Doggy Detective!

Dog trained to sniff out deadly C. difficile superbug

By Loren Grush

Published December 14, 2012

FoxNews.com

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  Two-year-old Cliff has been trained to sit or lie down when he detects the smell of C. difficile. (British Medical Journal)

Cliff (a two year old beagle) can sniff out C. difficile in patients. How does he do it you may ask, Cliff does this by smelling the differences in a person's stool. This was thought of by a nurse that learned the smell of C.difficile. Cliff's owner thought that this was a great idea and started to train Cliff. She turned the training into a game in the woods using a sampling of C.difficile. He now can smell this disease within 83% accuracy. This is important because it has saved many lives of people that have C.difficile. There are dogs that are training and learning what Cliff did. There are many different types of dogs that are made to help humans and this is one example. This is a great kind of dog to have and maybe you might want to read more to learn how they trained Cliff, and then maybe you can teach your dog too! To read more about Cliff, his owner, and C.difficile click HERE!