DAISY THE DETECTION DOG

Bridget Wood

Bridget Wood always knew her beautiful Labrador puppy, Daisy, was special but never in a million years did she ever think she would become a life-saving Bio Detection dog. Bridget tells us how it all started.

There were some very special Labradors at my daughter’s riding school, and we were told they came from Riversway Gundogs. We were looking for a mate for our truly adorable black Labrador Tara and found handsome Soames. Tara produced a litter, and we kept her daughter Tilly. Tilly was everything we could ask for, a wonderful temperament, beautiful and a great gun dog, just like her mother.

Tilly gave birth to eight pups at Riversway Gundogs and on 14th August 2004, one of which was Daisy. It’s difficult to explain why she was my favourite. Maybe it was her endearing brown eyes that held your gaze, or that she was the only fox red, but I knew she was a special little girl from the start.

A young American woman rang enquiring about my Labrador puppy litter, “Hi, do you have a fox red girl?” “I do, yes.” “Well, my partner and I want to have kids but would like to try with a dog first”. Alarm bells! I asked if she was working and away from home. “Yes, but that’s fine, I’d be back at lunchtime, feed and let her out, my partner at teatime and then we’ll be there every evening and night, it’ll be fine.” I replied, “I’m so sorry but I can’t let you have a puppy of mine, you need to be there all the time for a puppy.” A hard conversation with by now a rather sad and angry caller but I was extremely fussy about their future homes.

When the next phone call was another request for a fox red girl from a stranger, I replied somewhat warily “I do - but someone is interested in her and I’m waiting for them to come back to me. But do come and have a look at her anyway” (in other words, I want to have a look at YOU, whoever you are!). When this person Claire arrived and took my puppy into the garden, I was delighted to see the way she behaved with her, throwing tennis balls, playfully hiding behind trees, taking time, and thought. When she came in and said she’d be very interested in her, I said “She’s absolutely yours!” “But I thought you said...?” I blushed and laughed, explaining “Actually, I lied. I just didn’t know what to say if I didn’t think you were right for her! And I believe you are.”

Claire then explained she had just begun training dogs to detect cancer. It sounded fascinating. If my special puppy could help save lives it was a winwin situation. Dr Claire Guest OBE and Dr John Church had joined forces to discover if the many anecdotal stories of dogs warning their unsuspecting owners they were ill, had some scientific foundation. Dogs that licked moles which turned out to be melanomas; dogs that lay across the owner’s tummy to find out later they had ovarian cancer, etc.. They proved it had, writing an article for The Lancet and thus the charity Medical Detection Dogs was fully formed in 2008.

One day, when Daisy (who was being trained in prostate cancer trials, later receiving the Blue Cross Medal) was about two years old, Claire, Daisy, and two other dogs went for a walk. Claire drove home and opened the back of the car to let them out. They all jumped out and ran indoors, except for Daisy. Instead, Daisy just stared into Claire’s eyes, banged her nose against Claire’s chest and stared at her again. She repeated this. Claire wondered about this unusual behaviour, which was like the day before but also felt her chest was a little sore. Assuming it was just a cyst, she visited her GP, who did diagnose a cyst, but because this GP believed in her work so much, he sent her away for more thorough tests. The result, in addition to the small cyst, Claire also had breast cancer. It was at such a very early stage and so deep-seated it would probably not have been discovered while it grew for another six or seven years, with an NHS breast-screening for the over 50’s. The prognosis may well have been very different indeed, had it not been for Daisy.

At this stage of the charity’s development, many revered professionals were very dismissive of the idea of dogs overriding man-made diagnostic machines. It dampened Claire’s spirits to be told by these experts that her work was very charming but had to be ignored. But Claire knew how incredible dogs’ noses were. It has been proven that a dog’s nose is the best bio detector on earth. A dog can detect a teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. As can rats, sharks and bears… dogs are rather easier to train! Dogs’ noses have 300 million sensors, compared with our 5 million. The olfactory part of their brain is 40 times larger than that of ours. They are just phenomenal.

Claire continues with this amazing charity, which has now grown exponentially in just 15 years and is acclaimed worldwide. It has trained the world’s first dogs to detect airborne nuts to save the lives of nut allergy sufferers. Dogs are trained, amongst other conditions, to detect Parkinson’s, Malaria, and COVID-19. It now has over 100 Assistance Alert dogs, trained to warn their owners to take avoiding action 20 minutes before an attack occurs, such as Type 1 Diabetes, POTS, Addison’s Crises.

Andreas Merchin of M.I.T is basing an electronic nose on Florin, Daisy’s niece that he had flown over with Claire. MDD’s patron has been the Duchess of Cornwall (now Her Majesty the Queen) almost since the start, who arranged for a demonstration in the Royal Mews to mark the charity’s 10th anniversary in 2018. When Queen Elizabeth II was told of this, she asked to attend and was truly fascinated and amazed by the way the dogs worked.

To have come this far in such a short time bears testimony to the original concept: the dog’s nose knows. Thank goodness I paid attention to my gut-feeling and Daisy went to Claire, and it continues; we have Daisy’s nephew Skipper and seven of his puppies from various litters, who are now part of the MDD team.

NB: There is no government funding, and the charity relies solely on the generosity of the public.

For more information on the fabulous work, they do and ways to donate, please visit www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk

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