Those seizure dogs are amazing. It’s not something that can actually be trained into a dog…it’s something that some dogs do naturally (training reinforces that instinct). No one quite knows how they do it, but they can sure make a difference in the life of a person with a severe seizure disorder.
The other ones that amaze me are the ones who can detect cancer.
Redwolf
Link please.
Yes, I saw this on tv (sorry, Chris, no link to hand). They say its something that some dogs have a natural affinity for and no-one has had any luck intraining other dogs to it.
Its only for some cancers, not all. But when they detect whatever it is they detect, these dogs have an amazingly high percentage rate of correct diagnosis.
djm
Here are some links:
http://www.k9magazine.com/viewarticle.php?sid=15&&vid=0&npage=&aid=1256
Anecdotally speaking, I have a friend whose mixed-breed dog detected cancer in her cocker spaniel…he kept sniffing at a particular part of the other dog’s skin and whining, and it turned out that there was a malignant tumor right under the area he was concerned about.
Redwolf
Dogs are so amazing, we have no idea what they really do know…
Ours are sometimes scary, what they come up with, not just in relation to us, but to each other… they really do take care of their “pack”.