In Dogs We Trust

Man has had a best friend by his side for millennia.

We all know that dogs warn, fetch, hunt and protect us.

They provide companionship and love,

but could we trust them to do even more?

Could there be more ways to use our pets and their senses to help us?

Should parents trust dogs with their children's lives?

She tries to wake Stephen in the night, but he doesn't wake,

if he's hypo in the night, so she will come and get me

and she will bark.

Could we trust a dog to tell

when someone was about to have an epileptic seizure?

Every seizure alert dog is 100 percent,

not 99 percent.

Could canines be trusted to sniff out cancer?

I think the cancer dog

is a dog that we should put a huge amount of trust in.

I'm Ian Hamilton and I have a tale

that wanders all the way to the edge of medical science.

Taking in dramatic examples.

What's the matter?

Is he still not right?

No, no, no, no, no, it's not there.

And compelling evidence of dogs changing,

and maybe even saving lives.

Two years ago, I made a documentary

about getting a new guide dog after my old one retired.

After years of trusting my black Labrador, Moss,

with my safety every day, it was time to start all over again.

Yes, good, go through.

Renton was one of the 75 percent of puppies

that make the grade each year at Forfar Guide Dog Centre.

And after he graduated, we had to learn to work together.

And I had to learn to trust him.

It's not like getting a new car.

Every dog is different and I'd been handed a baby behemoth,

with a big personality.

In you come, come on. Into the right, into the right.

Has he seen the cat still?

Both Renton and I were put through our paces

with the trainer to help build a strong bond.

A bond that my life depends on.

Good boy! Good boy, Renton!

Renton, no, straight.

This is an old trick, but I've got a new dog.

I have to trust that Renton will stop, if the cars don't.

But it's still up to me to listen for traffic.

He's my safety net.

If both of us get it wrong... well, it's probably best

if we don't think about that TOO much.

Dogs have been guiding blind people for nearly a hundred years.

Renton has been guiding me for two.

I trust him with my safety everyday and this has got me thinking,

how much do other people trust their dogs

and what are the limits of that trust?

Renton and I are off to find out. OK.

What I'm about to show you, science cannot yet explain.

And it takes the word trust to a whole new level.

A mother who trusts her family pet

to stop her ten-year old son from slipping into a coma.

One of these two children has a life-threatening illness.

Right now, he has a needle inserted under his skin

which is attached to a pump which he wears 24 hours a day

in order to administer medication.

This is my pump and it delivers insulin into my body.

And then it goes through the tube...

Goes in...either on my tummy,

my tummy, legs or bottom.

Stephen has type I diabetes and his mother, Serena,

has to constantly check his blood sugar levels.

Every bit of growth, every virus, every change in the weather,

every time the clocks change, exercise, everything has an impact...

..on what the blood glucose levels will do for the next couple of days.

It's constantly changing.

It's common practice for diabetics to run their blood sugar levels high,

because if the blood sugar drops too low,

it can cause fainting, dizziness or even seizures.

-Are you ready?

-Yeah.

Keeping their levels high might lower their chances of

having problems on a daily basis, but it can have long term

detrimental health affects.

The kind of heart disease that unfortunately

we have rather a lot of here

in Scotland is considerably more

prevalent in people with diabetes

and occurs at a younger age in those patients, so that's probably

the biggest single impact of diabetes.

In addition, diabetes can cause its own specific health problems -

eye damage, which can in the worst cases

lead to visual loss, kidney damage, and also nerve damage.

The major burden of diabetes isn't the diabetes itself,

but is the damage that diabetes can do,

particularly the damage it can do if it's not well looked after.

Young patients like Steven, who is only 10,

have a lifetime of trying to balance their blood sugar levels.

Too high, and he risks long-term damage.

Too low, and he risks a hypoglycemic coma.

However, he has more than just a meter to help him.

This is Molly, Steven's diabetic alert dog.

What this dog does is quite incredible.

Molly senses his blood sugar change,

before his mother, his family, or any technology can tell.

