I made one of my routine trips home during one of the longer term breaks to see the family and the dogs, whilst having a cuppa in the front room I noticed one of the dogs was resting its head on mums arm and persisted in licking and sniffing it. I thought nothing of it until I looked at what the dog was licking and it was one of her moles.

Me and my younger sister asked mum to have it looked at but like all mothers she took little notice of us, I went back off to uni and when I made the next trip home 2 of the dogs were licking sniffing, putting their paws on and by this point crying at her arm.

I said "cant you get a hint mum?", so off she went to the doctors, as you have already guessed...... it did in- fact turn out to be skin cancer.

After several treatments skin grafts etc she got the all clear, but the doctor couldn't believe that the dogs picked up on it infact it was them that really alerted us to the problem. I was surprised as the dogs were bullmastiffs and didn't think they would have a great sense of smell with their short noses but apparently and thankfully I was wrong.

So guy's listen to what your dogs are trying to say to you as one day It could just save your life! 

The power of dogs, so talented!
Glad to hear your mum had a good outcome, she has much to thank her loyal friends for :)

I'm glad it turned out well for your mum - and fantastic job doggies! :-)

> I was surprised as the dogs were bullmastiffs and didn't think they would have a great sense of smell with their short noses but apparently and thankfully I was wrong.

I have recently read that short-nosed dogs actually have better short-range vision than long-nosed, so perhaps he first noticed a visual change which was backed up by a different smell. Who cares at the end of the day....... he noticed, and it was amazing!

All I can say is 'WOW' - great outcome, hope your mum is okay now.

thats brilliant well done doggie

Thats a brilliant tale.
You are so wise to have paid attention to the dog, its a good job your mum did too in the end, probably saved her life, skin cancer has killed someone I knew, he was only in his 30s..............

Karen

Wow Amazing aren't they :)
Glad to hear your mum is ok x

That's a lovely story and one worth bearing in mind for everyone for sure -thank you for sharing it!

ive got goose bumps reading that, that is so amazing!!! so pleased your mum is now ok, dogs are incredible :0)

What a fantastic story!

Watched a TV programme last year about dogs being used to detect cancers.The sniffer dog was shown a row of cups ,with cancer cells under just one,and the dog picked the right one every time,the experiment was started after a dog detected a cancer on his owners leg.We will always pay attention to anything that appears to worry the dogs in future.

This is a brilliant story and fantastic result.

We had a incident with our Goldie last year, he kept sniffing my dads private parts but never did it with any other males. We made a joke of it to begin with but one night I called my mom and told maybe he should go to the dr's. It turns out my dads PSA count was high and he had was tested for Prostate cancer. Thankfully it wasn't but he is now on tablets daily to control his PSA count.

Dogs have the most amazing senses they really are our best friends.

That's a brilliant story - sometimes they really do know what they're doing, don't they!