Can dogs sense serious illnesses?

berger89

A bit of a strange (and maybe silly) post, but is it true that dogs can sense serious illnesses such as cancer?

Not trying to overly pessimistic and whatnot, but my dog follows me EVERYWHERE in my house. And only me. There are 3 other family members here but anywhere I go, he is under my feet, or lying at my feet.

I go to the toilet, he waits at the door. I go to my bedroom, he tries to burst his way in. Even now!!! I'm trying to type this and he's resting his big cute head on my knee.

Dad says its some sort of protection thing, others say he just loves ya etc etc…but I can't help but think he senses some sort of sickness. Saying that, in the last year or so, I've been somewhat unhappy (just because I don't know what to do with myself.

Any thoughts?

borderlinemeath

They can sense slight temperature changes, hormonal changes, mood swings and yes they can sense certain illnesses. There was an episode of "Dogs, their secret lives" where they showed the difference in reaction of dogs when their owners cried, where the dogs visibly looked sad in conjunction with their owners, and when their owners laughed, they wagged their tails and wanted to play, so they can most certainly sense emotions in that regard.

Greenmachine

How old is the dog? Any chance the dog could be sick. Our dog started following people non stop before she got sick.

berger89

I must check out that show. He's definitely a pet. He knows when to come and sit beside you when you feel like crap. He is 13 years old. He's had heart trouble for about 4 years, and is pretty stiff with arthritis and he's about 90% deaf

TitianGerm

My Dad used to walk our Saymoed up to my grandparents house once a week and the dog always used to go lie in the kitchen as the sitting room was two warm. One evening he came in the door and looked at my granddad and lay down at his feet. He did this every week for five weeks. We couldn't figure out why. Then we found out my granddad had a brain tumour. All along when he was sick the dog never lay anywhere else except at his feet.

It was like Max was looking after him every visit.

berger89

emmetkenny wrote: »

My Dad used to walk our Saymoed up to my grandparents house once a week and the dog always used to go lie in the kitchen as the sitting room was two warm. One evening he came in the door and looked at my granddad and lay down at his feet. He did this every week for five weeks. We couldn't figure out why. Then we found out my granddad had a brain tumour. All along when he was sick the dog never lay anywhere else except at his feet.

It was like Max was looking after him every visit.

Sorry to hear that
Dogs are really just amazing animals.

The scary thing is, our dog does the same thing. He is forever under my feet..and following me everywhere. Only me though. That's the weird part

delthedriver

Dogs are very clever. They pick up quickly on human mood, illness etc. Perhaps your dog is sensing your mood, may even be concerned that you are going to move away. Last year my wife was very ill, dog followed her everywhere. Dog even had nap in afternoon with my wife. When my wife was in hospital dog slept in our bed on top of my wifes pillow and kept bed to herself .On return home dog would not leave her side...... Thankfully my wife s health has improved , though dog won*t let her out of sight

berger89

delthedriver wrote: »

Dogs are very clever. They pick up quickly on human mood, illness etc. Perhaps your dog is sensing your mood, may even be concerned that you are going to move away. Last year my wife was very ill, dog followed her everywhere. Dog even had nap in afternoon with my wife. When my wife was in hospital dog slept in our bed on top of my wifes pillow and kept bed to herself .On return home dog would not leave her side...... Thankfully my wife s health has improved , though dog won*t let her out of sight

Glad to hear you wife is better

Actually last year I went travelling for a few months and my mother told me that while I was gone, he go down to my bedroom every day and sleep there. She had awful trouble trying to get him out! And it has been on my mind to go again. Anytime he sees a suitcase in the house, he gets all depressed and lies down beside it. He's such a dote

Gael23

Not specifically no but they can detect that someone is sick. Our guy will go and sit in whoevers bedroom that's sick. He won't have a clue what's wring but he knows that something is up.

delthedriver

berger89 wrote: »

Glad to hear you wife is better

Actually last year I went travelling for a few months and my mother told me that while I was gone, he go down to my bedroom every day and sleep there. She had awful trouble trying to get him out! And it has been on my mind to go again. Anytime he sees a suitcase in the house, he gets all depressed and lies down beside it. He's such a dote