This little spaniel warns him

so that he can take his medication to stop him slipping into a coma.

I think she's amazing. I mean, we'd always seen things about...

You see all these clever dogs and guide dogs and hearing dogs

and they can do all these things,

but I guess we just thought they had to be specially trained,

right from day one.

And actually any dog, and any breed of dog, and anybody's

pet dog can have this aptitude.

It just needs to be channelled in the right direction.

So how does this work? How does Molly know that Steven's in danger?

In 2008, researchers at Queen's University in Belfast

and the University of Lincoln looked at pet dogs with no special

training to see how they reacted

to hypoglycemic episodes in their owners.

Their findings suggested that the age,

sex and importantly breed of dog didn't seem to matter.

So you don't necessarily need a dog the size of mine to do that job.

What they didn't find out is exactly how the dogs

were sensing the changes.

Sometimes a dog didn't even have to be in the same room

as the owner to sense a change in blood sugar levels,

although the study didn't rule out visual signals

as a possible clue to hypos.

So no-one really knows how this works,

and Serena is trusting in Molly

without any solid scientific explanation.

But that level of trust doesn't end with diabetes.

People are using dogs to help with other serious conditions,

such as epilepsy.

CROWD SINGS

Lynn Radcliffe is a staunch Manchester City fan.

And she tells me her dog is as well. Although, I'm not so sure...

Fourteen years ago,

her life was turned upside when she was diagnosed with epilepsy.

It was really difficult.

The first thing that had quite

a dramatic change on my life was

I lost my driving license.

So immediately I was diagnosed

with epilepsy, my driving license had to be surrendered.

Ultimately, I lost my job because of my epilepsy, as well.

But her life has now changed for the better,

thanks to the little hound, Dougal.

As remarkable as it sounds, Dougal senses when Lynn is about to have a seizure.

'Medical science, after decades of intensive research,

'has still not found a way to do what Dougal does.'

Dougal's warning for me is actually 10 minutes,

and to be honest, 10 minutes for me is plenty.

I might be cooking tea on the cooker,

I might be ironing,

I might have the gas fire on.

All those things are hazardous to me if I was to have a seizure.

So I'm able to move away from those dangers and then find somewhere safe.

'When scientists are still struggling to find an early warning

'system for epilepsy, how does Dougal sense a seizure?'

On this DVD, we have two dogs,

both in their early stages of training, and both of them

again are very significant, alert to their owner.

She's sat very still, staring at her owner very intensely

and this is very significant behaviour for her.

It's something that she doesn't normally do.

'I travelled to Sheffield to the support dogs charity where

'Dougal was trained, to find how they do it.'

We believe that it's definitely physiological changes in the

person prior to the seizure,

and this could be things

like pupil dilation,

it could be skin tone change,

it could even be a certain scent that's released from the person.

We're desperate for some research to be done into this.

It would make, obviously, training these dogs a lot easier for us.

Fetch the blanket.

So how do you train a dog when you don't know what to look for?

You get to the nitty-gritty here -

talking about people who have seizures, how does the dog know?

It's minute behavioural or physiological changes.

Exactly, we're not sure.

Because it's all reward-based training,

to the dog, the seizure is one of the best things that can happen,

so they actually can't wait for that seizure.

Although that sounds a little bit weird to us as people,

but the dogs, they actually love that to happen.

-Do they get rewarded by that, then?

-Yep.

It may seem like play and treats for them,

but these dogs are being trained

in basic assistance work for their new owners.

It's easy to understand how to train a dog to fetch,

carry and get help.

What's harder to understand is how

to teach a dog to detect something we humans can't hear, see or feel.

ALARM BEEPS

What the dog needs to understand

is what the owner's seizure signals are...

Get help, get help.

Go get help. Get help.

..and the owner needs to learn to trust their new four-legged friend,

even though science can't explain how it works.

I don't need to know, I suppose, the science of it.

I mean, medical people might want to know the science of it.

I suppose you don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car, do you?

