by John Gray

Created on: August 21, 2007   Last Updated: June 10, 2009

The stories of dogs rescuing their owners from all sorts of hazardous situations occur on an almost weekly basis. But there are also more outrageous claims that dogs have the power to actually heal their owners based upon the emotional connection they offer. But what is the actual scientific viewpoint for such claims that dogs have some sort of real healing power?

Firstly, incredible as it might sound there seems little doubt at all that dogs can sniff out cancer due to their extraordinary sense of smell. Scientists at Amersham Hospital, Buckinghamshire conducted controlled experiments into this phenomenon using the urine sample of patients who have bladder cancer. The resulting experiments found that dogs could sniff out an infected sample, three times more than mere chance would dictate.

There are also studies done by the Pine Street Foundation proving that a dog is able to sniff out cancer on a person's breath. Tests were carried out under rigorous circumstances, and incredibly the accuracy of detection was around 93%. The astonishing news is that the dogs were only trained for just a few weeks, and were still able to reach such dramatically high results. Everyone knows the importance of spotting cancer early and such research projects promise another weapon in the fight against cancer the family dog.

But how is this possible? It is thought that cancer may omit certain minuet odours, and because of the dogs unique olfactory ability they are able to detect this. These odours are very complex compounds, not just single molecules, but dogs are able to sniff them out. Further research is being conducted in this area, as clearly this needs to be harnessed as quickly as possible in order to help save lives.

Be what of the actual healing itself, can dogs actually heal? There are many such claims by individuals that this is so, but the scientific community is split. The latest information is that the jury is still out on the potential for dogs to heal. Currently there are no credible studies to back up claims which have been made that the emotional connections between the dog and its owner have actually healed. However studies continue to push the boundaries and explore this area of high complexity and mystery and there are some leading individuals who think that it might be more than a modern myth. Only time and further study will tell.

Sources and further reading which may be of interest:

British Medical Journal, "Olfactory detection of human bladder cancer by dogs: proof of principle study".http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7468/712?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=dogs&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

http://www.ability.org.uk/pets_animal_assisted_thera py.html"Study Reveals Dogs Can Smell Cancer in Patients' Breath",http://www.physorg.com/news9994.html

Vivian Edwards, British Medical Journal, "The healing touch", http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7301/1540

Learn more about this author, John Gray.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.