Original subtitles

MEL GIEDROYCI Dogs.

They love and protect us through thick and thin.

Good boy. But some are more than just pets.

Some are super dogs. Go on, show me.

From dogs that hunt out missing people...

Come on, where is she? Where is she?

...and help our emergency services...

Help, I'm trapped! BARKING

...to those that sniff out dangerous diseases...

Correct. Yes, good lad.

...these incredible hounds go above and beyond.

MAN: As human beings, we do need them and rely upon them heavily.

They rescue us...

WOMAN: Without them, I wouldn't be here.

...and protect us...

MAN: One year, he helped convict three murderers.

...all while being our very best friends.

He's a one-in-a-million. He's a once-in-a-lifetime dog.

WOMAN: Not all superheroes wear capes,

some of them actually have four paws.

Meet the super dogs.

Coming up... meet the super dogs.

Fire service search dog, call out. CARA WHINES

Cara, the fearless Belgian Malinois,

searching out people in disaster zones.

What sets Cara apart

is her environmental toughness is just off the scale, really.

jac, the super-sniffing springer spaniel

hunting down faulty underground electrical cables.

I wish some of my engineers were as good as you, jac.

I honestly do.

One, two, three. Oh, good boy.

Great Dane Bear,

the super-chilled saviour of tiny Otto.

MAN: Good boy.

Toby, the Border terrier guide dog for his blind brother Amos.

If he's gonna walk into something, he'll body bump him or nudge him.

Right, we're ready to go whenever you are.

And hypervigilant Willow, off to the rescue...

Go, search. ..of a missing person.

Now dog's pushing hard left over to that boundary,

going into it.

It's very, very overgrown.

In the heart of Buckinghamshire,

meet a super sniffing dog with a very important purpose.

Seven-year-old golden retriever Bumper.

Good boy, off you go.

Bumper is our foster dog.

We've had him now for four years. He loves to play games.

He loves to go for walks,

and he has his scratchalls, as we call them.

He's just a normal family pet, really,

who just happens to go to work.

Like many PLIPS,

Bumper joined the Medical Detection Dogs training program me

at just eight weeks old, and trained for two years

before being fostered byjen and her family.

So we drop Bumper off between 8:00 and 9:30 in the morning,

hand him over to the trainers

where I know he'll be looked after all clay and do his job,

and then pick him up in the afternoon.

Hi, Mark. How you doing? Not bad, you?

Yeah, good, thank you very much. Here's Bumps.

Hi, Bumps. Come on, then.

See you later. See ya.

He comes here up to four days a week to do a very special job.

Oh, he absolutely loves coming to work.

He's very focused at work.

He has what I call his important face.

With around 350 million scent receptors,

7O times that of a human,

Bumper's incredible nose is helping advance medical research.

Sniffing out human disease

for the Medical Detection Dogs charity

set up by Dr Claire Guest.

I had a friend and colleague,

her pet Dalmatian dog kept on licking and sniffing

at a small mole on her calf.

So she went to a GP, had the mole removed,

and it was a malignant melanoma, most serious form of skin cancer,

and absolutely undoubtably saved her life.

The dog had given her an early warning.

And that's how we started finding out what diseases have an odour

and whether or not a dog finding a smell connected to the disease

could result in improved diagnosis.

The charity has trained over 100 dogs to detect diseases,

including cancer, type 1 diabetes, and COVID-19.

And Bumper's currently taking part in a two-year study

into the early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

so that life-changing treatment can start earlier.

My father died very, very sadly a year ago from Parkinson's,

and he possibly had it for 20 years prior to his diagnosis.

And the only way that you get a confirmed diagnosis of Parkinson's

is by becoming unwell.

Now, by that time, of course, there's no going back.

Unfortunately, the damage to the brain has already started.

Today, Bumper faces a tough hurdle.

His challenge... correctly pick out Parkinson's odour

from multiple scent samples

under the watchful eye of trainer Mark Somerville.

Bumper's very chilled out. He's got a classic on-off switch.

While I'm setting up, he'll crash on the middle of the floor.

It's stressful being a Goldie. Yeah. That's hard work, look.

But when he's ready to work, he's up and ready to go.

We have biological samples set up on the counter in little jars,

which we present in the metal stands

and we send him down the line to find disease.

Come here. Sniff, sniff.

Two. Correct.

Good lad.

To check Bumper's accuracy,

his Parkinson's sniffing power is testing multiple times in a row.

