# Hypo dog!



## Northerner (Mar 5, 2011)

Tiny the abandoned terrier to train as diabetes detection dog after revealing life-saving gift 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...og-Tiny-trained-harness-life-saving-gift.html

Not sure about the accuracy of most of the story though - does breath smell sweeter when we are hypo? And the early part seems to concentrate on the ability to sniff out sweet stuff, again giving the misleading impression that diabetes is about chocolate etc.


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## Liz! (Mar 5, 2011)

Yes, the breath does smell different at least! My Lola is being trained by this charity. She is alerting to both low and high blood suagr, but when I'm high she doesn't bother with my hand, she often goes to my mouth, and I can see her nose twitching from the other side of the room. 

Apparently tiny amounts of ketones are in our systems from about 8 - or so I was told.


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## Northerner (Mar 5, 2011)

Liz! said:


> Yes, the breath does smell different at least! My Lola is being trained by this charity. She is alerting to both low and high blood suagr, but when I'm high she doesn't bother with my hand, she often goes to my mouth, and I can see her nose twitching from the other side of the room.
> 
> Apparently tiny amounts of ketones are in our systems from about 8 - or so I was told.



Yes, I can understand that high levels will show ketones and the pear drops smell, just can't see why low sugars would make breath smell sweet - I suspect the journalist made that bit up. Breath might smell different when low, I'm sure, but not sweet.


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## Liz! (Mar 5, 2011)

Ah! Didn't read to the end, yes, the reporter has misunderstood. Lola also smells breath when I'm low though, so she's smelling something. 

To be absolutely clear, they don't know yet just what the dogs ARE smelling. They react to sweat, you use sweat from hands, or at least moisture, and breath on rags in pots to train them. But Lola often 'alerts' a quarter of an hour BEFORE I am high or low, so before my meter can tell, so it might be some sort of hormonal release. No-one knows!


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## Fandange (Mar 5, 2011)

Hi Liz,
we are beginning to look into a hypo dog for Bede. My preference is to find a puppy to train, rather than apply for a ready trained dog. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Ange


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## Northerner (Mar 5, 2011)

Liz! said:


> Ah! Didn't read to the end, yes, the reporter has misunderstood. Lola also smells breath when I'm low though, so she's smelling something.
> 
> To be absolutely clear, they don't know yet just what the dogs ARE smelling. They react to sweat, you use sweat from hands, or at least moisture, and breath on rags in pots to train them. But Lola often 'alerts' a quarter of an hour BEFORE I am high or low, so before my meter can tell, so it might be some sort of hormonal release. No-one knows!



Yes, I understand that the charity are looking for ways of isolating what it is so that maybe in future it can be done by a detector rather than a dog (but I'd prefer the doggie! )


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## Liz! (Mar 5, 2011)

Ange, get on the waiting list quick. It can be years. Whether you are looking for a ready trained or one to train, you still need their help, there's only one place doing it (Bio-detection dogs) and there's a long waiting list. It might be quicker if you get your own dog, I don't know. 

I DID get my own dog, but only because i wanted a small one which doesn't shed or smell or bark or chase cats! Bit OCD. I was told this was impossible but Lola IS that dog. But she was extremely expensive! And there are drawbacks to taking this route - not all dogs are suitable. Lola's breed has ben selected to make service dogs, bred into them as it were, but i think now it would have been better in some ways to have one done by the charity as they do all the work with the scent training and you only get the dog when it is mainly trained, and they know it can do it. Not all dogs can, and it has taken a long time to get Lola to do it. 

If you have any questions do pm me.


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## smile4loubie (Mar 5, 2011)

Northerner said:


> Yes, I can understand that high levels will show ketones and the pear drops smell, just can't see why low sugars would make breath smell sweet - I suspect the journalist made that bit up. Breath might smell different when low, I'm sure, but not sweet.



When we are low we still get ketones apparently. After all my hypos the other week there was still ketones in my urine when it was checked and I asked about it. Apparently its were your liver is kicking out the tiny bits of glucose it can.


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## Ellie Jones (Mar 5, 2011)

If my experience is anything to go by, there maybe some artistic licence involved, but saying that when the dailymail wrote my story they were pretty accuate...  Just not the magazine who wrote our story after they award Ellie and Jones there 'Pet of the Year' award 

The labdoddle orginates from down under, the Austrailians first started to breed them for guide dogs, to overcome allergies and/or asthma in the 80's...  Still yet to gain full kennel Club recongnision though..  The price tag is based on 'designer' must have!  

My two are rescue dogs, and the hypo warning is a natural instint for them, they did it without training and when they took it one stage further to save my husbands life during a hypo was just awsome, they had warned him but he couldn't do anything due to not having anything on him, so when he started to collapse, they got him to a safer place, then Jones came home to get me, while Ellie sat with Les....

We are in the process of getting Ellie excepted into training for offical assistance dog, so she can come with us would love to do this with Jones as well but sadly he's nervous so wouldn't pass several of the tests he would need to be excepted into the scheme at the moment...

I really don't know how they do it, could well be smell!  as I have noticed that they do use their noses and smell a lot more than most dogs! You can't get past my front door without the process of having your bag sniffed and inspected  But with saying that it could be the bond we have with them, as this is a very close one due to not only training them, but helping them to over come thier issues...


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## Liz! (Mar 5, 2011)

Yep - the first one bred was allowed to become an adult and then tested on the person who needed him because they were allergic to dogs. At 8 months dogs lose their pup coat and their adult coat comes in, and in a labradoodle cross it can come in completely different - you don't now if it is hyper-allergenic till then. 

The Australian labradoodles are different in that as Ellie says they have been bred for about 20 years, in with other dogs too to stabilise the coat and temperament. You can be more sure of what you get.

All dogs are 'designer'. Every single dog except mongrels have been bred to fulfill a job, or designed to do a job that we humans want, ie terriers to rat, greyhounds to run - labradors themselves were bred fairly recently in history with other English and Irish water dogs from Newfoundlands, to get a smaller retriever with a soft mouth who didn't mind water. So 'designer' is just word made up by newspaper people who don't know what they are talking about. Yes, they have been designed, to do a job - the fact that they are very attractive means lots of people want one. But that isn't why they were bred. 

They have been and are expensive at the minute because of the enormous costs involved in buying breeding stock from Australia, having them quarantined, and then breeders who have bought them are also subject to various rules imposed by the people who sold them in Australia. - and the supply and demand issue too has kept the price high, as there are few breeders and high demand. However prices ARe coming down now.


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## Tezzz (Mar 5, 2011)

When I was a boy, our dog knew when my father was hypo and would lick his face.

My friend in France has a dog and she barks when he is starting to go hypo.


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## Liz! (Mar 6, 2011)

Brilliant! 

I think many dogs do realise. the charity sort of hones the response though so that it comes BEFORe the hypo, or before you are too high. So that you can take steps before you are too unable to do anything.

At the minute lola gets upset if I'm over 9, I want it to be 11. And she alerts at 5 or so, I want it to be 4.5. Writing this, i can see she is nearly there.


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