Dogs Trained To Fight Cancer
Dogs are intelligent beings that have had the ability to be trained for various facets and jobs and have been very useful in developing them. This time we are going to tell you about something surprising: dogs trained to detect cancer and be able to fight it.
Where did the idea come from?
Different dog training centers have used the scent technique for years. This technique consists of giving the dogs different fragrances to smell on a cloth or other material in order to keep the smell in their memory and have the ability to recognize it even when it seems camouflaged by other things.
The memory of dogs when it comes to smells is truly amazing. Although they cannot voluntarily remember a type of smell, as we might be able to do, they do have the ability to immediately recognize and associate it. That is why dogs that have been separated from their owners for years and then meet again, react effusively, as they recognize their scent.
You have also been able to see that a person who has visited you once and that your dog has liked it, if he returns several years later, your dog will resume that beautiful relationship again without inconvenience.
Based on that, the training centers began to train and train the dogs to memorize smells and detect them, as is the case with police dogs or anti-drug dogs.
Hence, in France they thought that if dogs had the ability to recognize the smell of drugs, they could also do so to detect cancer and thus take a step prior to this disease. So it was there, in France, that the first scent of cancer developed for dogs to memorize and later recognize.
The purpose that dogs can detect cancer
Many might think what sense does this make if there are different tests that can be done to detect cancer. This is true. But the purpose is that dogs can detect cancer in its early stages, when even the patient does not feel discomfort.
Let’s face it, we all know that we have to have an annual check-up of our teeth, our general condition, at the gynecologist, at the ENT, and countless specialists. These checks can help us find abnormalities even when we do not feel any discomfort. But how many of us get all the checkups we owe?
The daily hustle and bustle, lack of time, desire, stress and lack of money, can prevent us from carrying out all the necessary reviews. Well, dogs capable of detecting cancer are very useful in these cases.
Sometimes there may also be certain types of cancer that are difficult to detect because they can be hidden. Sometimes they can be behind the spine or behind an organ and this makes it difficult to see in traditional tests. However, its scent will not go unnoticed by a dog trained to detect cancer.
Being able to detect cancer in its early stages can save many lives, although there is still much skepticism and many answers are being sought regarding the feasibility of using dogs in this task.
What does the dog capable of detecting cancer smell?
What the cancer-detecting dog smells like are VOCs, which are organic or volatile chemicals that cause cancer. They are mainly found in colon and lung cancers, as well as can be detected in the urine of someone with prostate cancer.
The way to do it is simple. Patients exhale through a tube that will draw their breath to a cloth at the end of the tube. Then that cloth will be brought to the dog trained to detect cancer and will be able to recognize if there is VOC or not.
Many patients who feel fear or some discomfort and that it has not been possible to detect anything abnormal in their tests, ask to do the test with dogs to find out if they have cancer. This system is being used in Mexico and attempts are being made to approve it in Spain, although as we have said before there are still many unanswered questions.
However, science continues to work to create a device capable of emulating the olfactory system of dogs. And you, what do you prefer: technology or nature?
Images courtesy of Philippe STANUS and Ana Fuentes.