And this time... Two.

No. Come on.

...he's got it wrong.

I didn't believe him. No.

As any incorrect readings will affect the research results...

You know yourself you're wrong, mate.

...Bumper needs to nuzzle down and focus.

While saving human lives is a very super doggy thing to do,

some dogs are doing their bit to protect their fellow pups.

Over in Surrey, meet Otto,

the eight-year-old miniature dachshund.

We got him from a puppy at ten weeks and he's just been the best,

most wonderful, bouncy, happy, yappy, silly, funny dog.

He's the perfect companion to ten-month-old Etta.

She finds him hilarious.

She wants to touch him all the time, and we often do think, actually,

how special this is because it could so nearly not have happened.

14 months ago before Etta was born,

Otto fell seriously ill and was rushed to the vet's.

We realised his eyes had gone yellow and his gums had too,

which meant he was getting jaundice.

It turned out it was his red blood cells

were attacking his immune system,

and his body was basically shutting down.

Ancl the vet gave us a pretty bleak outlook

and said, "His odds of survival are quite slim."

But then the vet called in a knight in shining arm our...

...three-year-old Great Dane Bear.

Bear is the biggest flirt you've ever met.

Bear spends his whole time trying to get eye contact

with any human being of any size, any shape.

As long as they can either tell him he's beautiful

or give him a stroke, it's like his favourite thing in the world.

But it wasn't Bear's charm that rescued Otto that night.

Bear is registered with my local vet's as an emergency blood donor.

So if they get any emergencies coming in,

we're on the list to be called, if we're available,

to come in and give it there and then.

When I got the call originally,

and I knew there was a dog five minutes away that was so poorly

that it needed a blood transfusion,

to me, it was the same as if they said it was a human

and could you come and donate blood?

You can't help but think, "What if it was my dog?"

So in the middle of the night,

Bear was rushed to his vet to give blood.

We didn't know how it would work.

We didn't know a dog would be going in that night

to give blood straight away.

Ancl we were just kind of like, "Wow, that's amazing."

And for the next 12 hours,

Bear's blood helped Otto fight for his life.

Sleepless night, as you can imagine.

I was pregnant with Etta, and it was a very emotional night.

It was really emotional.

Yeah, we basically stayed up all night just sobbing.

just the idea that our baby might not meet our dog,

and, you know, it sounds stupid, but that was always the plan.

You know, they were supposed to be best mates.

And then to think they might not even cross over

was just something that wasn't even, you know, on the cards. Yeah.

When I found out that the dog had pulled through

and he'd been transferred to a further vet's

for specialist treatment, but had made it,

just, yeah, overjoyed, like, so happy.

Seeing how Bear, one of the biggest dog breeds,

saved Otto, one of the smallest, Emma wants Bear to be a lifesaver

for dogs all over the country with the incredible Pet Blood Bank.

But first, he has to pass their thorough screening.

Hopefully he passes all their tests

and they go ahead with the donation today.

Wait. Wait. Good boy, Bear. Well clone.

Coming up...

Cara and Luna, dogs that deal with disaster.

When you're looking for a person in an explosion,

there is nothing better than the clogs that we have.

jac, unearthing damaged electrical cables to stamp out power cuts.

So, the dog team's away.

And Willow... Go on. Go on!

...navigating dense grassland to track down a missing man.

He's working back up. He's not got any scent yet.

MEL: It's a beautiful, hot and sunny day in rural Kent.

But reports have been received of a missing man in his mid-40s...

MAN ON RADIO: 'On our way now.'

...last seen in dark clothing heading towards this woodland area.

'Yeah, received. We're all ready for you.'

'For the firemen inside.'

Local search and rescue teams have been called out to assist.

Right, we're ready to go whenever you are.

And one of several dogs on task is search and rescue veteran Willow.

Willow's just turned nine, and she is a cross-breed.

I have no idea what she is, erm,

apart from being very good at what she does.

Charlie adopted Willow from a rescue centre eight years ago.

I decided to actually do something with her,

and I felt that this was a really good cause, helping other people.

And also, it's great fun for the dog,

so it's a win-win situation.

Willow's well-trained nose has played a vital role

in the Kent team for over five years.

Willow's done 97 searches to date,

and she loves the game.

She loves to do it.

Do you wanna head over to the clump of trees

that are directly at my 12?

That's where I was looking for you to go. Over.

Right now, Willow and Charlie are allocated a specific search area...

