[nagdu] Diabetic alert dogs and how alert dogs are preventing a need for a guide dog!

[Dailyah Patt]

Hi gang,

I will only speak to diabetic alert dogs, since there seem to be some questions.  There are numerous programs that train diabetic alert dogs and even owner-trainers.  They range from the rather large and very well-established Dogs 4 Diabetics (d4d) in Concord, CA to smaller/newer programs to owner-trained dogs.  d4d is an ADI member program.  ADI is the equivalent of IGDF, so d4d is very highly regarded in general.  Some of the smaller/newer programs do a better job than others, so those are buyer-beware.  Really, though, diabetic alerting is largely a matter of fairly straightforward scent training...so it doesn't take that long and many competent people have decided to train their own dogs.  That can be a just fine option, too.  Almost everyone from d4d to owner-trainer uses fairly similar standards.  The dogs are trained to alert their person when the person's blood glucose begins to drop too low (60-70, normal is at least 80).  If the dog
 can tell the person who is at 65, the person should not be too incapacitated at that point to do the things they need to do to help themselves raise their blood glucose.  This is especially critical when the diabetic (usually type 1 diabetic, btw, but not ALWAYS) is asleep.  Diabetics are at serious risk of a phenomenon called "Dead in Bed".  Their numbers get too low while they sleep and they slip into a coma and are dead or confused and unable to help themselves and can die even if "awake" in the morning...no sugar is reaching their brain and so they can't think straight to drink juice or swallow glucose tablets or whatever and that's it.  Very sad and scary.  The beauty here is that a human's sleep cycle is quite long...multiple hours.  A dog's sleep cycle is FAR shorter...I want to say about 90 minutes or so.  This means that the dog is mostly awake and can smell the low on their person and wake them up to tell them at many different points
 throughout the night.  The dogs are generally taught to alert to the lows and not really the highs because the highs are SO easy to smell...even you or I can smell it, no problem.  The ketones smell really sweet when someone is running high, so the diabetic's breath will reek!  Dogs often will start to alert the highs once they get that their job is to tell their human when they're smelling funny, but dogs who are rewarded too often for alerting to high often start to only alert to high because it's so easy for them to smell.  What we really NEED the dog alerting to is the lows, though, so can't let the dogs get lazy and stop smelling for the harder to catch lows!

Long story short - there are very legitimate glucose level alerting dogs for diabetics.  I have no idea if the St. Bernard was one - that's a whole different ball of wax that I won't touch - but at least now everyone knows more about the dogs for diabetics.

Oh, I should mention since I think my email makes it sound like maybe these dogs only need to be home use - that is far from the case.  The dogs will also do things like ride close enough to someone driving and be able to alert the person in case their sugar goes out of whack while they are driving.  (I'm sure everyone can see how this is a useful service!)  A dog may sit under a programmer's desk at work and alert them that they're low...big bonus for everyone since when sugar goes low, brain function declines and suddenly you've got a programmer probably making all kinds of errors.  All sorts of things like that, so the dogs do need public access and protection just like guide dogs and other kinds of more commonly recognized service dogs.

Cool to note is that d4d actually gets a number of their dogs from none other than the nearby GDB.  It's a good career change.  Often a dog that won't make the cut as a guide can make a great alert dog.  I'm sure you all know how big the percentage is of guide dog handlers who need guides because of diabetes complications, so actually getting a well-trained glucose level alert dog into the hands of a young diabetic is a wonderful way to help them keep their numbers MUCH better controlled and postpone or even prevent that person from ever needing a Guide due to diabetes complications.  I think this is great as long as it's done well, ethically, safely, etc!  

Dogs rock.  It's people I sometimes wonder about.  ;)  j/k (sort of!)

Dailyah Rudek
The ProBoneO Program, Director




>________________________________
> From: Julie J. <julielj at neb.rr.com>
>To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
>Sent: Monday, November 5, 2012 4:21 AM
>Subject: Re: [nagdu] In question please
> 
>Yes, there are dogs that can alert to changes in blood sugar levels.  There is even a program that trains this type of dog.  I'm remembering it's in the northwest, Washington or Oregon?  Of course the dog wouldn't have had to come from this or any program to be trained to alert to the guy's medical condition.
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