Police puppy joins charity to help sniff out cancer

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 23:04

A NINE-WEEK-OLD police puppy that will be trained to "sniff out" cancer was gifted to a charity yesterday.

Copper, a cocker spaniel, was given to Cancer and Bio-detection Dogs, which trains dogs to detect the scent of cancer from urine samples.

The dogs can also be trained to help people with diabetes by picking up the odour of changes in insulin levels before alerting owners to potential hypoglycaemic attacks.

Copper was born as part of Strathclyde Police's puppy breeding programme and began her new life with the Buckinghamshire-based charity yesterday.

She is one of a litter of seven dogs, and the others will begin their regular police training in a year. Strathclyde Police dog training sergeant Tracy Reid, said: "Our breeding programme has been very successful.

"We have had 14 puppies born this year alone including this litter, so we are pleased to be in a position to contribute to a worthy cause by donating one of our dogs. "Copper is inquisitive and has lots of energy so we hope she sails through the training."

The charity published a joint study in 2004 which showed for the first time that dogs can be trained to identify the odour of bladder cancer within urine.