Right, the valley, boundary trees,

and the valley along to, you know, the middle section, the gate...

Yep. Yeah, yeah.

...that's the far extent of your search. OK.

...led by search manager Stuart Kenny.

The wind is doing a fair bit of swirling.

Yeah, no worries.

Wearing her harness signals to Willow that she's in work mode.

Go, search.

And the bells help Charlie to keep track of her during the search.

So the dog team's away.

Willow's expertise in tracking is as an air scenter.

Go on. Go on.

An air scenter doesn't know who they're looking for,

so they're roaming around the search area

being directed by the handler.

They are looking for scent floating in the air,

hence air scent.

With fewer people in the countryside,

air scent dogs excel in rural areas like this.

That's it, go on.

Under Charlie's direction,

Willow crosses the field hunting down human scent.

'I try and keep her in sight,

'but it's nearly impossible all the time.

'My job is to just watch my dog.'

Come on, away. Go on.

'I'll see if she gets any indications of scent at all.

'If she looks back at me,

'that's her saying that she wants a bit of direction,

'so I'll send her left or right.'

Stuart keeps watch as Willow searches the woodland edges.

So Charlie's sending the dog hard off to the right-hand side,

so dog's circled up and making its way

to what we would call the boundary. Go on.

Ah, now...

dog's pushing hard left over to that boundary, going into it.

It's very, very overgrown.

But all of a sudden,

Willow races back into open grassland.

At the moment she's stationary,

just seeing what she can pick up on wind.

This is her being an independent dog, thinking.

And she's off again,

so she's picked up something, and she's running towards it.

That doesn't mean she's picked the scent up.

At the moment, all she's doing is searching.

She's working back up. She's not got any scent yet.

There's no guarantee that the missing man is in this valley,

but with time ticking,

Willow must keep her nose to the grindstone.

The willingness of man's best friend to help find people is incredible,

but every search environment requires a very different skill.

Over in Birmingham... MAN WHISTLES

...at Bickenhill Fire Station... Good girl.

...meet nine-year-old Cara...

...and three-year-old Luna.

Wait... Yes. Good.

Under the guidance of their handler Mick Attwood, they're trained

to run into extraordinarily dangerous situations...

Yes, good girl. ..for the fire service.

Up. Come on. Yes! Good.

We're a specialist response,

so we only turn out to large-scale incidents

or incidents with a life risk like explosions,

building collapses, things like that.

When you're looking for a person

in a collapsed building or an explosion,

there is nothing better than the clogs that we have.

Cara and Luna are Belgian Malinois. Find it.

DOGS BARK AND WHINE

Able to run at up to 30mph,

they're among the fastest dog breeds on the planet...

Good girl, Cara. ..and one of the most successful

at searching out humans in disaster zones.

They've got some brilliant characteristics.

They're very bold. They're extremely intelligent.

They're very agile.

The speed at which they can identify that human scent

is what makes them great for what we do.

They're looking to locate life as quickly as possible.

Good girl, Cara.

Cara was three-years-old when she joined the fire service

and became Mick's dog.

We very quickly built a good relationship,

and we could tell straight away

that she was going to be really good.

After just six months of training,

she qualified as a search and rescue dog

in both national and international disaster zones.

We've been to many incidents

within the West Midlands and the wider country,

and she's been to international exercises

in Sicily and Kosovo.

What sets Cara apart is her environmental toughness

is just off the scale.

Her efficiency has made her one of the best clogs we've ever seen.

Good girl, Cara. Ye-e-es, good girl!

In her five years of service, Cara has found many people.

And her work has been invaluable in reuniting those people

with their families.

And now three-year-old Luna, who Mick took on 18 months ago,

is training to follow in Cara's tracks.

OK.

Good girl. Good girl.

Luna, down. But Luna is more hesitant.

Wait. And is taking much longer to learn than Cara.

'She's challenging.' Wait.

'She's not as bold as Cara.' Yes.

Good. Good.

And with Cara coming up to retirement in two months,

time's running out for Luna to prove she's got what it takes.

Sit.

'This, now, is the turning point for her.'

Speak. LUNA BARKS

Meanwhile, 100 miles south-east

in the middle of the Hertfordshire countryside,

three-year-old Great Dane Bear is doing something pretty super.

Having saved the life of sick dachshund Otto

with an emergency blood donation,

Bear is applying to become a donor with the Pet Blood Bank,

so he can help dogs in need all over the country.

