Artie, a Miniature Cavapoo from Sheffield, has been given an award after she helped save her mom’s life by detecting her stage 2 breast cancer.
The heroic pup, who lives in Sheffield, England, has received Pets at Home’s National Pet Day award for her actions to help owner Suzanne, who adopted Artie a little over two years ago. The pair have been inseparable since.
“Artie was frantically licking and nuzzling into me, which at the time I didn’t think much of,” Suzanne said. “It was only after a routine mammogram revealed I had stage 2 breast cancer that I looked back and realized she must have sensed something was wrong.
“I went on to have surgery, radiotherapy, and I’m currently on a five-year course of anti-cancer medication. My tiny Artie, who’s by my side 24/7, noticed something I couldn’t – and in hindsight, I truly believe she was trying to tell me. She’s been my little lifesaver.”
We know that dogs have an exceptional sense of smell, and there’s a lot of research being done to explore the conditions dogs may be able to detect. The charity Medical Detection Dogs trains bio detection dogs to find the odor of diseases in samples like urine and swabs, while medical alert assistance dogs are trained to detect tiny changes in people’s personal odor triggered by the disease to alert them to an impending medical event.
The charity is currently finding out whether dogs can identify the smell of bowel cancer from urine samples, which could make early diagnosis of the disease more accessible and less invasive.
Amy Angus of Pets Foundation, Pets at Home’s charity, said of Artie and her award, “At The Pets Foundation, we understand that our pets are so much more than companions. Our pets are capable of amazing things, and Artie is a testament to this. We’re so proud to support organizations honing the incredible talent of dogs, and to celebrate the amazing abilities of dogs like Artie.”
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