Interestingly, dogs can tell when we are sick, too. And there are a couple of ways they learn about it. “One of those ways is with their amazing olfactory abilities, or rather, their miraculous sense of smell,” said Katelyn Schutz, CPDT. “Certain breed of dogs can have up to 40-50 times the scent receptors than us humans, making their sense of smell about 100,000 times stronger than ours! When a person is ill, their body chemistry will change, and a dog’s sensitive snout may be able to detect these subtle changes.”

People can train dogs to sniff out volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the human body, helping with early detection for illnesses, including cancer. Even with 90% or more accuracy. “The trained nose of a dog can smell lung cancer on someone’s breath, pinpoint the location of a mammary tumor, or detect bladder or prostate cancer from someone’s urine,” Schutz explained. “A dog’s nose can alert us to blood sugar changes and ketone presence in diabetics, or let us know when someone with epilepsy is about to have a seizure. So if your pooch seems to be paying attention to a certain part of your body more than usual, perhaps it’s time to listen to your canine companion and get it checked out!”