Yes, it's finally your time, mate.

He's here with owner Emma

to be assessed by veterinary surgeon Lara Howe.

just like humans, clogs need blood in different situations.

So, they might have an illness, they might have an accident,

or they might need blood during an operation.

Ancl so there is a 24-hour,

seven-day-a-week demand for dog blood.

Over 15,000 dogs are currently registered with Pet Blood Bank,

a charity that has teams travelling around the country,

collecting, storing and distributing blood,

saving thousands of doggie lives every year.

OK, are you going to pop on the scales here, Bear?

New doggie donors must past a health check,

starting with a weigh-in.

Dogs need to weigh at least 25kg,

and that's clue to the volume of blood that we take.

So we can't take any clogs that are less than 25kg.

A lot of people will say,

"That is literally the biggest dog I've ever seen."

He weighs more than some, you know, fully grown adults.

At nearly a metre tall,

and weighing a whopping 62.4kg,

there's no doubt Bear has this superpower in bucket-loads.

So, this is Bear's first time coming in on his Pet Blood Bank...

Yes. ..Isn't it? Yeah.

This is Amy. Hi, guys. Are you Emma?

I'm Emma, and this is Bear. Pleased to meet you, Bear.

But the deal breaker for a regular donor

is the perfect temperament.

They need to be fit and healthy and be happy and confident.

Ancl that's a really important bit.

Obviously, the clogs that make really good repeat donors

are the clogs that really enjoy coming along to the vet's,

meeting new people, being in new situations.

That's his only party... He does paw!

...his only party trick, he'll shake hands. He does both, though.

He'll do the other one if he's feeling up to it. What command?

Shake. Shake hands. Shake. Shake hands.

Shake. Good boy.

With his charm offensive complete, it's time for his vital checks.

Good boy.

Must be a lot of brains in that big head.

Oh, well, I don't know about that.

I think it rattles a little bit when he runs.

Oh, good boy. Oh, beautiful teeth. Good boy, Bear.

I'll just listen to your heart.

Come here, boy. CLICKS TONGUE

Good boy. Wait here. Good boy.

Good boy. That sounds great. Well clone.

Passing his health check with flying colours,

Bear must now face the blood extraction team.

Oh, come on, then. Let's go. Absolutely. Good boy.

Come on, then. Good lad.

Come on, then. Good boy. Meet the team.

Hi, guys. ALL: Hello.

This is Bear. ALL FUSS

What we try and do is lift them and lie them down

all in one smooth motion. Yep, perfect, OK.

It will be a couple of hands on him,

just to stop him wriggling about. Yep.

And he's gonna be a strong boy. Yeah.

We'll give him a while to settle down... Yeah, no.

Yeah, he's pretty chill. But we'll just see what happens.

Perfect.

Ready? Are you ready? One, two, three. Ooh.

ALL: Clever boy.

Good lad!

Good boy.

Oh, wait there like a good lad.

The blood team don't use sedatives, so just hold Bear in place.

So, we're obviously not restraining him. Yeah, no.

No. If he decides to get off, he will. He will, yeah.

In order to extract enough blood, the team need Bear

to harness his superpower of being super-chilled.

EMMA: 'For me, yeah, clogs are as important as people.

'If we can do something to help them,

'then, 100%, we're totally here for it.'

just lie there and get belly rubs.

I know that if he could speak,

and I'd say, "Look, if you go and donate some blood

"and get some treats, and you're saving little clogs' lives,"

he'd be more than happy to do it.

Oh, look at you. His eyes are closed, he's that chilled.

Is this what he's like at home? Yeah.

After five-and-a-half minutes of belly rubbing,

Bear has donated 450 grams of blood,

enough to save up to four doggie lives.

Get up. Oh, good boy. Wait there. Wait there.

Good lad. Oh, good boy, yeah! Good boy.

ALL: Good boy! CLAPPING

Do you want to pick a toy? Do you want a toy, mate?

Go on, then. Which would you like?

Yeah, you want that one. Oh, you lucky boy.

Thank you so much. So if we could just take your picture, Bear.

Come on, then. And now as an officially registered donor,

Bear will be back every two months to keep the blood bank topped up.

Say, "See you again soon." Oh, yes. Say, "Thank you for having us."

Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Come on, then, mate. Let's go.

In the north-west of Wales

lie the rugged hills of County Gwynedd...

"home to )ac...

