Dogs have a much better sense of smell than us humans. In fact, a dog can detect a single teaspoon of sugar dissolved into a million gallons of water, the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools!

Our human bodies give off a specific odour when our blood sugar drops or rises - this is the case in healthy humans, too, but in Diabetics, the changes are often much more dramatic. Dogs can smell this odour change and we can teach them to notify us when the smell is present.

Diabetes Alert Dogs are trained to identify and respond to the odours of blood sugar levels above and below predetermined levels. This is particularly helpful to those who have lost their hypoglycaemia awareness, those who have very busy lifestyles and may miss their hypo symptoms, and also those who just want an extra safety net during the day or at night. 

Whilst there are many brilliant pieces of technology available for Type 1 Diabetics nowadays, technology is still not 100% fail-safe. Dogs can typically smell a hypo up to half an hour before technology can measure it, so combining our dogs’ abilities with the best technology we can access means we can give Type 1 Diabetics the best chance at living a safe and healthy life.

In addition to learning how to alert to low and high blood sugars, a Diabetes Alert Dog can learn to retrieve their handler’s testing kit, fetch hypo treatment, and any other tasks that help to mitigate their handler’s condition(s).

Under the Equality Act 2010, a trained Diabetes Alert Dog is classed as an assistance dog who mitigates their handler’s disability and thus would have access rights in public when accompanying their handler.