Can Dogs Detect Cancer?

November 26, 2010

Interview with Sharon Sakson, author of the book Paws & Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs

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Mike Carruthers:
Dogs can smell cancer? Exciting new research seems to point that way.

Sharon Sakson:
The dogs who can find cancer can find it whether it's barely begun and in stage one or if it's stage four and very serious.
 

Sharon Sakson, author of the book Paws & Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs…

There's a Scottish terrier named Kyle who kept licking and bumping his owner's jaw. Finally she went to the doctor and the doctor took her right to the hospital and she ended up having to have half her jaw removed because of cancer. And only because this dog wouldn't stop bothering her jaw did she go to the doctor.

One theory is that cancer has a definite smell and to dogs anyway, it's a terrible smell. And it doesn't take any special kind of dog to detect this. Also, dogs seem to be able to smell an epileptic seizure before it happens. Sharon says a dog trainer in Georgia trains dogs to help people with epilepsy.

She trains dogs so that if a person has a seizure the dog does what's appropriate, which might be go to get help, it might be bring a bottle of pills. Now what started to happen is that they saw the dogs suddenly start doing these things BEFORE the person had the seizure. And that was where the dog trained itself, Ahh I smell that smell; I'm going to bring the pills.