Pets Magazine August

August 2015 www.petsmag.co.uk

MY PET by Author Janetta Harvey

Sensing human disease: the amazing Medical Detection Dogs Vet Pets Magazine

MY PET

OUR COVER stars this month are the author Janetta Harvey and her miniature schnauzer Susie-Belle. Janetta shares her life with husband Michel, and their three dogs. They divide their time between the south of England and south-west France.

Janetta is author of two books on puppy farming, Saving Susie-Belle and Saving One More and is currently working on one for children. She is an active campaigner and networks with others around the world who are fighting to end puppy farming. More on her work can be found on her website at: www.janettaharvey.com.

schnauzer in our lives. We bought Susie-Belle’s sister Renae as a puppy, but we also wanted to rescue, and delving into the world of rescue and breeding, led me to the nasty world of puppy farming. I found a rescue that takes in some of the few discarded, worn out dogs from puppy farms and that’s how I found Susie-Belle. She had lived as a breeding dog in the worst kind of puppy farm.

How long have you had Susie-Belle?

Susie-Belle’s been with us for four years.

Does Susie-Belle come with you to work?

I am fortunate that I work for myself, from home, so yes, when I’m writing, Susie-Belle is beside me on her bed.

What difference does she make to your life?

Susie-Belle has changed my life. Once I grasped the full horrors of puppy farming, I knew that I What breed is Susie-Belle and why did you had to do all I can to make a difference to other choose her? dogs that are caught up in it. I knew that giving a Susie-Belle is a miniature schnauzer. My first home to one survivor isn’t enough, nowhere dog, Jasmine was a miniature schnauzer and she near enough, so now I spend my days writing, taught me all about the sassiness and sparky blogging and campaigning to end the vile character they have. I totally fell in love with industry that condemns dogs to lives of utter her, and her ‘schnauzeriness’ and when she died, misery. She’s also taught me the supreme my husband and I knew we had to have another importance of being patient. A quality I lacked

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before she came into my life.

special event. We’ll do it in France more than in the UK as Do you take take doggietaking three dogs out in friendly holidays with SusieEngland is never as easy as in Belle?

Our best camping adventure France. We find in France Susie-Belle along with her was in the remote Cevennes they’re welcomed in the local sisters Renae and Twinkle – region of France. The mountain places around us. also a puppy farm survivor – go campsite was beautifully everywhere with us. We are located and we spent our days What are Susie-Belle’s fortunate to have a home in discovering waterfalls, isolated favourite things in the world? south west France where we fresh water pools and cool, Food. She loves her food; she spend chunks of the year and quiet, spring fed rivers. will eat almost everything she’s wherever we are, they will be given and has become quite the too.

Do you take Susie-Belle with canine gourmet. And me. She’s you to restaurants and pubs? very attached to me, and I to What are the best holidays We rarely eat out as Michel, my her, we have a special bond you’ve taken with her? husband is a professional chef, that’s often found in dogs We took up camping during so for us to venture far from his rescued from puppy farming Susie-Belle’s first summer with kitchen, it needs to be a really backgrounds.

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us. I’d never camped in my life and I have to admit, it’s a lot of fun with the dogs.

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She knows with me she’s safe, secure and can did to her, however they wrecked and damaged really do whatever she wants to. I made a her body, they did not break her spirit. promise to her that her life was now hers to live, and I mean it.

Is there anything you feel strongly about regarding pet welfare?

The only time I restrict or impose anything with Puppy farming is an aberration that I will not her is when it involves safety and health. I take a stop campaigning against until the day it ends.

lot of pleasure from knowing we’re able to organise our world around her so she has her freedom and lives as a dog should. She’s more than earned this in her life.

Millions of dogs around the world are caught up in what is a global industry of suffering. While strong corporate interests lie behind much of it, and people are making a lot of money in the puppy trade, the buyers must also take responsibility for what they’re complicit in and keeping going.

Does Susie-Belle have any tricks or special character traits?

Her character is best described as sassy. She’s a real sweetheart, very gentle, but beneath her It’s the biggest betrayal of our canine friends to tenderness, there’s a sassy spark that gets her keep them trapped in lives spent breeding and what she wants these days. I love this, as it not being loved and living as our companions. shows that whatever the puppy farming industry

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The Dogs Trained To Detect Cancer

At its headquarters in Buckinghamshire, UK charity MEDICAL DETECTION DOGS is harnessing a time-old technology to pioneer a brand new method of early cancer detection. Remarkably, the charity trains dogs to recognise the smell of human disease before even the symptoms are felt.

