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Dogs watch us all the time, in a way that no other animal does.

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[Maureen]: He senses whenever we are going to go out,

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and he knows before we even make a move.

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[narrator]: They read our body language

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and that's how they know we're going to take them for a walk

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before we think we've made the decision ourselves.

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It's this constant observation that can sometimes seem to give them a sixth sense.

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Max is a red collie cross, normally full of energy and enthusiasm.

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But in 2008, his owner, Maureen Burns, noticed that something was wrong.

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[Maureen]: I thought at the time Max was fading. He was nine and a half.

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and I was preparing myself for losing him, because of... he just wasn't happy.

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Wouldn't come by me, wouldn't sit by me, wouldn't sit on my lap.

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And the odd signs, he would come up, and touch my breast with his nose

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and back off, so desperately unhappy, with such a sad look in his eyes.

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[narrator]: Maureen had a small lump in her breast,

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but her latest mammogram was clear, so she presumed all was OK.

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- Initially I thought, it's just another lumpy breast , as people get.

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But then, I sort of connected it with the dog. With his odd behaviour.

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And one day, I was looking in the mirror, in the bedroom here,
and I looked across in the mirror at Max's eyes.

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He was on the bed, as he is now, and I knew it was cancer.

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[narrator]: Maureen went to her local hospital,
but both a scan and a mammogram came back negative.

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It took a surgical biopsy to finally detect the cancer.

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Maureen had it removed, and the change in Max's behaviour was instant.

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[Maureen]: The day I was picked up from the hospital, he was his old hyper self again.

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Put his nose across my breast, to check where the operation had been,
and he was wagging his tail and his eyes were happy.

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It was unbelievable, the change in him. Instant.

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I love Max so much, and I owe him so much.

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Even before I go for a checkup now, I get him to check me out.

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And if he's happy and wagging his tail, I'm happy, and I know I'm OK.

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[narrator]: We now know that dogs like Max are smelling the tiny volitile chemlcals
given off by cancerous tumors.

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Most dogs can do this, they just don't know that we're interested.

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But with a little training, dogs can accurately pick out a cancerous patient
from a selection of urine samples.

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[sound of clicking] [woman]: Good girl.

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[narrator]: They can even be taught to let diabetics like Steven know
that his blood sugar levels are low, long before he can feel it,

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and definitely before he passes out.

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Dogs like Steven's are now transforming lives all over the country.

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They're being trained to detect the early warning signals for 
severe allergic reactions, epileptic fits, and narcolepsy.

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[lively music]