Thank you so much. 2015 is going to be a great year!
Interesting your dog is sensing you may be on your travels again.
A close friend has experienced similar issues with her dog. She cannot allow her dog see a suitcase until the day she is going on holidays.as soon as he sees a suitcase he goes into a low mood, won,t eat and lies on her all day.
Now we don't mention the word holidays !
I think your dog is concerned that you are going to leave him again !

lulu1

I would say dogs can sense moods and deaths. Over 20 years ago we had a dog. We rescued it from a person who was abusing it, it was skin and bone when we got it. Because of the abuse it got it was a bit cross and no one would dare venture in if they saw it in the garden. My mum's friend worked in a shop and every night she would call on her way home with sweets for the dog, she was the only stranger he would let in the gate. This woman took ill and after a few months she died. The night she died the dog cried the whole night long and we wondered what was wrong with him.. the next morning we heard the news. Seems the dog knew before us.

gctest50

for sure - hard to separate the "i miss u" carry on from the "you're doomed if you ignore me" tho

550 times by just one :

10-year-old Labrador, Daisy, who is trained by charity Medical Detection Dogs to sniff out cancer, was awarded the Blue Cross Medal for her pioneering work in the field of cancer detection, where she has sniffed over 6,500 samples and detected over 550 cases of cancer.

http://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/our_news.html#Daisy

LIZ HAYES: Only one of these containers holds a sample of urine from a bladder cancer patient, the rest are healthy specimens.
CLAIRE GUEST: When comes across a cancer smell he'll lie down beside it.
LIZ HAYES: It takes Tangles just a few seconds to find the cancer.
CLAIRE GUEST: Good boy.
LIZ HAYES: The samples are switched and every time Tangles gets it right. More than clever, brilliant! He's your star performer?
CLAIRE GUEST: He is indeed. See how much he enjoys it.
LIZ HAYES: Over the course of the morning Claire puts three more dogs through their paces. And every time, they too get it right. A 100% success rate. And they're already saving lives. You have had a situation where dogs have detected cancer in the sample that you didn't think had cancer.
CLAIRE GUEST: That's right, it came through from the hospital as somebody who was not believed to have cancer but the dogs persistently indicated on the sample to the point where I couldn't teach them to ignore it. So we we spoke with the medics at the hospital and they ran some further tests and actually found the gentleman had small tumour on his kidney.

http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/lizhayes/618446/wonder-dogs

berger89

:O :O fcuking hell!!!!!!!!!
Unbelievable!!!!

Graces7

Very sceptical here! I had heard dogs were aware if their owners were in pain but when I fell on the logpile last March and was totally unable to get up and had shattered my wrist my two were no help at all and showed no interest. I lay there hours.

irelandspurs

Your dog is just attached to you more then the rest of the family, our dog does the same with me but that's just because I show her more attention, I'm the one that feeds her and walks her, I don't for one minute think it's because I'm sick.

twomonkeys

Dogs can definately sense changes to our emotions and our bodies. There are specially trained Epilepsy assistance dogs who can sense when a person is about to have an epileptic fit and warn the sufferer in advance of the fit so that they can ensure they are in a safe environment long before the seizure starts.

Tranceypoo

I wonder as well if certain breeds are more 'in tune' than others, I have 2 here, one a laid back lab/staff mix who couldn't give a toss if I fell in a heap at the bottom of the stairs (I never have thankfully) and a collie mix who is tuned into my every mood, even if I have a little tear at something on the tv, not even cry just a fill up and a sniff, she'll lift her head from her sleep and look directly at me for a while, if I cry she'll be on my lap with her head in my face, (whilst the other lad snores at the other end of the couch), she follows me round a lot, she knows if I'm going away, she's a very intuitive dog, more so than any dog I've ever had, I wonder if it's the smart, highly strung, neurotic collie in her (or possibly the boxer other half!)

aonb

I heard an article on radio some time ago, that discussed the use of dogs for detecting specific diseases on the breath of patients - cancer was one, diabetes was another, but there were other diseases discussed...

