Alert Service Dogs for People with Diabetes

We’ve all heard that a dog is man’s best friend. I  would say that a dog is a family’s best friend. Our family has shared our home with  “Jericho”, a Bedlington Terrier, a Sheltie name “Princess Leia” because our sons were into Star Wars at the time, and “Golda My Dear”, our Golden-Newfoundland-Labrador Mountain Mutt.

We’ve also heard of seeing eye dogs, drug sniffing dogs, guard dogs, rescue dogs, sled dogs and various service dogs, and know that our dogs contract the same disease we do, including diabetes.

A few year ago I saw a program on DLife TV about a dog that saved a boys life when his blood sure got to low and alerted the parents that their son was in danger. Recently, I read an article in the Daily Herald newspaper about service dogs that are trained to alert people who have diabetes and their families, if that peron’s blood sugar level drops too low. Wow, these dogs could be considered canine glucometers.

Did you know that “according to the National Detector Dog Training Center, dogs have 220 million olfactory receptors to gather a sent, while humans have only 5 million.”?

The article also focus on Ron Santo, his wife, Vicki and her vision  to “spread the word” and help more diabetics.” It is an amazing, inspirational and educational article.

The picture in this post comes from an article about Lexi Jackson, who has Type 1 and her service dog, Marley. From the age of six weeks, the dog was trained on the scent Lexi’s body emits when her blood sugar is dangerously low. Marley often detects her low blood sugar 20 minutes ahead of an electronic meter.

If you know some one or a family who deals with the challenges of diabetes, PLEASE read and share this Diabetic Alert Dogs story and/or log onto Alert Service Dogs, LLC and the JDRF website for more information!

You can read about our family’s diabetes story on my web site. 10% of the royalties for the sale of What Color Is Your Brain?® and Princess Shayna’s Invisible Visible Gift  is allocated to JDRF, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Please Spread the Word