No, I don't suppose you do.

No, and you don't need to know how some things work,

to know that, you know, it works.

It's obvious that Lynn trusts Dougal,

but that trust took time and training.

For that training to be possible, Lynn had to be having more

than ten epileptic episodes a month,

so that Dougal could learn how to recognise them.

Epilepsy alert dog owners are carefully paired with a dog,

often sourced from rescue kennels.

Rescue centres we find are quite good

because the dogs are in there for separation anxiety,

and for our seizure alert dogs that's quite a bonus

for our dogs to have.

They've got to be dogs that want to have that interaction with people,

want to follow that person around 24/7.

And yes, you can train that,

but we always prefer the dog to actually want to do that.

Ask him to sit and wait, like you normally do. All right?

You're then going to take off his lead,

and just give him a biscuit for sitting...

This is Edward and his new diabetic alert dog, Dizzy.

They're working at building a strong bond with trainer Becky

at the Medical Detection Dogs charity, just outside Milton Keynes.

It's day two of Ed's and Dizzy's training together.

The better he gets to know Ed,

the better chance that he'll detect his blood sugar changing.

Absolutely, absolutely. They need to form a nice, strong bond,

so they're really good friends, they know each other well,

and Ed knows how to work with Dizzy, and vice versa, really.

It was Steven who formed a unique

and close bond with the family pet, Molly, and he was the first to

notice that Molly was aware of his blood sugar changes.

When I was low I just realised

that she was always going a bit crazy.

And at first I didn't really know what was happening.

She's now a fully-qualified alert dog,

passing her exams in 2012.

What does she do then, Steven? How does she let you know?

Well, she goes really mental

and fetches the blood glucose meter.

She'll jump up and down and do...

get up on her hind legs

and waggle her front paws around in the air.

How do you know the difference between when she's playing

and when she's telling you something?

Do you know the difference between the two things?

Sometimes it's a bit hard, but mostly

when she's alerting, she doesn't stop.

She keeps on doing it.

'As I chatted with Steven and Serena, neither of them knew

'that Steven's blood sugar was slowly dropping.

'What happened next was astonishing, and a complete surprise for me

'and the camera crew.

'Molly, who had spent a lot of the interview either asleep

'or sitting quietly, suddenly sprang into action.'

Steady on. The meter's not up here, stop it.

What's the matter?

Is he still not right?

No, no, no, no - it's not there. It's not up here.

'Molly knew something was wrong, and was frantically searching

'for Steven's glucose meter.'

Is it here?

All right, then. Come on, then. Come here, then.

Give.

All right, sweetheart.

'Being completely blind,

'I had no idea what was going on at this point.'

-Come here.

-Is she aware of something with Steven,

is that the problem, do you think?

She's...

Stop, Molls.

She was quite calm before, wasn't she?

She seems to be quite agitated.

What's up, what's the matter with him?

All right, all right.

What's the matter?

He's all right now.

Is that the kind of thing she would do?

That's how she reacts, yes, that's how she alerts.

'Steven needed glucose, and fast.

'His blood sugar had dropped, putting him in immediate danger.

'If it had been high instead of low, he would have been

'at risk of not just a coma, but long-term damage as well.

'Molly's reaction to Steven's blood sugar level

'was certainly hard to miss,

'and it's also a good example of how versatile a dog can be as a tool.'

'Steven needs his dog to make a big fuss, and I need my dog

'to be calm, steady and in control in every situation.'

'Renton loves working, especially in noisy, busy situations.

'He can't wait to get his harness on.

'He's an every day reminder to me how useful canines can be to humankind.

'But if we start to see dogs purely as tools for our welfare,

'is there not a danger that we forget about theirs?'

I think we are going to be able to use dogs in more ways

in the future, but there are questions about

what's morally right to do.

For example, is it right to use a dog to go out

and defuse a mine when it stands a chance of being blown up?

That's an ethical issue, isn't it?

So it depends what you ask the dog to do.

