The Canine Nose Knows

Have you ever read anything or heard about how dogs can sniff out disease such as cancer in humans? How they can be used to predict blood sugar drops or seizures in diabetics?

Back in the medieval times, "physicians" used small dogs as tools. The patient would be laid out flat and the dog allowed to walk on them from head to toe smelling and searching until they "found" something.

Do they really have the ability to detect disease in us?

Well, I have a little story. Last year I was dog sitting for a big black lab named Libby. Libby is a Katrina rescue dog and VERY special! I knew that from the first moment I met her.

I was at her house spending an hour with her. When I sat down on the couch and leaned back, Libby jumped on me and pinned me down and looked me square in the eye. This caught me off guard because Libby and I are good friends. I wondered what the heck is going on? OK, I was a *little* nervous.

Instead of ripping my face off, which made me happy, she started intensely sniffing and snorting every inch of my upper torso. I mean inhaling my skin. Inch by inch. Line by line, from the top down and back up as if she were reading a book.

Libby finally zeroed in on an exact spot at the very top of my right side rib cage. She proceeded to dig and push her snout into me so hard that it hurt and I tried to put her off me, but she kept at it. I had to roll out from under her to get away and then distract her with treats.

How did she know that I had been sick for months and that 4 days later I was having my gallbladder removed?

Honestly, it freaked me out. Now I know that the canine nose knows!

The next night I was with Libby again and I was taking her out for her bedtime latrine visit. When we got to the corner of the street, an SUV with tinted windows slowed down right in front of me and started driving in circles in the middle of the intersection. It was clearly meant to be either threatening or just some punk kid being macho, but it was unnerveing considering that it was pretty late and no one else was around.

Libby froze! Every hair on her back stood up and she ever so slightly hunched her shoulders down and I could feel every muscle in her body coiled like a spring. The lowest meanest most primal growl came from her belly. A sound I had never heard before. I knew, without a doubt, that if anyone came near me, Libby would kill them.

I tried to get her to move away and come back to the house, but she was planted like a tree until the SUV left. She then looked at me as if to say "ok" and then trotted happily back to the house.

Now...how did she know that a car driving in circles was a threat to me? Dogs are a gift from God and they rock! That's how. <grin>