...a seven-year-old springer spaniel. Good boy.

SPEAKS WELSH Good boy.

Jac is very lively. Mad about the ball.

He'll try and outsmart you every chance he gets,

but I wouldn't do without him, no.

A breed notorious for their exceptional noses,

owner Ken has channel led a very specific superpower in jac.

I've trained him to detect underground cable fluid leaks.

High voltage underground fluid cables

transmit electricity around the country,

but when they spring a leak,

it can take weeks or months to find a fault.

And after more than 30 years working in the electricity industry,

Ken had a revelation.

Dogs can find drugs, they find money, they find explosives.

Why not cable leaks in the ground?

It's a no-brainer, really. HE LAUGHS

And that's wherejac springs into action.

Nobody took me seriously

when I said I could train a dog to detect the cable fluid leaks.

So I said, "Oh, I'll prove you all wrong," and I have.

Jac is much faster, quicker.

He saves a lot of excavating

and having to clig for no reason, really.

Today, jac's being put through his paces,

searching the vast, rugged moorland

for tiny traces of the distinctive cable fluid odour.

This is the scent jac's been trained to detect.

I'll put out a few drops and, you know, put him to the test.

Everything's a learning curve,

so just perseverance, and just keep on trying.

Go on, go on, go find. COMMANDS IN WELSH

MORE WELSH COMMANDS

'I can tell with his body language that he's onto something,

'and as soon as he's over it, he'll sit down,

'and he'll probably paw the ground until he gets his reward.'

Show me, show me.

Good boy.

COMMANDS IN WELSH Come.

Passing today's home turf training with flying colours,

jac's now set to work as a freelance detection dog,

and Scottish Power have called on him

to track down potentially disastrous faults

on their multi-million-pound network.

Coming UP.

Bumper buckles down to work, sniffing out Parkinson's disease.

People think because they've got fluffy coats and waggy tails,

they surely can't be as accurate as any scientific instrument,

but of course, they are actually far more accurate.

Meet Toby, a devoted guide dog for his blind brother.

If he's gonna walk into something, he'll body-bump him, or nudge him.

And Willow digs deep in her hunt for a missing man.

There we go. Dog's had a strike.

MEL GIEDROYC: Back in the Kent countryside,

a search and rescue operation is underway

for a missing man in his 40s.

Go search! Under the direction of her owner, Charlie...

Away. Go on, go on!

...nine-year-old Willow is scouring this valley...

She's working back up.

...with search manager Stuart keeping a close eye.

Not got any scent yet.

Willow is an air-scenter...

...sniffing out human scent carried in the wind.

So literally crossing the entire valley. There he goes.

After eight minutes, she hasn't picked up anything.

Ooh, hello. What's this?

You usually see the nose pick up,

the ears'll pick up, and the body language changes.

The tail goes into a circular motion

and the speed picks up.

There we go. Dog's had a strike.

Interestingly, he's got a visual. SHOUTING: Go on!

He's wondering, "What's that over there?"

Willow has clearly located somebody.

BELLS JANGLE

Ancl you'll notice the dog does not wait, does not stay.

It basically pounds down and finds the handler.

When she has found a person,

she'll come running back to me at full pelt,

and when she catches her breath, she'll do a bark alert.

WILLOW BARKS Good girl, show me.

'Ancl then she bombs off back towards where she's come from,

'to the missing person.'

It's a perfect result for Willow.

Good girl.

But today is a training run.

Good girl. Where is he? Good girl.

Her missing person is Rod from the Search and Rescue Team.

If you put a foot team of four people in there,

and they had to search that thoroughly,

they would be in there for probably an hour-and-a-half, two hours.

Whereas, you saw Willow cleared off that bit in about ten minutes.

She just enjoys it so much.

You see her face when she's found someone.

I think Willow WAS born to do it.

And Willow's prize? Well, it's the perfect doggie reward.

Willow's reward is a homemade toy,

a bit of sausage and a lot of water. HE LAUGHS

It's a simple payment for such a valuable job,

but dogs like Willow have a greater motivation.

They love doing stuff. They love using their mind.

So give them something worthwhile to do.

What better for a dog?

While some super dogs go through months,

even years of intensive training...

Bed.

...some have superpowers that are purely instinctive.

And that's certainly true of Toby...

...this 14-year-old border terrier.

His special charge is his pal,

five-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier cross, Amos.

I was working at the dog's home,

and we had a pregnant dog come in.

