Heat, humidity, and hope found their way to Oxford, MS last weekend. Mike Stewart hosted a Diabetic Alert Dog Workshop at his world-renown Wildrose Kennels. California Trainer Rita Martinez led two days of obedience and scent work. Diabetics and their families gathered to learn and share information. From the very young to the not quite so young, the common denominator was Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetics live with the knowledge that some night in the future they could drop into a diabetic coma, no one would know, and they could die alone in their sleep. Can a dog prevent this from happening? Can a dog warn a diabetic when his or her blood sugar is dropping into the danger zone or going too high?
The simple answer is yes. The more complex answer is ... this service dog specialty is in its infancy. As a result, properly trained diabetic alert service dogs are rare ... good trainers even more so. And there is no training protocol. The good news is that a plan is in motion to change all that. There are a committed few who will, before year's end, announce the formation of a Foundation whose mission it will be to create the international standard for diabetic alert dogs and train dogs to those standards.
Mike Stewart will conduct another diabetic alert dog workshop at Wildrose in late 2009 or early 2010. Watch this space for information as it becomes available.
The simple answer is yes. The more complex answer is ... this service dog specialty is in its infancy. As a result, properly trained diabetic alert service dogs are rare ... good trainers even more so. And there is no training protocol. The good news is that a plan is in motion to change all that. There are a committed few who will, before year's end, announce the formation of a Foundation whose mission it will be to create the international standard for diabetic alert dogs and train dogs to those standards.
Mike Stewart will conduct another diabetic alert dog workshop at Wildrose in late 2009 or early 2010. Watch this space for information as it becomes available.
4 comments:
The wildrose workshop was great. It was fun to meet so many other alert dog teams. I wanted to add that in addition to helping to prevent low bloodsugar and seizures the dogs also alert to high bloodsugars which cause serious long term problems like kidney failure, eye problems, nerve damage, stroke, heart disease to name a few.
So true! Today I found a old BG log sheet in my closet. It was from a day in 2007 (before Darcy). In one day my BG ranged from 47 to 478!! That made me curious and I looked at TODAYS log. My BG ranged from 87 to 211. Darcy is improving the quality and the quanity of my life and I couldn't be more thankful.
I have been sick today and I have been laying in bed all day. But Mr Darcy woke me up 3 times for a low and 1 time for a high! I kept thinking, "I haven't done anything for him all day but he hasn't stopped working for me!!
This afternoon I was In the ER and darcy stayed in a down stay under the examination table watching my every move.
Thanks Mr Darcy!
an article about the weekend:
http://www.oxfordeagle.com/news1.html
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