We looked at assistance dogs in order to try to see

whether they had major problems

and we didn't find significant problems.

There are a few dogs that can't be trained, but once they're trained

they seem to continue to have a good relationship with people.

PEDESTRIAN CROSSING BEEPS

'I trust Renton every day with my safety.'

Nice and steady. Steady.

Good boy.

'I'm well aware of his potential as a tool,

'but I'm equally aware of his limitations.'

Is that too fast for you? Are you OK?

'How smart is Renton?

'I've been told he's got the same cognitive ability

'as a three or four-year-old child.'

-Poppy, how old are you?

-Four.

-Four.

Now, you're the same age as Renton here.

-How do you normally get across the road?

-Walk with my mummy.

-With your mummy? You don't do it on your own?

-No.

-OK. Shall we help Renton help us cross the road?

-Yeah.

OK. Forward, on you go, good boy. On you come.

'Would you close your eyes

'and trust a small child to help you across a road?'

On you go.

We now feel that we can put a lot of responsibility on dogs.

We can train the dog

don't cross the road if there's a car coming and, generally speaking,

we can trust the dog to do that.

And you, in some cases, can trust a dog more than

you might be able to trust another human,

because the human might be preoccupied

with other things, but the dog is going to focus on that task.

'Focussed or not,

'should we be trusting a dog only as smart

'as a three or four-year-old child with our health?'

Renton is my sixth guide dog,

and just like the others, he has assets I have never harnessed.

Renton, here, has a skill that no human can match.

His sense of smell is 10,000 times better than mine.

Let me put it another way.

I could detect a teaspoonful of sugar in this coffee.

But Renton could detect a teaspoonful of sugar

in five million litres of coffee.

That's the same as a cup of coffee the size of

two Olympic swimming pools.

The big question is, can we trust this canine super-nose to help

fight one of our most prevalent and deadly diseases?

Would you trust that mutt on the mat beside you to find cancer?

Every two minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer,

a process that can involve invasive procedures.

But here, on the edge of known science, discovering

traces of cancer is down to fur and a long nose.

So Daisy's going to go round the carousel

and she's going to sniff each sample in turn.

If she detects cancer volatile, she'll stop and stand

and stare at the sample.

And this will indicate to me that she's detected cancer volatiles.

So, I'm going to send her off now. Daisy - seek, seek.

See, she sniffs each sample in turn. But very quickly.

Dr Claire Guest is head of the Medical Detection Dogs Charity,

which is currently experimenting using dogs to find different

types of cancer in urine samples.

No-one knows exactly what Daisy here is smelling, but after sniffing

all the samples, she stops at the only one containing cancer.

One of the biggest issues when you're training a cancer

detection dog is to ensure

that's in fact what you're training the dog to find.

Of course, if you're training the dog to find drugs or explosives,

you start with that drug or explosive odour

and teach the dog that that's what you want the dog to find.

Then over time, you make it more difficult for the dog to find,

either by making the odour smaller or by covering it in things,

so it becomes harder for the dog to find.

In the case of cancer detection, we don't know what the cancer odour is,

so we can't give the dog that odour and teach him that this is the odour

we want him to look for.

The only way we can do it is by giving them a number of

samples from people who have cancer,

and even more samples from people who haven't got cancer but have

got other diseases, and ask the dog to try and find out the difference.

I've no doubt at all that they can detect it,

I think that's clear from the results we have with lung cancer,

the breath of people with lung cancer,

from people with bladder cancer,

that they have the ability to detect it.

However, in all of those studies

so far they're not completely reliable.

You get some positives and some negatives

which are not positive or negative in reality

and it's actually very difficult

to train the dogs to do this at present.

Claire tells me in the last five years, there have been

studies around the world showing an accuracy of more than 90%.

However, there have been other studies

that have been far less successful.

I think that, obviously, there's a growing body

of evidence that's indicating that there's a huge potential

in this work, but I think some of the reservations have to be

in that many of the studies have only had a very small number of dogs.

