Personally, I'd rather be sniffed by a dog...even though this test is certainly non-invasive enough. I can remember the first time Winston showed signs of his tremendous skill letting me know the status of inflamation in my lungs. When he was an 8 month old puppy (but, of couse, he was huge - he weighed almost 100 pounds) I got what I thought was a cold and took what I thought was going to be a day off from work. The dog lay at my feet on the bed totally unwilling to leave me for any reason - even potato chips. Every once in awhile he would get up and stand over me and sniff my lips, each time, looking more and more anxious....

"Calm down, already, I've just got a cold!" I told him.

But he wasn't hearing it. When my husband came home he bounced all around (Winston. Not The Hub. The Hub was still working in trucking, and, believe me, not bouncing, under any circumstances) but couldn't communicate anything to him, so he came back to my bedside vigil.

The next day I couldn't breathe at all. I wound up being out of work for a week, having nebulizer treatments in the doctors office every day and then he finally just loaned me the thing to follow up for the next two weeks. I lost 10 pounds and almost lost my job due to absenteeism. It was aweful. I wonder if it would have been any better if I'd gone to the E.R. right away.

But what in the world would I have told them? I don't smell good to my dog? Chances are, my dog didn't smell good to them either.

Now, when he wakes me up and noses me in the middle of the chest repeatedly, I just take my inhaler, even if I think I don't need to, and this year I had perfect attendance. The wierd thing is that nobody "taught" Winston to do this. Mastiff's are guard dogs and guardians of people not property...but who knew they could guard your health so well?