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My little dog alerted me...

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L

Liz!

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
We have been trianing my little dog to alert me to hypos as i have no warning signs, and lots of hypos for no discernable reason.

Last night as I went to bed, my BS was 13 which was too high, so I corrected for a blood sugar of 11 (knowing that I go hypo sometimes at night I was cautious). Ten minutes later I got in bed and my dog alerted by whining at me from her crate - I did another BS and it had dropped in that 10 minutes to 5.5. So went downstairs ate some sugar and flapjack and went o bed again. % am she woke my OH by whining, he got up, let her out thinking she wanted to go wee but she leapt on the bed and started pawing me. I was unconscious.

So she alerted twice in one night, and the first one saved me from a worse hypo, the second saved me from 2 more hours unconscious till OH gets up.

Good little dog! What's more I woke up to that little face looking at me!

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Oh my god, thats so cool, unfortunate you need it, but cool.......


Who trains these dogs and how did you get a hold of it.......

So cute as well
 
She's gorgeous, absolutely adorable. My Judy used to do that too, how she learned it I'll never know but she did and it saved me a few times last year. I really my wee doggy.
 
It's a charity called Bio-detection dogs. they do them for Addisons and epilepsy too, but there's only 10 like mine.

You have to have severe problems with control - I had to submit 3 months of blood glucose tests and my consultant had to write a letter supporting me, and they take all sorts of things into account.
 
Not only is your dog adorable and cute, she is a life saver too. Give her a big hug and a treat from me if it's allowed,
 
The charity normally chooses the dogs by character, and they are trained by the social trainer, then a specialised trainer, then go to the owner. I didn't want a lab as they are so big, and smelly, and lose hair! So we bought ours, a dog i know with no smell, no shedding, not a barker or cat chaser and she's being trained by me with support, so no long chain of owners. There's a long waiitng list. Years.
 
Wow, that's so amazing!!
 
That is awsome!!...What Beautiful dog!...What kind of breed is this dog?

Glad you are ok, thanks to your Wonder Dog! 🙂
 
wow, how amazing, and glad you are ok 🙂

Can I ask....how do the dogs know you are hypo? what is it that they are 'sensing'? I find it fascinating!!
 
Caroline said:
Not only is your dog adorable and cute, she is a life saver too. Give her a big hug and a treat from me if it's allowed,
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From me too! She's great.x
 
I still can't believe how gorgeous your little dog is - and how clever too, worth her weight in gold and more.
 
imtrying said:
wow, how amazing, and glad you are ok 🙂

Can I ask....how do the dogs know you are hypo? what is it that they are 'sensing'? I find it fascinating!!
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I think it's to do with scent ... apparently we smell different when our sugars are low?!

Amazing 🙂
 
totally amazing!!

all that skill and beauty too :D

fab little dog and so clever..... well done for training her too 🙂
 
She is beeeeooootiful, and her fur is soft, like putting your hand in a bowl of talcm powder.

Trying to remember all the questions now... she is an Australian Service dog, a type of labradoodle.

Labradoodles over here tend to be lab/poodle crosses one, two or three generations. They tend to be HUGE, up to about 28 inches, and even the miniatures are about 20 inches. You cannot tell until they are 8 months old if they will be hypoallergenic or not, as the puppy coat is lost and the adult one is different, and can change in some dogs for longer than that. It's difficult also to judge how big they will be. They are big, daft, often hard to train as they are extremely intelligent (know how to make their own mind!).

In Australia they've been breeding them for 20 years and have brought in other dogs to stabilise the coat, and the sizes, and the temperament. Australian Service Dog labradoodles are calmer dogs, the coat comes out usually always hypo-allergenic, and their size is estimatable. Lola is a miniature and she is now adult and 14 inches. She doesn't smell like a lab, doesn't shed, and she's intelligent but not that naughty. But fun. Their coats can come out fleece curly, fleece wavy, or woolly like a poodle.

To train her it goes in incremental stages. i start off by doing a blood test - call her to me, and if my blood sugar is high, i let her smell my hand and give her a pat. If my blood sugar is normal, I ask her to smell my hand and take no notice of her at all, and if my BS is low, I click AS she smells my hand (not easy when low!) with a clicker which 'marks' that behaviour as very good, and give her a very high quality treat, that she doesn't get at any other time. she like dried fish skin! Gradually they get to associate the smell of you low with a wonderful treat.
 
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Dried fish skin, awesome! I imagine something like kapenta? I recall my mum's dogs going nuts over biltong.
 
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