Introducing..."The Dog Lady."

I don’t exactly know why I haven’t written about this before. I think it’s because I didn’t want to be known as “the dog lady,” but leaving out this huge part of my life any longer seems dishonest, so I’m coming right out with it.

We have a diabetic service dog, and he is the most amazing animal on God’s green earth.

There, I said it. I have a secret weapon, a cheat sheet if you will, and he has completely changed our lives.

I applied for the Dogs4Diabetics program on a whim 2 ½ years ago, during Christmas. It is based in Concord, California about an hour and a half from where we live. I knew there was a long waiting list, but hey, I had 2 diabetics at the time, that had to count for something. Miraculously we heard back right away. A few more applications and a few months later we were in.

The expectation of the program was that we were to attend the training meetings every Tuesday night and the first Sunday of every month until they found the right dog for our family. Generally it took from 6 months to 2 years to be placed with a dog. During our training period we would work extensively with service dogs and learn how to properly handle them.

Dogs4Diabetics was founded by a Type 1 man who is a higher up for Guide Dogs for the Blind. While he was on a business trip, a dog he was traveling with woke him up from a severe low in his hotel room. Shortly after, he began working with dogs that for various reasons did not make the guide dog program, and career changed them as a medical alert dog for diabetics. Part of the training included hiding a small swath that was rubbed with the scent of a diabetic going low. They would hide the swath and the dogs would get a treat if they found it. Once the dog recognized the scent, it was fairly easy to apply it to a human, because when we go low our entire body exudes the scent. It is a very powerful scent to a dog.

B was diagnosed a few months after we started the program. B adjusted beautifully to his new life, especially due to the fact that this dog we were working so hard to get would indeed be his too. I on the other hand spiraled into a deep depression. It lasted almost 5 months, 3 diabetics, school starting, diabetic dog training…it was too much diabetes. It was about 10 months after we started the program that I considered stopping. I was too overwhelmed and tired. I knew it would take a super special dog to be able to work with my family and I was losing hope. Just then they handed us the leash of a beautiful yellow lab named Lawton. They said, “We want you to work only with this guy for a little while, let’s see if there is chemistry” They had us train with him for a few months and one day we received an email that we would be able to take him home and see if he would be the right fit for our family.

FEAR- we could take him home on a trial basis, what if he didn’t alert? What if it didn’t work out? The boys would be DEVESTATED!

Lawton came home with us in March of 2008. He woke me up the first night he was with us to alert us on a low. We graduated from the program in October 2008 and Lawton is now part of the family. He goes everywhere with us. In public, when he has his jacket on, he is the perfect dog; Head down and very serious. At home is his a goofball, leaping around the house like Bambi and taunting the boys with his toys. For the boys, he takes away all that is bad about Diabetes. In public and at school they happily answer questions about what Lawton does and are very proud they we are a family worthy of Lawton’s love.

And for me, Lawton has changed everything. For the first time in 10 years, I can sleep. He wakes me if there is a problem and alerts a couple times a day. He catches lows that I NEVER would have dreamed of, and better yet he often alerts me when the boys are dropping, before they hit the scary number. He has put the boys in a box of how they are supposed to smell, and if they go too low, or even too high, he alerts. He is my miracle. I still do all the work, I don’t check the kids less because he is here and night time checks are still a must. But, I for sure have a back up and a piece of mind that was not there before. He alerts me to about 95% of the boys lows.

Dogs4Diabetics is a non-profit. We were asked to pay a small application fee, (I don’t remember, I think it was $50.) and we were asked to buy a couple books, a treat bag, and a doggy first aid kit. We were not asked to pay a penny more for Lawton. He is easily worth $50,000 and he was just given to us. They also gave us his bed, bowls, flea and heartworm meds for the first few months, and toys. The people behind the program only want the best dog for your family and are very careful who they partner you up with. Many of them worked full time for years without pay to get this program off the ground.

I am in debt to the wonderful people at D4D. I wish I could clone Lawton and send a copy of him out to every diabetic in the world.

There you go, I am not super woman. I have serious help. Between Lawton (who alerted us 5 times yesterday,) my husband’s parents (who feed us 3 times a week,) my parents (who have us over every Friday,) and my sister in law (who happily babysits my 4 boys and the dog anytime,) I am spoiled rotten.