Narcolepsy is one of many diseases that medical service dogs may be able to assist with, reports Western Morning News.

Dogs are well known for their superior sense of smell, which is estimated to be at least a thousand times more sensitive than humans’.

But it’s only in recent years that this skill has been honed for medical purposes, sniffing out dips in blood sugar in people with diabetes, and even detecting cancer before noticeable symptoms have developed; this is at the heart of the work of Medical Detection Dogs, a charity that trains pooches for this purpose.