How to train a dog to sniff out low blood sugar levels in diabetes sufferers

The sense of smell in dogs is by far their most powerful sense.
A dog’s nose is up to one million times more sensitive than a human’s nose. And for one woman living in Belfast this sense of smell has been a life-saver.Wendy Smyth has type one diabetes and her 10-year-old golden retriever Echo has been trained to smell when her blood sugar is dropping and a hypoglycemic attack may be imminent.
Her story features on the new UTV series Dogs with Jobs. Wendy explains: “Although I have an insulin pump with an alarm on it and it alarms me when my sugars drop low, Echo’s nose will beat that by 10 or 15 minutes.“She’ll tell me in time for me to do something about it.“Basically she helps me, without needing any help from the health service. Previously I’ve had the ambulance called to work and taking up time from the health service. “Her nose can detect half a teaspoon of sugar in a swimming pool of water.“Since I’ve had Echo I’ve needed no third-party help.”More than anything, Echo has given Wendy some freedom. Previously her family were worried about her at all times.“It’s given me back independence and confidence too. Prior to Echo I did worry.“Those worries are gone – I don’t even think about that now.“To me she is a lifesaver.“If I didn’t have her and collapsed somewhere, never mind behind the wheel of a car. Who knows what damage you would do?”But with Echo’s age creeping up and retirement on the horizon for her, there’s a new kid on the block ready to take on the task of Wendy’s personal alert dog.Digby is an excitable two-year-old male black labrador – as Wendy calls him “the rocket” – and has been trained to smell Wendy’s blood sugar levels.“Digby is Echo’s successor. She’ll stay here to see her days out and teach Digby all her good habits.”So how do you train a dog in England to smell someone’s blood sugar in Northern Ireland? It seems like something from a science fiction movie but the answer is more simplistic.Wendy says: “I had to submit breath samples into test tubes and post them over when my samples were [low on blood sugar].“The trainers then used those to train Digby to my blood sugar levels.”Amazingly, when Wendy and Digby met for the first time, the black labrador indicated on the boat home across the Irish Sea that Wendy’s blood sugar level was low.Wendy’s story features along with lots of other amazing stories of inspirational dogs on UTV’s brand new series Dogs with Jobs which airs Thursday 15th August at 8.30pm. You can watch the series on ITVX here.
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