She had her puppies, and of the three that survived,

Amos and one of his sisters were completely blind,

and we decided that we would foster Amos.

So, we had him for four months.

By that time, me and Billy, my partner,

had completely fallen in love with him,

and there was no way he was... he was going anywhere else.

When Jess and Billy adopted Amos,

his eyes were removed to minimise pain,

but Toby's instincts had already kicked in. Good boy.

I think it took him a little while to work out that Amos couldn't see,

but then, when he'd worked that out, he was very helpful.

At first, Jess noticed the little things that Toby would do

for his new puppy brother.

I think we'd had Amos a clay or so, and we were quite worried

because we didn't think Amos had drunk very much.

But as much as we'd tried to show him, and tap the water bowl,

and he just... he wasn't going over to the bowl,

and Toby jumped off the sofa,

and then he bumped into Amos

and then trotted over to the water bowl,

took a really big drink

and then Amos walked to the water bowl and took a drink.

So ever since then,

Toby will always nudge Amos into the water bowl

so that he knows where it is.

And now young Amos is inseparable from his super-protector Toby.

So, out and about on walks,

Toby will always put himself between Amos and another dog.

Ancl if Amos is a little bit unsure,

he positions himself next to or just behind Toby

so that Toby can guide him.

SHE WHISTLES Boys, here.

Amos, here. Good. Tubes, here.

Good boys.

CLICKS TONGUE Sit. Good. Good boys.

'If he's gonna walk into something, he'll body-bump him or nudge him.'

'When we come in from walks,

'Toby usually will help him by opening the door.'

Oh, good lad.

And after five years together, wherever they are...

Come on.

...Amos knows he can totally count on Toby.

'If we go somewhere new,

'he very much relies on Toby to give him confidence.'

Yay! Good lad. Come on.

Good boy.

Even things like when we go swimming,

Toby will nudge him around corners.

Ancl Toby likes looking out for him, I think.

He just seems to want to help Amos, which is really lovely.

If Toby wasn't as helpful as he is with him,

I do think Amos would have a lot more struggles.

I also think it's given him a bit of purpose

because, actually, he now knows it's his job to look after Amos.

Little Toby is the perfect example of pooch power.

Dogs absolutely are superheroes.

I mean, he's just my golden child.

You're just an angel, aren't you? Hmm?

MEL GIEDROYC: Back in Birmingham...

Yes. Good.

...three-year-old Belgian Malinois Luna is being put through her paces

to prove she can meet the exceptional standards

of veteran disaster rescue dog Cara.

We're trying to build up the intensity of the toy with Luna.

We're trying to make her absolutely crazy for the toy.

Luna, come. Heel.

Good girl. Down. Wait.

By hiding Luna's toy out of sight,

Mick's testing her ability to locate it by scent alone.

Find it.

The idea is that Luna's so desperate to find her toy

that she'll go wherever Mick asks her to find it.

Good girl. Good girl. Yes.

Good girl. Good girl.

The whole thing with the play is that we can train the dog

through the most harshest environments

without the dog even realising we're doing it.

The drive to go and find the toy allows them to go

into these environments and locate scents so quickly.

Good girl. Good girl.

But if Luna's going to succeed in search and rescue missions,

she must prove that she'll hunt for her toy

in dangerous environments.

So Mick is setting her the ultimate challenge.

Help! Help I'm trapped! LUNA WHINES

Down in Buckinghamshire, it's a huge day

for six-year-old golden retriever Bumper,

who must prove that he can pick out the odour of Parkinson's disease.

In each line-up, there'll be a positive and three controls

or four controls.

Come on, then. Ready? Sniff, sniff.

After earlier losing his laser focus,

he must get back on track.

By sitting back and looking at Mark, his trainer,

Bumper's signalling that he has detected Parkinson's.

'I will ask Steve for confirmation whether the dog's correct.'

Four. That's correct.

'I'll give the dog an audible click and obviously a reward.'

Good lad, there's a good lad.

The dog's nose is quite incredible.

People think because they've got fluffy coats and waggy tails,

they surely can't be as accurate as any scientific instrument.

But of course, they are actually far more accurate.

And it's this ability that we're harnessing.

Three. Correct.

And we're asking them questions about disease that, without them,

we'd have no knowledge of.

The results from the tests

that Bumper and some of his doggie colleagues

have done over the last two years

have proved that dogs have the sniffing superpower

to detect Parkinson's.

