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Excerpted
from "What Do Dogs Know?":
 Dogs
can sense more than just oncoming seizures. Richard Simmons,
a research associate working on a project supported in
part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told me
a story about Marilyn Zuckerman of New York and her Shetland
sheepdog, Tricia.
Tricia had developed the annoying
habit of sniffing or nuzzling Marilyn's lower back whenever
she sat down. Marilyn's husband looked and noticed that
there was a dark mole in the location that Tricia seemed
to be interested in. It seemed odd that the dog cared
about this mole, but since it caused no discomfort, Marilyn
just ignored it. One spring day, though, Marilyn was lying
face down on her balcony in a bathing suit, simply enjoying
the sunshine when suddenly she felt teeth on her back.
It was Tricia, who apparently was trying to remove the
mole.
Marilyn's husband suggested that
there must be something odd about the mole if it was bothering
the dog that much. More out of curiosity than anything
else, Marilyn showed it to her doctor. Before the day
was out, Marilyn was at the Cornell Medical Center; where
the mole was diagnosed as skin cancer -- actually a virulent
and potentially fatal form of melanoma. Tricia's early
warning probably saved Marilyn's life.
As Simmons told me: "it was
because of stories like Marilyn's that we began testing
dogs' diagnostic abilities. Our preliminary data suggests
that dogs can detect melanomas and several other types
of cancer well before there is any other indication of
a problem. Some dogs will show agitation the moment a
person with cancer enters the room. It may well be that
someday in the future, inspection by a dog may become
a routine part of cancer screening."
Copyright
© 1999 Stanley Coren.
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