By Fran Buell, APDT Bare Paw Dog Obedience Canines are being put
to serious work throughout the world. We are all familiar with
the Seeing Eye or Guide Dog to help the blind. During disasters,
Search & Rescue Dogs find both the dead and alive. In addition
to these helpful canines, we have Service Dogs to help the
disabled, Hearing Ear Dogs to assist the deaf, Therapy Dogs to
brighten the day of those people confined to Care Centers and
Reading Assistance Education Dogs to help children to develop
good reading habits. Added to this list we now have the Support
Dog. Last week we explored the phenomenon of canines able to
detect the onset of epileptic seizures. Cancer detection is
another area being closely looked at by scientists as a
potential area of work for canines. In September of 2004, a
small study was published in the British Medical Journal that
examined the possibility of training dogs to detect urinary
tract cancer. In the study, six dogs went through seven months
of training to distinguish the diffe