our needs are in order to get their own needs met.  For instance, they can read our body language and know that we are leaving; with or without them.  They know when people are preparing to take them for a walk.  It is similar to a sixth sense.

We know dogs like Max can detect cancer.  The dogs know that they can detect cancer, they didn’t know is that it mattered to us.  Now we can train dogs to detect not only cancer but epilepsy, low sugar levels in diabetics, allergic reactions and narcolepsy.  Scientists do this by teaching dogs to use their intense sense of smell to identify these conditions from urine samples.