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Pets Magazine Jobi Š Emma Jeffery

DR CLAIRE GUEST, animal behaviourist and director of the charity Medical Detection Dogs, has dedicated the last ten years to exploring the possibility that dogs could be the solution to the ever more pressing problem of early cancer detection.

She set the charity up in 2008 in partnership with Dr John Church, a former orthopaedic surgeon. Four years previously, both had worked on the first significant study to investigate the possibility that dogs could detect human cancer.

Dr Guest explains: “For hundreds of years humans have worked with dogs in every aspect of our lives. Dogs have helped us catch our food, protected us, found us when we’re lost and consistently provided loyalty and affection.

“They are tuned into our moods and our behaviour. If you take into account this intimate relationship and combine it with their extraordinary sense of Dr Claire Guest ©Janine Warwick smell, which is powerful enough to detect one drop of blood in three unnecessarily undergoing a second round of Olympic-sized swimming pools of water, the painful, invasive tests. idea they can pick up the odours related to In contrast, secondary screening provided by human disease is really not so hard to believe.” the dogs would involve a As life expectancy has painless, non-invasive and “We know dogs’ sense of cheap process of sending risen and healthcare improved, the threat of smell is extraordinary – a urine sample to the biocancer has grown. One in why shouldn’t they be able detection unit in two nowadays will be Buckinghamshire. diagnosed with cancer. In to save our lives?”

Working one at a time spite of this, little progress with a trainer, the cancer has been made in the detection dogs are sphere of early detection. presented with eight urine samples on a Prostate cancer is a salient example. The carousel, one of which contains cancer. The dog traditional prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests sniffs each sample until it finds the one that have a 75 per cent false positive rate. This leads contains the cancer volatiles. The dog then sits to three in four men with a positive result and stares fixedly until the trainer confirms a

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Daisy © Emma Jeffery

correct identification and rewards the dog with a treat.

The detection dogs never come into contact with the patients who volunteer to donate their samples.

In these types of training trials, the cancer detection dogs have recorded 93 per cent reliability.

The charity is currently completing two training trials, one into the detection of breast cancer using breath samples and another into prostate, bladder and kidney samples using urine samples. The research will be double-blind tested and peer reviewed.

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Is Dr Guest frustrated by the slow process of turning her research into a functioning secondary screening service available on the NHS? “Yes and no. Of course it’s frustrating that right now there are people all over the country – and indeed across the world – who cannot be screened by the dogs instantly and receive the quick, accurate answer to this most important question of all.

“However, you would expect – and demand – the level of scrutiny we have faced to be applied to any new technology in healthcare. It is people’s lives Pets Magazine

that are at stake and so it is vital we can prove conclusively that our dogs achieve a high level of reliability.”

While the cancer work makes steady progress, the second arm of the charity is already saving the lives of sixty individuals across Britain with long-term conditions on a daily basis. Of these, the majority suffer from brittle type 1 diabetes, a severe form of the condition which means sufferers get no warning signs that their blood sugar is nearing crisis levels.

Claire Moon, a diabetes nurse from Cambridge has brittle

type 1 diabetes herself and was one of the first to receive a dog from the charity.

"I used to stay awake, or wake up every hour overnight, testing my blood sugars 20 times a day," she says. “I feared not waking up in the morning because my body has stopped giving me warning signs, The average dog's nose is 10,000 times more sensitive to odours than the human nose. such as dizziness or blurred vision, hospital and the fear of lapsing Dr Guest is ever pragmatic, when my blood sugar dips into a coma at night. but nevertheless remains dangerously low.”

Thanks to the charity, she resolutely optimistic about the Now Claire has Magic, a future. “We know we have bounding golden Labrador who now has Polo, an energetic black Labrador. Polo is firmly revealed a remarkable ability remains at her side wherever dogs have to detect dangerous she goes. “Magic has alerted me one of the Faulkner family.

Gemma’s mother recalls the chemical changes in our bodies. hundreds of times and saved first time Polo alerted during These highly sensitive biothe NHS thousands of pounds the night to Gemma having a detectors should not be by preventing emergency callhypo. “He came into our underestimated just because outs. I used to be rushed to bedroom and came up to me. I they possess waggy tails!” hospital in a critical condition knew he was telling me there about once every month. was a problem. We tested The charity receives no “Before Magic, I had to give Gemma’s blood and her blood government funding and up my job; now he’s a firm sugar levels had fallen relies entirely on favourite on my ward. I call dangerously low.” charitable donations. For him the blond bombshell!”

For Gemma, Polo is more more information please Gemma Faulkner at only 13 than just a life-saver: “He is my visit: http:// years old has had to deal with medicaldetectiondogs.org. more than most people her age. new best friend. I love him so much. We have great fun uk.

