While we don’t need further convincing of just how intelligent dogs are, here comes an incredible story of how two German Shepherds were able to detect their owner’s breast cancer.

Linda Munkley of Bargoed, South Wales recalls how strangely her pets were acting back in 2018.

According to her, the dogs would constantly jump up and put their paws on her chest. It even went as far as one dog trying to headbutt her. Like most pet owners, Linda assumed her pets were just being playful or misbehaving so she decided to ignore the sniffing and jumping.

In an interview with Wales Online, Linda shared,

“One day I was sat on the sofa when Bea jumped up and began intensely sniffing and headbutting my chest area. She had never done anything like this before so it was quite unusual but at the time I thought nothing of it. But then she kept constantly doing it every day, jumping up at me and really sniffing just my chest area – she was so determined and I couldn’t stop her from doing it at all. On and on this behaviour went so I began checking my chest to see if I could feel any lump but there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.”

Then six weeks later, Linda began to notice a tingling sensation from her chest to under her arms, which worried her.

Moreover, her dog Enya began to mirror Bea, the other dog’s behavior. It was at this moment that Linda finally decided to go see a doctor.

Sure enough, a mammogram revealed that Linda had, indeed, an aggressive form of breast cancer.

She recalled,

“While I was away, I knew something was wrong. I could feel there was a lump, and that it was spreading under my arms. Then, when I came back from holiday I had a letter waiting for me, telling me to go and see a surgeon two days after I got back. That’s when I knew something was wrong – because it seemed far too quick.”

Linda had the HER2 gene which causes cells to grow rapidly and leads to the development of breast cancer.

It was incredible how her two dogs were able to sniff out the symptoms even before Linda consulted a doctor.

She added,

“I started chemotherapy and throughout that time Bea and Enya continued with their behaviour until after my third session of chemo when they both completely stopped all of a sudden.”

It took six months of chemotherapy, a month of radiotherapy, and a successful operation to remove the lump and for doctors to finally declare Linda as cancer-free. Even her doctor was in awe of how sharp Linda’s pets were.

“The doctor was amazed. She told me to go home and give my dogs a hug, because they had saved my life. She said it was one of the most successful set of chemotherapy results they had ever seen. The cancer was aggressive, but my dogs had alerted me to it so early, before there was even a lump there, that the chemotherapy managed to kill off the cancerous cells completely.”

It was her female German Shepherds who prompted Linda to see a doctor, consequently saving her life.

“Words can’t describe how grateful I am to Bea and Enya. They saved my life. In the beginning, it never even dawned on me what they were doing. I just thought they were being nuisances. I have two male dogs, but they never detected anything was wrong – it was just my two girls.”

How amazing is that?

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Source: Express, TheJournal.ie