So now they're using their noses for further critical research.

We now know that when somebody develops Parkinson's disease,

their odour does change.

What we need to look at now is how early on in the disease process

is the dog able to detect this change in odour?

The earlier we can find it,

the earlier that medics believe they can find it

and make an intervention, the more change we can make.

It's about quality of life while they have that disease.

These discoveries will help

in the development of diagnostic technology.

Like portable electronic noses that could one day be used

to diagnose diseases at the GP.

But right now, as another day at the office finishes

for Bumper...

Hello, beautiful boy. How are you?

...it's a proud mum who picks him up.

Are you gonna forgive me?

Oh, he's brilliant. I can't describe how proud we are of him.

To me, he is the dopey idiot that sleeps a lot of the clay.

But to know he can come to work and detect Parkinson's disease

is just incredible.

I don't think we have even scratched the surface yet.

I think, in years to come,

we'll just wonder how we humans were so stupid, I suppose,

not to recognise these incredible powers.

And not just that, they want to do it for us.

Like everyone, Bumper will eventually retire from work,

but he'll always remain jen and her family's pet.

Bumper is absolutely a super dog, without a shadow of a doubt.

Coming up...

Fire service search dog, call out.

Rookie Luna faces her ultimate test,

an earthquake drill.

We need them to keep pushing on and keep searching.

And it's barking mad in Esher

when Otto meets his life-saver, Bean

OTTO BARKS

In Scotland, just outside Falkirk,

it's a chilly day at ScottishPower's Denny Substation.

We're here today at Denny.

There's enough power going through the substation

to power the entire city of Glasgow.

It's about 600,000 to a million customers.

So this is a big site, an important site.

But there's a problem.

This crucial substation is not currently running at full capacity.

And Scott and his team suspect an oil leak in one of their lines.

So they've called in Ken...

...and his super-sniffing springer spaniel, jac.

Dogs have, as we all know, more sensitivity

in terms of their sense of smell.

So, we thought innovatively, our engineering team thought,

"How can we deploy clogs within the network?"

And we've been very fortunate to find )ac.

Scott's team can't be sure

exactly where in this massive network

the fault is located.

We have a suspicion, but not confirmation.

So we're gonna use )ac today

to try and find if we can pinpoint that very quickly.

All wound up and ready to roll...

...it's time forjac to do his job...

...and prove he's the brightest spark

by finding the leak.

Three-and-a-half million homes and businesses

rely on this whooping network of cables.

But it takes jac literally seconds to single out the leak.

Outstanding. What a job.

I'm delighted to say he pinpointed the fault that we were looking for.

The job could have cost about half a million pounds.

We were able to get that job clone in half a clay.

I wish some of my engineers were as good as you, Jac. Honestly I do.

As a regular contractor for Scottish Power,

it seems jac has the puppy power to transform the energy business.

We've now had him out on effectively 15 jobs.

There is massive cost savings.

There's accuracy in terms of finding the faults.

We love this. We love it for our customers.

It's a great innovation within the business.

Everybody that you speak to

is very excited aboutjac the springer spaniel.

Yeah, Jac loves his work.

I think it's better if you have a dog that wants to work for you,

rather than has to work for you.

I've seen some clogs,

they work with their tails between their legs.

Butjads not like that at all. He's full of beans.

My hope for the future is thatjac fathers a little of eight,

and we end up with eight more cable detection dogs

available to us on our network.

And for all those doubters who laughed at Ken's vision,

jac has undoubtably proved his point.

I think I've been very lucky.

I think he's unique, but maybe everybody says that

about their dog. I don't know. CHUCKLES

MEL GIEDROYC: Over in Surrey, it's a very special day

as super-chilled Great Dane blood donor Bear

is meeting the little terror whose life he saved -

miniature dachshund Otto.

Nice to meet you. Lovely to meet you.

Great to meet you.

Hello, Bear. Hello. You're enormous.

This is Etta.

Although gentle Bear tries to make friends, it takes Otto a while.

OTTO BARKS

Quite a while.

CONTINUES BARKING

A really long while.

CONTINUES BARKING

But eventually...

It's OK. ..he stops barking.

Well, you're a very special dog, Bean

He says, "I love doing my little thing." Don't you?

So lovely. So, was that the first time that you'd given blood? Yes.

Yeah, I didn't even know blood donation was a thing, really,

to be honest. I had no idea. Neither did we.