Diagnosed with brittle type 1 running through puddles and diabetes a month before her playing ball. He makes me feel third birthday, her condition safe and confident – I can’t has meant frequent stays in imagine life without him!”

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It Just Goes To Show!

MALCOM D WELSHMAN is a retired vet and author of three pet novels. The first, Pets in a Pickle, with a foreword by James Herriot's son, reached number two on Kindle's bestseller list. The third, Pets Aplenty, has just been published. The Sun says: 'It’s perfect for animal lovers the world over.' Malcolm shares with Pets Magazine readers his story about being invited to judge a local dog show...

'Don't ever judge a pet show,' my receptionist had warned me. 'It can a minefield for a vet.'

But I had ignored her advice. And lived to regret it.

So here I was, one August afternoon, crossing the vicarage lawn, to a line of people standing with their dogs.

I first turned to a white Poodle who lifted her lip as I bent down to examine her

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– an action which had her immediately struck off my list of possible finalists.

I approached a Boxer. ‘Well, boy, you seem pleased to see me,’ I exclaimed, ruffling his ears. I suddenly felt my left trouser leg go warm and soggy.

I wheeled round to find the Boxer’s leg cocked against mine, a jet of urine still squirting out. He was promptly eliminated.

‘Fine example of her breed, don’t you think?’ boomed the gorilla- owner of a Red Setter. I recognised him as my dentist, Mr Lucas. I lifted the Setter's muzzle and drew back the lips on one side to inspect her teeth. The back molars were encrusted with tartar.

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Another pet to be struck off. Mr Lucas suddenly thrust his face in mine. ‘You’re due to come in for root canal treatment next week aren’t you? They can be quite painful you know.'

I quickly reinstated the dog.

Well, she was very obedient.

Next a gravelly voice grated in my ear. ‘’ere, you haven’t

The prizes were to be presented on the patio. The vicar strode forward, a large benevolent smile curled across his face. ‘So sorry not to have introduced myself earlier,’ he whispered, shaking my hand vigorously. ‘But I trust you've found a worthy winner.’

Miss McEwan waved her purse to and fro, Mr Lucas bared his gleaming white tombstones while Jane Bradshaw’s right forefinger repeatedly jabbed the beefy biceps of her left arm.

I ignored them and made my announcement. ‘The winner is Thomas Venables and his Labrador, Cindy.’

An audible murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd. I looked at the vicar whose mouth had dropped open, his face rapidly turning puce. examined Chico yet.' The voice turning into the village Mafia. I The lad emerged from the belonged to Jane Bradshaw, the only needed the local baker to Sister at the local Health Centre. threaten to slice my up wholemeal, crowd, Cindy trotting beside him.

She glared at me from over the top the grocer to give me a cauliflower ‘Here Dad, could you hold onto Cindy while I collect my prize,’ he of a chihuahua’s head. I went to ear and the butcher to make said, handing the Labrador’s lead pat him and got bitten for my mincemeat of me. to the vicar. trouble. ‘Chico needled you did My attention was suddenly The applause was muted and I he?’ said Mrs Bradshaw. caught by a small boy in grey even thought I heard someone ‘Couldn’t do better myself,’ she flannels, a slim black Labrador, shout, ‘Fixed’. Certainly Miss added. ‘In fact, I could do far quietly sitting by his side. worse. Just remember that when ‘Thomas,’ said the boy shyly when McEwan, Mr Lucas and Jane Bradshaw never clapped. you next need to come in for a I asked what his name was.

And I was never invited back. tetanus jab.’ The chihuahua stayed ‘Well, Thomas, you’ve a nice Which just goes to show. on my list. quiet dog here.’

‘Coo ... ee ...’ shrilled a voice The boy’s face creased in a Malcolm D. Welshman is the slicing through the air. I turned, frown. ‘Actually, Cindy’s my dad’s author of the bestseller, Pets first catching sight of the large but I help to look after her.’ He Aplenty, available from Amazon wicker basket containing a kissed the Labrador on the head on www.tinyurl.com/mxg85wn Yorkshire terrier, and then the and she turned to lick his face.

His website is white head of one of my clients, I liked the rapport evident www.malcolmwelshman.co.uk Miss McEwan, bobbing behind. between them. Yes, I decided, ‘As you know I spend an awful lot Cindy would be the overall winner.

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on Minnie here,’ she twittered as she drew level with me. ‘All those costly vet’s bills. But I don’t mind if it warrants it. But you’ll be the best judge of that, won’t you?’ she added, her voice dropping several decibels to sound distinctly threatening.

Oh no I groaned inwardly. Not more intimidation. This was

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Sophie’s Choices Top product picks by our canine taste tester Sophie, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

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