Diabetic alert dog help . . .

[Wanttohelp]

Wonder if anyone can help, just after some advice about diabetic alert dogs. We have been considering getting a 'normal' dog for sometime now, however my husband, who is T1 has been having hypos more often and increasingly at night, so I started to do a bit of research into medical alert dogs. Has anyone had any experience with getting their dog trained to detect low blood sugar levels? Do you need to go through the big charities, or do independent trainers exist who work with T1s and their dogs in the UK? Also any ideas on breeds?

Thanks all. Any help appreciated, a lot of the info I can find seems to relate to the US rather than UK

 

[Jaylee]

Hi,

I can't help with a dog.
But I have to ask, has your husband considered a CGM system which could alarm should he go low?

It would also help your husband understand BG trends. Thus tweaking his insulin dosage & potentially avoid lows.?

 

[Seacrow]

Google 'hypo hounds'. This will bring up, as far as I know, the only organization/charity that helps train family pets to detect hypos and hypers. All the info you need should be on their website, but briefly:

Any dog breed is fine as long as the individual dog can be motivated to learn. It's probably easier to take a cocker spaniel sized dog with you than a Great Dane/Newfoundland. The actual dog needs to be fairly young, so it gets to use its training for a long time, and capable of passing KC good citizen gold.

Personally, I'd pick a Papillon (I'm biased, I have Papillons!). Some breeds should be easier to train - gun dogs, herding dogs, any dog that was originally bred to do a job.

They are, alas, mainly based in the South, but are still willing to help Northerners if you are willing to travel. HTH

 

[Robbity]

You beat me to it - I'd just found a link to Hypo Hounds!

For more information too, have a look at our main site, here: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/hypo-alert-dogs.html

Normally all assistance dogs are selected as puppies for their potential suitability, and officially trained from "puppyhood" and you then apply for an approved trained animal. However we did have some discussion a while back regarding training your own alert dogs, and as far as I can remember there was a link to someone who detailed how they'd done the training.

 

[Seacrow]

You beat me to it - I'd just found a link to Hypo Hounds!

For more information too, have a look at our main site, here: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/hypo-alert-dogs.html

Normally all assistance dogs are selected as puppies for their potential suitability, and officially trained from "puppyhood" and you then apply for an approved trained animal. However we did have some discussion a while back regarding training your own alert dogs, and as far as I can remember there was a link to someone who detailed how they'd done the training.

Yeah, the site is a little out of date. At some point (last year?) the assistance canine organizations got together and redefined their boundaries. I think Medical Detection now only train dogs to work in a clinical setting, and Hypo Hounds expect you to present a well trained family pet. You have to get to KC gold or equivalent, which is a lot of work, but will make sure the owner is prepared to put in time and effort before they start more specialized training. I suppose any experienced trainer could probably at least start the process.

I had a chat with a representative at Crufts, but came to the conclusion that neither my elderly Papillon nor my ditzy Springer were suitable.