CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Meet the truly marvellous mutts with amazing natural superpowers By Christopher Stevens Published: 17:35 EDT, 18 June 2024 | Updated: 17:41 EDT, 18 June 2024 e-mail View comments Super Dogs with Extraordinary Jobs ( Channel 5 ) Rating: A pint?! That’s very nearly a tail-full . . .
as Tony Hancock might have said, if his dog had been the blood donor instead of him. Bear the Great Dane regularly donates blood for transfusion to other dogs undergoing surgery. In fact, even an animal as big as Bear can’t give more than a tenth of a pint at a time, but that’s enough to help four other pets.
He’s one of the Super Dogs With Extraordinary Jobs, and he makes an ideal donor because of his soppy temperament. Laidback and gentle, he loves a tummy tickle, and is happy to lie on the vet’s table with an extraction needle in one vein (without any sedative) as long as he’s getting plenty of fuss. Bear’s blood helped save a poorly miniature dachshund named Otto from a bout of jaundice.
Once the little sausage dog was on the mend, their owners brought the two pets together, hoping they’d be instant pals. Jac the springer spaniel (pictured) sniffs out leaks in underground power lines in the Channel 5 show Super Dogs with Extraordinary Jobs It didn’t quite work out that way. Otto wouldn’t stop barking at Bear, who is ten times his size.
That’s to be expected of course — Germans and Danes never did get on. It’s something to do with the Schleswig-Holst.
