Using a Guide Dog for Diabetes Control

i wanted to share this passage from "Next of Kin", written by Roger Fouts, a psychologist:

"Curious George wasn't the only animal I knew as a young boy.  I grew
up on a farm where animals were a very important part of our family's
life.

My closest animal companion was our dog, Brownie.  Feisty and fiercely
loyal, Brownie was a fixture of our household.  She needed us and we
needed her.  In addition to guarding the house, she baby-sat the
youngest kids in the fields during the harvest season.

One day I saw Brownie do something that shaped my view of animals
forever.  She saved my brother's life.  It happened during
cucumber-picking season when I was four years old.  The whole family-
my parent, six brothers and one sister- had been our in the field all
day working.  Brownie had been watching over my and my nine-year-old
brother, Ed, whenever he got tired of picking.  By the time the sun
was going down our Chevy flatbed was piled high with boxes of
cucumbers.  It was time to head home for dinner.  Ed wanted to ride
back on our older brother's bicycle, a big thing that he could barely
control.  My parents said OK and Ed headed out on the bike, chaperoned
by Brownie.  Twenty minutes later, the rest of us climbed into the
truck and left the field with my twenty-year -old brother, Bob,
driving.

It was the dry season, six months or so since the last rain, and the
dirt road was blanketed with four or five inches of chalky dust.  As
the truck drove along the well-worn tire ruts in the road, it kicked
up a huge cloud of dust that covered us on all sides, making it
impossible to see more than two feet ahead or behind.  After going
along for a while, we suddenly heard Brownie barking very loudly and
very persistently.  We looked down and we could just make her out
next to the front fender.  She was sniping at the right front tire.
This was very strange behavior.  Brownie had come to the fields
hundreds of times and had never once barked at the truck.  But now she
was practically attacking it.  My brother Bob thought this was odd but
didn't give Brownie much thought as he plowed ahead even as her
barking became more frenzied.  Then, without further warning, Brownie
dove in front of the truck's front tire.  I heard her shriek, and I
felt a thump as we drove over her body.  Bob hit the brakes and we all
got out.  Brownie was dead.  And right there in front of the truck,
not ten feet away, was Ed, stuck on his bike in the deep tire rut,
unable to escape.  Another two seconds and we would have run him down.

I too would like to join in my love and appreciation of dogs and how they relate to their humans. As part of my "personal and social" history section of my medical interview I always ask my patients about their family members etc. and find out about any pets. Besides finding out who lives in the home, I also ask if their pets can "sense" when the child is "low." I am always astounded that the answer is "yes" on many occasions. I therefore encourage people to consider obtaining a pet to help monitor lows. Ann has listed the several websites that train hypoglycemia service dogs. I actually contacted one of those links to see if I could actually obtain one for my patients when I go to clinic for both social and medical reasons. The hospital actually ok'd this;but the dog training facilities would only ok a dog for a patient with diabetes not a physician caring for patients with diabetes- which certainly makes sense.

This is a great post; the many ways that dogs can help us never cease to amaze me. I will need to see if our 1 year old pup is sensitive to my son's lows (in response to Dr. Cogen's comment) -- my son often walks our dog up to an 1 + hours per day to get exercise and it would be great to know if the dog could be sensitive to hypoglycemia.

I can tell you that our cats are not ... after all, we are simply staff to them !