Our old dog, knew to associate the appearance of suitcases with someone going away, tail down straight away - and it was total doom when he used to go to Kennels when we were away

My dog is my shadow - he follows me all over the house - will sit outside the bathroom door til I come out - some dogs are like that I think...

SillyMangoX

My cat either predicted, or gave me, appendicitis! For a week or two he would jump on my lap and knead the same spot on my stomach religiously and would get very upset if I didnt let him up. Then low and behold I end up in hospital to get my appendix out and he hasn't done it since! So he either knew it was coming or else all that kneading inflamed it :P
Another time I had severe vertigo and couldnt sit up for more than 10 seconds at a time, another of my cats would stand guard over me. Constantly. If the other cats or my parents came near me she would growl or swat at them. She was determined she would be the one to mind me :P so I don't think it's just dogs who can pick up on those subtle changes when one is sick!

berger89

Tranceypoo wrote: »

I wonder as well if certain breeds are more 'in tune' than others, I have 2 here, one a laid back lab/staff mix who couldn't give a toss if I fell in a heap at the bottom of the stairs (I never have thankfully) and a collie mix who is tuned into my every mood, even if I have a little tear at something on the tv, not even cry just a fill up and a sniff, she'll lift her head from her sleep and look directly at me for a while, if I cry she'll be on my lap with her head in my face, (whilst the other lad snores at the other end of the couch), she follows me round a lot, she knows if I'm going away, she's a very intuitive dog, more so than any dog I've ever had, I wonder if it's the smart, highly strung, neurotic collie in her (or possibly the boxer other half!)

Haha maybe so! We have a Springer..and they are quite often used to sniff out drugs and stuff in airports. I think he is super clever, and really sensitive. He;'s such a pet.
The other eejit is a mix..dopey isn't the word!

gctest50

not bad for a 5 month old pup

British barrister Joanna Golding has the judge’s permission to bring her adorable, five-month-old puppy, Bertie, to court.

Golding has had diabetes since she was eight years old

He silently taps his owner’s foot three times to deliver alerts, using his left paw if her blood sugar is too high and his right paw if her blood sugar is too low.

“He is very good in court. He is well behaved, doesn’t bark and he is doing well for a young pup,” Golding told the Hull Daily Mail.

DBB

Not only can dogs most certainly sense illness, they are specifically and routinely trained to do so now for a broad range of illnesses: diabetes, cancer, epileptic seizures, Addison's episodes.
There are quite a few stories too of owners whose dogs started to sniff intently at certain spots on their bodies. When their suspicions were raised having heard that dogs are damn good at this sort of thing, it turned out that they were in trouble, but survived due to the early detection... and this is in completely untrained dogs!
However, your dog following you around is, to me at least, not an indication that you're about to get a bad diagnosis! As has already been suggested, dogs are often more closely bonded to certain people in a household, and more likely to follow them about.

berger89

I hope so!
I've wondered though would doctors take you seriously though. I'm not going to lie..I've been tempted to go and ask them to check me out..especially when I hear or read of these supernormal dogs detecting things.
Actually, before my doctor refused to check my bloods because I "wasn't unwell" and that therefore she could "see no point and it'd waste her time."

I think if I lived in the States, it'd be much easier to get these things done.

Evac101

twomonkeys wrote: »

Dogs can definately sense changes to our emotions and our bodies. There are specially trained Epilepsy assistance dogs who can sense when a person is about to have an epileptic fit and warn the sufferer in advance of the fit so that they can ensure they are in a safe environment long before the seizure starts.

My better half suffers from epilepsy and we've discovered, without any training to do so, that our dogs can predict when a seizure or 'aura' is incoming. Granted their behaviour is completely opposite to each other, one becoming very cuddly and inseparable and the other, normally the more tactile, refusing to go near her. The period of anticipation varies however from a couple of hours to 10 minutes prior so it's not a reliable early warning system unfortunately (in our case).