Basic Training
Medical Alert TrainINg
CANINE GOOD CITIZEN (CGC) Prep and Test
​THERAPY DOG INTERNATIONAL (TDI) PREP AND TEST

Diabetic Alert Dog

The unbelievable nose of a dog:

"I find it really astonishing that they're able to detect such minute odor discriminations."

People wonder how these dogs can detect illnesses such as diabetes, cancers, migraines and much more.  What do dogs have that we don't? For one thing, they possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to about six million in us. And the part of a dog's brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is, proportionally speaking, 40 times greater than ours.

Dogs' noses also function quite differently than our own. When we inhale, we smell and breathe through the same airways within our nose. When dogs inhale, a fold of tissue just inside their nostril helps to separate these two functions. "We found that when airflow enters the nose it splits into two different flow paths, one for olfaction and one for respiration," says Brent Craven, a bioengineer at Pennsylvania State University who modeled airflow and odor transport using high-resolution MRI scans of a lab cadaver's nose. Craven and colleagues are working to reverse-engineer the canine nose, in part to aid in the design of artificial "noses" that can sniff out odors as well as man's best friend can.

DIABETES

Diabetes - Type 1 (juvenile, brittle) diabetes and type 2 diabetes are different diseases with similar symptoms. Type 1 is a disease in which the body no longer produces insulin; therefore, the type 1 diabetic requires an alternate source of insulin (shots or pumps). Type 1 is usually diagnosed before age 40. Meals, emotions, physical activity, growth spurts, hormone levels, weather . . .everything. . .effects blood sugar levels in a person with type 1. Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which the body still produces insulin, but it is not as effective as it should be. This type of diabetes can usually be managed with diet, exercise, and maybe a pill.

Hypoglycemic Unaware: Normally, a person can feel the warning signals of LOW BLOOD SUGAR (sweating, shaking, nausea, and confusion); however, some are unable to feel these symptoms and are thus unaware that their blood sugar is dropping or is dangerously low. This can lead to seizures, brain damage, or passing out while driving - Diabetic Alert Service Dog: a dog that gives a trained signal to alert its owner to low or high blood sugar levels. 

If dogs' basic smelling skills amaze us, what they manage to achieve with those skills is truly astounding.