[nagdu] Sort of OT - Great use of COC dogs from GDB!

[Dailyah Patt]

Hi gang and apologies who get this from both lists -

I was at a Dogs 4 Diabetics event in Concord, CA yesterday and while I already sort of knew this, having it spelled out for me was pretty cool.  D4D is getting most of their dogs from GDB in San Rafael!  Basically, GDB will identify dogs that have been puppyraised and even most have had some of the guide training but dogs that they're going to release or COC for being too sniffy or too energetic...sometimes even a a very minor health problem that would prevent Guide work.  D4D is looking for those exact kinds of dogs.  They want dogs who are nose-based and energetic so that the dog spends a lot of time sniffing on their partner...which is how the dog identifies low blood sugar and sudden changes in sugar levels. The work is not too physically strenuous (like guide work can be), so very minor health things are often just fine.  They're also taking those dogs that try to do things like guide around the puddle rather than walk a straight path.  lol  
 It's brilliant.  By the time D4D gets the dogs, they've already had so much love, training, good breeding, etc., so D4D can usually go right to work on training them diabetic alert.  This allows them to have a fairly quick turn around time from acquisition to placement.  The dogs have already been heavily screened.  These are dogs that GDB can't use anyway - just a great career change for some of these dogs and a wonderful partnership between two programs.  Too cool!  Great to see folks working together towards life saving goals!  Also, when the dog eventually graduates with a diabetic, D4D holds graduation so GDB puppyraisers can come meet the handler of a pup they raised to work as a guide and then had been told the dog was being released.  Surprise, puppyraisers!  HAHA!  Bait and Switch - your dog will now be graduating in Concord, but not as a Guide.  Still awesomeness!  Yeah!!!!!  Happy, working, helpful dogs!

As a total bonus, apparently something like 30% of GDB's clients are blind from diabetes or have diabetes and subsequent complications, so not only are the two programs starting to experiment with a couple of dogs cross-training them, but by giving released dogs to D4D to become diabetic alert dogs GDB is helping diabetics BEFORE they'd possibly go blind in the first place.  People with D4D dogs usually have about the best controlled diabetes of anyone diabetic.  The dogs will alert to a low 10-15 minutes EARLIER than a glucometer will read that you're low and as a result, diabetics who used to cruise at higher glucose levels feel safer running on the lower end because they've got a trusty four-foot to let them know before they get into real trouble.  80-120 is normal for most humans, but type 1 diabetics can have numbers all over the place because they're constantly juggling carbs they've eaten, levels of exercise, stress and then trying to figure
 out how much insulin to take.  It's tough.  (One of my best friends is a type 1 and has applied to D4D.)  Anything over 200 starts to permanently damage the kidneys and eventually the heart and other systems, but it's "safe" in that they know they aren't going to run too low, slip into a coma and die in their sleep.  Lows aren't all that damaging, but are very scary - ESPECIALLY when there's nobody around.  In less than an hour a person can go from normal and fine to so incapacitated that they aren't thinking clearly enough to get themselves help.  The dogs kind of "allow" these folks to run at the lower and safer numbers because they can rest assured that their dog isn't going to let them get TOO low and out of it.

Too cool not to share!  Go D4D and go GDB!

Dailyah