Diabetes-Smelling Dog Sniffs Out Low Blood Sugar

Diabetes-Smelling Dog Sniffs Out Low Blood Sugar

In the pantheon of awesome dogs, there's Lassie, Old Yeller, this cancer-sniffing pup and now Shirley, a yellow lab who can smell diabetes.

Well, essentially. According to a new report on MSNBC, Shirley is a medical assistance dog who's been trained to smell any drops in the blood sugar levels of her owner, four-year-old type 1 diabetic, Rebecca Farrar.

According to MSNBC, wherever Rebecca goes, Shirley goes, making her the first-ever medical assistance dog to be let into a mainstream public school. There, she provides Rebecca with a potentially life-saving service -- sniffing when her blood sugar has dropped dangerously low and licking her, which alerts teachers to the danger.

Trainers at the British charity Medical Detection Dogs admit they're baffled about what it is, exactly, that Shirley's actually smelling, but are no less impressed by the dog's life-saving skills.

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