In fact in many of the studies there was only one dog,

and this has to be repeated with more dogs.

'Dr Helen Rippon is the Head of Science

'at a St Andrew's based cancer charity.

'Every year, they give away £9 million on research grants,

'and currently none of that is spent on dogs.'

If there is a good, large, robust trial that shows dogs can

reliably detect cancer, and we're looking at a reliability

of well over 90%,

so they've got to get it right at least 9/10 times.

If we get that kind of evidence, then I definitely think

that the way forward is to pin down the chemicals involved.

When we talk about a dog here, we get very sort of hung up

on the fact that dogs need to be 100% to be of value,

but of course this is not true.

And if you look at something like the PSA,

the blood test for prostate cancer at the moment in men,

that has a 75% false positive in testing,

so it's not to say that tests have to be 100% to be of value,

but of course the nearer you can get to 100%,

of course, the more valuable the test is.

In 2011, a group of doctors from Stuttgart published

an encouraging report revealing that dogs can successfully sniff out

lung cancer from human breath.

The dogs identified cancer in 71% of the samples.

They correctly identified a lack of cancer in 93% of clear samples.

However, the scientists are currently struggling to repeat

the success of their previous experiment.

There's a lot of anecdotal evidence that dogs can detect cancer, and

of course, scientists don't consider anecdotes to be good evidence.

I think there is cynicism about the idea that you would fill

hospital labs full of trained dogs,

because that of course would just never be practical.

We don't envisage in the UK that every doctors' waiting room

will have a dog sat in the corner who will sniff everybody for cancer.

What we envisage in the UK is that we will learn from the dogs'

ability to do this and we will, with scientists, be able to develop

new ways of diagnosing cancer early.

But the lack of understanding in how this work could be

applied in the future, I think is very concerning,

and if it were a little machine here sat beside me

and I was saying it could do it at 80% accuracy at the present time,

I think there'd be quite a different reaction.

So sadly I think some of the scepticism

comes from bias against the fact that it's a dog that's teaching us

this and not a small machine.

Maybe the dog is just a means to an end.

If we pinned down the chemicals that caused that particular smell

that dogs can pick up, then perhaps we can find an electronic

way of detecting those chemicals.

Perhaps we could find a chemical way of doing it in a lab that you

can do in a test tube.

And that, of course, would be much more practical.

How many samples have you got round here?

'We are some distance from research to reality

'and to make any of these advances happen,

'more studies are needed.

'And for that, more funding will have to be found.'

Left foot. Thank you.

Medical professionals might still be trying to sniff out the evidence,

but every day in the UK, people are trusting their health

and their family's health, to an animal with four legs and a tail.

It is really reassuring.

She tries to wake Steven in the night,

but he doesn't wake if he's hypo in the night,

so she will come and get me and she will bark.

We trust her more than we used to

because most of the time she's correct, but still

some of the time she does get it wrong.

Sometimes, but not very often.

For your dog to give you warning,

you're basically going to lose consciousness

if he doesn't give you a warning, so...

That must be quite nerve-wracking, is it not,

knowing he might get it wrong some day?

No, because Dougal won't get it wrong.

Every seizure alert dog that has been placed - and I can vouch for this

because I have one - is 100%.

Not 99%, not even... you know not 75%.

100%.

Dougal has never missed an alert.

I think the cancer dog is, as with all assistance dogs,

a dog that we should put a huge amount of trust in.

That said, no dog is 100% at any task, as us humans are.

And we must face facts,

that there can be error, both human error and doggie error.

'That intense feeling of trust doesn't come easily,

'it takes time, effort and patience.

'After two years, I now know how much to trust Renton

'and more importantly, I also his limitations.

'But Lynn and Steve are trusting their dogs with so much more,

'with very little scientific evidence.

'And there's even some who believe that we should trust them

'in the diagnosis of cancer.

'What is remarkable is that we still know

'so little about what dogs can do.

'I think it's some time before technology replaces Renton,

'but if it does, will I be able to trust that as much as I trust him?'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd