Service Dog for Diabetics?

[tinyfilosofer]

as a newly diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes patient, I am very encouraged to learn about service dog for Diabetic patients. Sad though that location wise, being in Singapore/Asia, we do not have something similar.

https://dogs4diabetics.com/

For the past 12 years, I have trained dogs for obedience and for certain aspects of agility. My teacher, Harry, learned directly from Mr William Koehler. (http://www.koehlerdogtraining.com/)

Upon knowing my condition, Harry and I are wondering if we can a) train my dog b) train other dogs to help other patients in Singapore. We know the basics and we are proficient at training tracking dogs.

We think that being aligned to an organization that is experienced and can guide us along will help us help others quicker. We plan to be a non-profit as well.

so far emails to such organizations have not been answered. if anyone knows anyone that can help, kindly let me know.

 

[Robbity]

Hi, It is possible to train a dog yourself to act as a diabetic "alert" dog and some people have done so. Have a search through the forum as we had a discussion about this last year (?) which has some helpful links.

Good luck with your project!

Robbity

PS Found it for you: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/diabetic-dog-training.96835/#post-1091527

 

[Brunneria]

Fantastic idea, and I wish you every success!

 

[tinyfilosofer]

Thank you for searching for it for me! I thought someone must have talked about it before and tried a few key words. Apparently my key words weren't the right key words!


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[Robbity]

Yes I had to have 2-3 attempts to get the right keywords too even though I thought I knew exactly what I was remembering!

Robbity

 

[tinyfilosofer]

Watched the video. Good standard they set. I'm impressed that the dog can pick out different objects from the drawer. I was also laughing my head off at why they wanted to put the stuff in a drawer when they could have just make life easier for him by leaving them in a basket or something


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[tinyfilosofer]

Tonight is the 2nd time my dog alerts me. 5 months after starting her on the training, 1/3 of the time I was Travelling, the other 1/3 I was lazy.... she's there! The joy I feel at her success far outweighs the joy that I'm less likely to die now. Haha.

https://www.facebook.com/D4DSG/posts/1877141612515204

 

[Livergirl]

How did you get an alert dog

 

[tinyfilosofer]

She's my dog for 10 years. I got diagnosed 5 months ago and I trained her.

 

[saraelbanaxx]

She's my dog for 10 years. I got diagnosed 5 months ago and I trained her.

When you mentioned travel, do u mean by plane to go abroad or like car travels??

 

[tinyfilosofer]

For now very hard because many customs do not recognise service dogs and I don't want to lose her because of bureaucracy.

 

[tinyfilosofer]

I meant her training took a long time because I was travelling a lot for work.

 

[mist]

Is there a cat option?

 

[tinyfilosofer]

I believe cats can be trained as well. But they may not buy the work for food concept.

 

[tinyfilosofer]

https://www.facebook.com/TheStraitsTimes/posts/10154063895392115

 

[VL peanut]

I suggest you could share the benefits of diabetic alert dog and your training experience in some Quora groups or establish your Quora blog and write some posts systematically in it. A quality post will attract lots of followers. Then share your post links to FB (groups) or Twitter and let more people know your project.

 

[Juicyj]

Hello @VL peanut This thread is over 2 years old and the original poster has not logged in for over a year so your post won't be visible to them, please check threads before responding to them to see if they are current otherwise your comments will not be seen by the person you are responding to.

 

[VL peanut]

This is a fantastic idea! Dog's sensitive nose can rapidly recognize certain scents as long as they get certain training. I read a post stating that a household dog can react well to the owner's smells, including the blood sugar from our breath. I suggest you could learn the training program on youtube or blogs.

 

[francesk]

My dog surprised me - she definitely knows when my sugar levels are dropping dangerously low - she sits there, pawing me!
It took me ages to catch on that the two were related! She's a very bright dog!