I was pregnant with Etta when all this happened. Right.

So worried that Etta might not cross over with Otto. Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. But Bear made it all happen.

Yeah. You did a good job, mate. Bear totally saved Otto's life.

Wow. If Otto hadn't received blood that night,

he wouldn't have made it through.

But that night was what we needed.

That was the time we needed to keep him alive, so thank you. Gosh.

Oh, bless him. Do you want me to open these? Yeah, do.

This is for you. This is for you.

SHE GASPS Look what you have.

Look at the size of that. It's the biggest rope I could find.

Is that for you? Aren't you lucky?

Look at that. He says, "I've never seen a rope that size before."

It's a Dane-sized rope, isn't it?

'Seeing them together, it was really...'

I hadn't really thought about it in that way,

but it's knowing that Bear's blood is running through Otto.

It was special, wasn't it? Mm.

Forever grateful.

I don't think we could ever thank Emma and Bear enough

for what they did.

He's my super dog, but, yeah, he's pretty special, for sure.

Back in Birmingham...

Good girl. Yes. Good girl. Here, come.

...it's a massive day for three-year-old Belgian Malinois Luna

as she faces the ultimate test in her disaster rescue training,

an earthquake explosion drill,

to see if she's ready to take over from soon-to-retire Cara

on active service.

We've got a tunnel system here with some rubble

and a casualty at the other end waiting with a toy.

So, the dog has to decide where the entry point is

and then they have to make access through all the rubble.

So, all the time, they're searching for the scent.

They're running, and they're searching.

Ancl what we need them to do is to bark.

Ancl so if the dog goes out of sight and then starts barking,

I know then we need to investigate

because she's found a live human scent.

First up is nine-year-old veteran Cara...

I'm just gonna give her a route.

...who has six years of real-life rescue experience behind her.

Hello?! CARA BARKS

Help!

Hello! Help, I'm trapped!

To mimic a real life rescue, Dave plays the trapped casualty,

and trainer Mick shows Cara where to start her search.

Fire service search dog, call out. CARA WHINES

'|t doesn't matter what we set up, what environment she comes across,

'she never ceases to amaze, really, how efficient she is.

'Ancl how quickly she can go and locate life.'

Obviously, in real life, the casualty won't have a toy,

but Cara knows she gets to play after her work is done.

Good girl. Yes. Good.

Good girl.

For Luna, who's 18 months into her training...

I'm just going to offer her to the hole first

to just give her an idea that somebody's in there.

...this drill is the ultimate challenge.

Hello?! Help!

Occasionally, we've seen Luna go in and be a little bit wary.

And today, she has to prove she's able to cope

in tight spaces and unstable structures.

We have to be careful how we're setting things up

because it's really easy to knock the confidence of the clogs.

Fire service search dog, call out. LUNA BARKS

It's training the dog to really work with the environment

to try and make access to find a person.

We need them to keep pushing on and keep searching.

LUNA BARKS

So, I'd say that's a success.

Today, Luna has definitely made the grade,

so Mick can be confident she'll soon be ready to work

in real life disasters.

Good. Good girl. Good girl.

Good girl.

Hopefully, she'll license very soon

and have as stellar a career as Cara has, really.

Ancl I think Luna really will follow in those steps.

And with Luna proving she's got what it takes,

Cara can hang up her boots and retire.

I've got mixed emotions, but, at the same time,

I think it's a really nice thing

to be able to then enjoy a normal life with her.

And Luna won't be feeling left out as Mick's not just their handler.

They both live at home with me. They both live inside my house.

They're with me 100% of the time.

Ancl you know, they've become my life, really.

We definitely believe our clogs are superheroes.

Next time...

...the faithful family of Newfoundlands

using their aquatic skills to keep people afloat.

Three people have said that they probably wouldn't be here today

if it wasn't for having the swim with the clogs.

Endlessly energetic Alfie...

Right, on you go. Get on.

...the English cooker spanielsaving lives in the wilds of Scotland.

We've made a couple of finds.

It definitely shortened their ordeal for them.

And Nkosi... Good boy.

...the Bavarian mountain hound protecting endangered species

on the anti-poaching front line.

If we can train a dog to track a human criminal,

why can we not train clogs to help track down poachers?

And Buddy and Merlyn,

two border collies with an incredible bond...

The mountain rescue team were deployed,

and I was stretchered down off the hill.

...that helped save their owner's life.

Without them, I wouldn't be here.