I would love to read the article but it's a pay site. Arr! Has anyone heard of this elsewhere?

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/521505

Thanks Aribeth, I enjoyed the article and the site.
From the site:
Jan. 12, 2006 -- Cancer may carry a scent that dogs can smell, a California study shows.

Researchers trained five dogs to identify breath samples from people with and without lung cancer or breast cancer.

The dogs were almost always right in sniffing out who did or didn't have cancer, write the researchers.

They included Michael McCulloch, LAc, MPH. He works at the Pine Street Foundation, a nonprofit group in San Anselmo, Calif., that focuses on cancer patients and their treatment decisions.

The dogs in McCulloch's experiment aren't available to "screen" patients. "At this time, it is also not recommended that dogs be used as a primary screening method for cancer," the foundation's web site states.

However, the foundation recommends medical follow-up for people whose dogs display "persistent and animated behavior around specific body locations on their owners."

Training your dog to smell cancer requires special breath samples from cancer patients. Those samples aren't that easy to get and scientific, legal, and ethical issues must also be addressed before training dogs, the foundation states.

I have an account and can see the entire article so I forgot that you must have one to see it properly,sorry.It's not a pay site.

Here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vsivrzUwWg

What a great story! Thanks TN!

Dogs can do even more. They can detect impending seizures and hypoglycemic episodes too.

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/619862B5-F541-4223-B40E-9080235CE114/

Sorry I missed that clip! Better late than never though, thanks.

Some say they can detect upcoming earthquakes and tsunami's too and some know beforehand when their owner's are coming home. Some have been known to howl and cry continents away, when their owners are killed in war etc. It can't all be because of smell. Dogs are amazing people.

Dogs can also help people suffering with Parkinson's disease. They are trained to help release a person when they "freeze up."


I saw a show about dogs detecting cancer on Discovery Health. I love that channel!

Well, TN already said everything I was going to say.
I can add one tidbit - my son was afflicted with a seizure disorder and while he was living with his GF
her dog "Trouble" would sense his seizures. One day she was in the yard with Trouble and she started barking & her fur bristled. He was upstairs in the house, seizing. And that''s the truth. (This happened quite a few times).

"Trouble" was a gem! I hope your son is doing well Kk.

I love dogs. Of the entire animal kingdom, they have long been (with domestication possibly dating to the last ice age) among the most loyal, admirable, and yes, useful creatures. Then again, they've been known to eat their own poo. Which, with their incredible sense of smell, baffles me all the more.

Dogs really are amazing. I used to have a spaniel who knew when everyone in the family was getting home from work, even if they were going to be late or early and didn't phone. She'd wait on the stair landing 20 min before each arrival and watch the door thereby making sure we all saw her first. There was 4 of us and we all had different shifts.

Tanyamm, I just read in the paper yesterday that dogs can sense time to within 30 seconds in 24 hours. Amazing.