# Cancer Smelling Dogs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 10, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038 "2005-01-10T13:36:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jester21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed655f/32.png) [@jester21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jester21)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038/1 "2005-01-10T13:36:05Z")

</div>

Last night 60 Minutes aired an article on Cancer Smelling Dogs… Where can I get one of these dogs?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038/2 "2005-01-10T13:41:07Z")

</div>

The tobacconist?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jester21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed655f/32.png) [@jester21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jester21)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038/3 "2005-01-10T14:00:30Z")

</div>

is there a way I could train a puppy to detect cancer myself? I think that’d be an ultimate in “preventative medicine”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038/4 "2005-01-10T16:01:05Z")

</div>

> [@jester21](#):
>
> is there a way I could train a puppy to detect cancer myself? I think that’d be an ultimate in “preventative medicine”

I dunno – everytime you dropped a puppy treat in your lap and the dog started paying you a lot of attention you’d have to panic.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038/5 "2005-01-10T16:06:16Z")

</div>

As with any type of highly specialized dogs (guiding dogs, drug sniffing dogs, fish herding dogs), there’s a tremendous amount of work and training. Considering the short life span of a dog, all that training amounts to a full time job for about two years. So either you have to do it yourself, or cough up about $30k, which is the type of pricetag I see on these type of dogs.  
I don’t know where you could by one, though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-smelling-dogs/284038/6 "2005-01-11T20:05:04Z")

</div>

The more important question is: can dogs really smell cancer, and if so, how? Can they tell the difference between benign and malignant tumors? If you could answer that, then you could build an electronic cancer-sniffer, plus you’d have a better understanding of cancer.