Hi Moddey,
I was mentioned earlier on, just as a bit of news for everyone, Bruce (my hearing dog, trained by Hearing Dogs for Deaf People) and I passed our finals on Thursday - so the initial training journey is now complete.
Bruce is a Pointer and will be 2 at the end of the month, he has completed five months of training, his website is
www.debrucie.co.uk He was bred by my partner, so I've known him since he was two hours old.
Since returning from training as a Hearing Dog, Bruce has now alerted me on more then four occasions to my levels being low, namely due to over exertion through concentration (lip reading makes my brain work they think about 20 times harder than normal, so I get fatigued quite quickly), in addition I've changed insulins (basal and bolus) in the last few months, so have been adjusting here too.
The normal alert of a sound to me from Bruce is for him to sit by me and place both front paws on my leg, he's then asked 'what is it?' and takes me to the sound.
However, when I'm having a hypo, he essentially just does what's needed to get my attention. It should be noted, until four months ago I got very few hypos and the ones I've had in the past four months have been minor. He just picks up the change in smell.
In the UK we have Assistance Dogs UK (ADUK), of which Hearing Dogs, Guide Dogs and Canine partnerships are the three largest members of the five organisations under the control of ADUK. As registered assistance dogs they and their recipients have ID cards and pretty much full access rights to travel with the recipient in their normal lives, including food shops, restaurants, the work place etc.
Hypo dogs in the UK have been trained by Cancer Dogs, however, these are not assistance dogs and as such have no rights of access that assistance dogs have.
The major difference is that cancer dogs are trained and worked in the main on their detection, not behaviour, where assistance dogs are trained for their work, in parallel with their obedience. I can take Bruce to a meeting or hospital appointment, as soon as I put his blanket down he goes to sleep, until I wake him up, shopping he doesn't pull or check out the food for himself, although in shops with mirrors he does like to stop and take a good look at the handsome pointer he sees!
I will take a closer look at your blog later on, it's certainly great to have a dog that integrates further within the family than being purely a pet. Like Hearing Dogs hypo dogs are never off duty. Guide Dogs and Dogs for the Disabled stop working as soon as their harness is removed. Hearing Dogs have to be alert to the sounds around the home, such as alarm clocks, timers, door bell, phone and most importantly smoke detectors and fire alarms and then alert me to the sounds regardless of my being awake or asleep and then tell me what the alert is. For danger sounds he lies down on the floor, he doesn't take me to where the fire is, that's too dangerous for both of us.
For phones, timers, door bells etc he takes me to the sound, so that I can respond to it.
Good luck with your training, I look forward to reading how you all get along!
