OES as a service Dog??
I wouldn't be here today if it was not for her. One time when my husband was deployed I went into shock in the middle of the night. This was just on the cusp of Isabelle becoming aware of my condition and this may have been the incident alerting her to my need to be warned. I woke having seizures, couldn't walk or talk. I was unable to help myself. Isabelle woke my 9 year old and got him out of bed. I would have been dead by morning had she not awoken my son. The reason for my post is Bentley is 2 and I have noticed some of the same little quirks in him. The other night I was napping on the couch and he kept walking by and licking my face. He is a face licker, but only when I greet him, hug him and put my face in front of his. He knows not to bother me if I am sleeping. Every 5 minutes or so he would lick my face. It was pissing me off. Then I thought I am unusually sleepy so I got up and checked my blood sugar. It was 40. Now I stay tightly controlled so if you stay at 80-100 it is easy to drop to 40 and not really feel it. I usually feel it at about at about 35.... I know that is not safe.... I am working on that. I test very frequently to try and avoid such reactions. So back to the subject at hand. I am really amazed at my sheepies and think there may really be something to this. I know dogs are trained to alert for low blood sugars, but I have never seen an OES as a service dog. Has anyone else?? Just curious. Lisa |
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| Are Bentley and Isabelle related? I was taking a friend to classes for a while when he qualified for his physical service dog, and they were talking a bit about seizure alert dogs. They said that they can't actually train the dog to detect seizures - they just have to find dogs who have that ability and then train them to alert the seizure is coming on. But they did say it tends to run in bloodlines. It's wonderful that Bentley is tuning into your low sugar levels! Perhaps it's worth looking into some specialized training so he can be certified as your service dog? |
| Yes there is one OES that is a service dog here in washington. An assistance dog. (The owner has 2 OES) She is active in rescue, clubs, and show...makes sense her assistance dogs is a sheepie. |
Hi Lisa! I have only recently become interested in OES and have been reading a LOT and asking questions to see if it's the right breed for me (is IS, btw  ) and I have come across several mentions of OES as service dogs. I am sitting for Oso, a 3 yr old male right now and have seen many traits in him that would lend themselves well to service.I suffer from depression (well treated) and Fibromyalgia (nearly asymptomatic these days) and Oso seems unusually attuned to my needs - clowning around when I feel a bit down and nudging me when he seems to feel its time to rest. He's also wonderful with the special needs kids we often pass on our walks - just letting them love on him (of course, what Sheepie doesn't like a bit of lovin!), yet he warned off (growled at) an overly friendly drug user who tried to talk to us and pet him at the taqueria. He's really quite sensitive to things! That's wonderful that Bentley can sense your low blood sugar! I have heard of dogs being able to smell this and alerting people as necessary. Dogs are pretty awesome  Merrilee |
Wow. I think that is terrific  I have a friend whose dog is trained to alert her to when a seizure is coming on. Its a Lab. So I am very impressed to hear your OES may become your next service dog!  |
| Amazing. I wonder if there is some change in how you smell when your blood sugar drops, a scent undetectable to human nasal receptors? I bet there is. A dog's sense of smell is so much more acute than ours. If the dog can smell a change, we then have to let the dog know that the change in scent has meaning to us, as this isn't something that a dog would know on his/her own. It might be tough to reward, as you won't know until your blood glucose is checked whether or not Bentley was alerting you, or simply giving you some kisses. I would certainly try to reward him in some way, if he is in fact alerting you to low blood sugar. You have had some great dogs in your life.  Laurie and Oscar |
| Diane, No Bentley and Isabelle were not related. Laurie, I do believe it is a scent thing. Although my kids can detect it just by my voice and by looking at me... Drives me crazy that they are always right. I am hoping that Bentley has the same trait. He is so sweet!! I do think they are very intuitive. Can't live without them!! Merrilee, I hope you find a sheepie of your very own to love!! |
| I think any dog who is attuned to humans would make a good service dog. - so an OES would certainly meet that criteria. And regarding low blood sugars and smell - yes, it is a smell, and even humans can smell it if it's a big enough change. As a hospital RN for 20 yrs, and working 12 hour night shifts for a lot of it - the diabetic patients are a challenge. If they are really ill, post-op, etc., their diabetes is much less stable, and prone to more extreme highs and lows. Anytime my assignment included a diabetic pt, I always was even more diligent than normal with peeking in on them over the night than required. Several times over those 2 decades, we ended up with pt's severely hypoglycemic...and they were just sleeping their way towards a coma.  I could smell it as soon as I walked into their room. A bit of glucose through their IV (there is a strict protocol we followed), and they were just fine, but it can really be a serious complication. |
| Interesting. I know highs can be detected by ketones on the breath but I had no idea about lows. Post-op after being given steroids in the OR I would always have to double or triple my basal rates since the steroids shot my sugars very high. Hated that!!! You are correct any dog in tune to their owner could be a service dog!!  |
| Thanks Lisa! I hope so too! We've already started our search... I think it would be wise to wait until after our wedding in April though. But if we find just the right rescue dog we may not be able to wait! |
My breeder has a wonderful female that needs a home due to a divorce...  ( PM me if you want details.... |
| I wish! Joan is a brittle diabetic and we have a system we've worked out over the years to try and prevent her from crashing in the middle of the night. Even with her Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS), as it doesn't catch everything but more importantly, it's SOOOOO stupid that the alarm on the thing isn't loud enough to wake her up, even if she wasn't hypoglycemic. |
| That is a problem. I've used the mini med CGMS and I had a lot of trouble with it. Turns out it doesn't work very well if you are crashing fast. It can't keep up with the drop. |
| It's not perfect in the glucose readings, but it's better than nothing. They made a table-top readout-only unit ostensibly for parents so that they can know what the readings are of their children without waking them up to look at their meter. I didn't even bother to look into its alarming volume, because it was... are you sitting? $2400!!!!! Thieves!!!! I've lost all respect for them. In this day and age, the pump could send a wifi message of some sort, or send a text message, or make a cell call, or all of the above, if there's no response to an alarm. It's almost criminal that the thing isn't loud enough to wake her up or to alert someone in the next room. |
| Hopefully its only a matter of time for that to become available. Now there is another brand that I heard is better. I think it's the dexcom..... Suppose to be better but it's another device that you wear on your belt along with your pump.... Don;t like that! |
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