Diabetic Alert Service Dog Will Help 12-Year-Old Girl Living in Ewa Beach, Hawaii
Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers delivers a highly trained Diabetic Alert Service Dog to a 12-Year-Old girl in Ewa Beach, Hawaii.
Ewa Beach, Hi, March 27, 2018 (Newswire.com) - Annaka, a 12-year-old girl in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, received a very special Diabetic Alert Service Dog delivery this week by Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers. Based in Madison, Virginia, Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers, or “SDWR,” has a mission to provide specially-bred and trained dogs for adults and children of all ages with invisible disabilities like Autism, PTSD, Seizure Disorders, or in the case of Annaka—Diabetes. In 2017, SDWR reached a milestone of having over 600 service dogs working around the globe. SDWR is currently serving over 1,000 families.
Deacon, a labrador retriever Diabetic Alert Service Dog, has already received thousands of hours of training through SDWR’s service dog raiser program where volunteers raise puppies in training for approximately one year. The dogs and raisers must follow through the foundation and skill set training provided through SDWR trainers at the facility in Virginia.
Annaka will finally be able to sleep in her own bedroom. Her whole life up until current, she sleeps with parents. So when she receives her dog, she and her dog will sleep in her bedroom.
Amy, Mother of Service Dog Recipient
Annaka has lived with Type 1 Diabetes all her life and was diagnosed with hyperinsulinism at birth. She was also diagnosed with a seizure disorder at 1 month old. Amy, Annaka’s mother, describes the sense of normalcy having a service dog will provide, "Annaka will finally be able to sleep in her own bedroom. Her whole life up until current, she sleeps with parents. So when she receives her dog, she and her dog will sleep in her bedroom." One of the ways Deacon will help Annaka achieve this goal is by alerting when her blood sugars get out of range during the night while she is sleeping. Deacon will also be able to help Annaka find a safe place to lay down in case of a seizure and comfort her when she has anxiety or gets frustrated.
SDWR uses a proprietary scent training method to teach Diabetic Service Dogs to detect fluctuations in blood sugar that fall outside of a handler’s healthy range. Since Deacon is a service dog and covered under laws in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, he will be able to accompany the family everywhere—from restaurants to doctor visits to traveling with Annaka’s family on vacation. He will work with SDWR trainers to gain the full public-access certification.
In the coming 18 months, SDWR will return to Annaka’s home every 3-4 months to continue working on Deacon’s customized training, follow up training and training the human to make a successful team and public access certification. This certification can only be given to Annaka after a progression of hard work and dedication to the SDWR training program. This training program and their Lifetime Training Guarantee is what sets SDWR apart from other nonprofit service dog organizations.
Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers is a nonprofit organization based in Madison, Virginia, and relies on donations to help the organization in its mission, “Until there’s a cure…there’s a dog.” To make or donation or learn more about SDWR, please visit the website, www.sdwr.org. To learn more about Diabetic Alert Service Dogs visit www.sdwr.org/service-dogs/diabetic-alert/.
Source: Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers
