A Puppy Starts A New Method For Detecting Diseases

Dogs are, without a doubt, one of the most intelligent animals and with the most developed senses, capable of fulfilling tasks and functions that other animals could not perform. We’ve talked before about police dogs, drug dogs, therapist dogs, and even dogs trained to detect cancer.

This is the story of a little dog who, even without having been trained for it, was able to do something impressive. Do you want to know what it was? So don’t miss this article.

Many people are skeptical about the fact that dogs can detect disease, but the truth is that this method is already being used in some countries, and others are starting to introduce it. It has been shown that using dogs to detect disease can be over 90% effective, and the case of Daisy, one of the first female dogs to detect disease, demonstrates this. This is your story.

Daisy and her “power” to detect diseases

Daisy is a charming little black dog mixed with the Labrador breed that lived with her owner Claire Guest. They had been living together for five years now, so they knew each other very well and had created a special bond between them. Both knew each other’s attitudes, looks and gestures; they were a family.

One day, Daisy started doing something strange that she had never done before. She approached her owner’s chest over and over again. Guest took it for granted, as at first it just seemed like an ordinary gesture. But when Daisy started doing the same thing for three days straight and several times a day, Guest began to worry.

She didn’t know the reason behind this obsession, and started touching herself thinking that there might be something there that was catching her bitch’s attention. As she did so, she noticed that there was a kind of lump. She didn’t waste a minute and quickly went to see a doctor to see if there was any kind of anomaly. Tests were performed, including a mammogram, and everyone was very surprised when the doctor told Guest that she had breast cancer.

However, he explained that it was not in an advanced state and that it was great luck to have found it so quickly. Guest acknowledged that it was his bitch who found him and who, therefore, saved his life. She would never have noticed this lump if not for Daisy’s insistence on this specific region of her body. It was as if she had a special power to detect disease.

Thanks to Daisy’s insistence, Guest was able to get rid of cancer forever without major after-effects. From that moment on, Guest decided to do something.

The Medical Detection Dogs Foundation is born

Seeing the ability of dogs to detect disease, Guest decided to create the Medical Detection Dog Foundation. It was founded in 2008 and the best dogs trained to detect diseases were selected, including Daisy. Together they worked in a laboratory where they could detect diseases like diabetes and cancer.

These dogs capable of detecting disease do so by sniffing a tube of urine or breathing, and stare at the abnormal sample. So chemists can know who has a disease and who doesn’t.

This foundation of dogs to detect diseases has been of great help to many people, saving their lives and even reducing the time of their treatments.

Daisy was the most important dog in this group to detect diseases, analyzing more than 6500 samples and locating 500 different types of cancer with a hit rate of over 90%.

Without a doubt, it’s one more story that proves to us how valuable dogs are in our lives, and talks about the incredible capabilities they have. We hope that all countries in the world will soon be able to integrate this method of detecting diseases through dogs, and thus it will be possible to save the lives of many people.

Image courtesy of Eduardo Millo.