They say that a dog is man’s best friend but in this case, he was a life saver. Maureen Burns thought everything was okay when her last mammogram came back clear but started to suspect something wasn’t right because of her dog Max’s behaviour. BBC Earth spoke to Maureen about how her pet’s strange actions, which she thought were just him getting old, alerted her to the fact that she had breast cancer. “He wouldn’t come by me, wouldn’t sit by me, wouldn’t sit on my lap... He would come up and touch my breast with his nose, and back off so desperately unhappy and with such a sad look in his eyes,” she explained. “Initially I thought it’s just another lumpy breast... but then I connected it with the dog and his odd behaviour... I knew it was cancer.” Despite a clear scan and mammogram, Maureen underwent a surgical biopsy during which the lump was detected. She had it removed and suddenly Max’s behaviour changed. “The day I was picked up from the hospital, he was his old hyper self again. He put his nose across my breast to check where the operation had been and he was wagging his tail and his eyes were happy.” She added: “I love Max so much and I owe him so much. Even before I go for a check-up now, I get him to check me out and if he’s happy and wagging his tail, I’m happy and I know I’m okay.” You can hear Maureen’s full story in the video below. It was uploaded to YouTube a few months ago but is getting a lot of attention online at the moment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0UK6kkS0_M [Video via YouTube/ BBC Earth]