Diabetes-Smelling Dog Sniffs Out Low Blood Sugar

In the pantheon of awesome dogs, there's Lassie, Old Yeller, this cancer-sniffing pup and now Shirley, a yellow lab who can smell diabetes.

Well, essentially. According to a new report on MSNBC, Shirley is a medical assistance dog who's been trained to smell any drops in the blood sugar levels of her owner, four-year-old type 1 diabetic, Rebecca Farrar.

According to MSNBC, wherever Rebecca goes, Shirley goes, making her the first-ever medical assistance dog to be let into a mainstream public school. There, she provides Rebecca with a potentially life-saving service -- sniffing when her blood sugar has dropped dangerously low and licking her, which alerts teachers to the danger.

Trainers at the British charity Medical Detection Dogs admit they're baffled about what it is, exactly, that Shirley's actually smelling, but are no less impressed by the dog's life-saving skills.

WATCH:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Comments

[janie@atthelake]

09:01 PM on 02/09/2011

Yellow labs!

[Patchdee]

01:08 PM on 02/09/2011

Back in the 1940's, my uncle's life was saved by his dog when my uncle was 13 years old, but it was the classic Lassie story. Climbing through a fence on his parent's farm while rabbit hunting, my uncle shot himself in the chest. The dog ran back to the farmhouse and raised the alarm.
While cleaning out papers in my parents home recently, I found the original bill for the surgery and 3 week hospital stay. The total bill was $100! I called my uncle and asked if he knew how much it had cost. He said, "well, whatever it cost we didn't have the money to pay it!"

These stories of dogs saving people through their sense of smell are really amazing and so heart warming. We should be doing a lot more research into this field!

[Jebbushnot]

08:51 AM on 02/09/2011

If that same dog can by smell make that determination, could he smell a demogogue
at Fox News?

[Patchdee]

01:08 PM on 02/09/2011

Good one! If he could I think he'd have the good sense to run away after alerting.

[Dee Amschler]

09:56 AM on 02/08/2011

Dogs can sense a lot of things we (humans) don't. As a result, they can help with myriad medical conditions as service or assistance dogs - from the traditional guide dogs for the blind to dogs for diabetics and dogs for stuff like neurological or psychiatric conditions. I have a dog that does an INCREDIBLE job of sensing when I'm going to get a migraine - and he can tell BEFORE my aura starts. Helps me immensely since some of my migraines are optical and the main thing is at least partial loss of vision rather than pain. He also helps me a lot with PTSD because he reacts NORMALLY to surroundings and can, as a result, tell me if things are (or aren't) safe.

[DMSmith]

03:41 AM on 02/08/2011

Dogs have an amazing sense of smell. My Portuguese Water Dog, Django has been part of a study in Berkeley some few years ago that trained the dogs to sniff out human cancers. They were 100% correct and trained to 5 types of cancer. We need to learn more about how to use this. It's truly wonderful.

[janie@atthelake]

09:02 PM on 02/09/2011

Good dog Django!

[Edy Williams]

02:23 AM on 02/08/2011

Yes dogs do this,I Have a Monster beautiful cat,She makes sure im up out of bed,right on time or its MEOOOWWWWW!,Hehas ezact time tables in his head! Great Cat he is!

[Edy Williams]

02:20 AM on 02/08/2011

Love to adopt a dog like this,think 50% of population has Blood sugar level blues! He is quite valuable.!Now where to find one please!

[Victoria Blue]

01:23 AM on 02/08/2011

It amazes me how little we know about animals, even one we've lived with for thousands of years.

[Gin1234]

11:34 PM on 02/07/2011

Really low blood sugar is one of the worst feelings known to humans.  I, myself, would not need a dog to sniff it out, but I don't know what it feels like to a child.

[-swift]

07:44 AM on 02/08/2011

Some children have a tendency not to notice until levels are dangerously low. It's my greatest fear as a teacher.

[dengal]

11:20 PM on 02/07/2011

Dogs are amazing! When I first rescued one of my dogs, I was lying in bed and sneezed, she jumped up on me and touch her mouth to mine to make sure I was breathing regularly. It freaked her out if I held my breath, coughed, sneezed or had any breathing disruption. im sure she could have done CPR! or could have been trained to help someone with breathing issues like ashtma

[Patchdee]

01:09 PM on 02/09/2011

Cute story! F & F.

[valluhree]

11:02 PM on 02/07/2011

Dogs are absolutely fantastic. The way Shirley looked when she had her head rested on that desk was super cute, too!

[Patchdee]

01:10 PM on 02/09/2011

I noticed that too. Imagine her level of focus and concentration! How adorable and awesome.

[jessivehadit]

09:36 PM on 02/07/2011

ARF ARF ARF

Lassie, what is it, girl?

ARF ARF...ARF ARF ARF

Type 2 Diabetes? What???

ARF ARF

How do you even know what that is??

ARF ARF ARF ARF

My aunt is not fat!!!

ARF ARFFFFF

Go ARF yourself!

[The Sun is Rising]

08:03 PM on 02/07/2011

They have a program like this in northern california, the dogs are always accurate. I think it would be more helpful for children who might be less likely to express or even feel their sugar dropping, than an adult who should already be prepared and recognized the symptoms right away.

[Susan Osterhout Troiano]

07:38 PM on 02/07/2011

This is a perfect example why we should be kind to our animals. We need them for something and the dogs could someone's life.