Why Hub City Service Dogs?

I'm failing miserably about talking about our journey with Type 1 and how life has changed in the last 11 months. I am honestly going to try to do better. With that being said I thought that I would write about why we have chosen to get a Diabetic Alert Dog for Jack and more importantly why we have chosen Hub City Service Dogs in Hattiesburg, MS.

Type 1 diabetes is a very scary disease all by itself. What makes it even scarier is if you have a child (or adult) that does not realize when their blood sugar is getting to a dangerous level - either high or low. The purpose behind the Diabetic Alert Dog is that the dog will help alert the person to a changing blood sugar - in Jack's case it will be a low blood sugar. I know that many of you are probably thinking that this is the most absurd thing you have ever heard. How does a dog know that a blood sugar is going into the dangerous range? Dogs have an amazing sense of smell. Case in point police K9's and search and rescue dogs that can find humans - dead or alive. Diabetic alert dogs go through a type of training known as odor training. What that entails is that scent samples (Jack's saliva when his blood sugar is low) are given to the trainer and then the trainer takes those samples and begins to train the dog to alert to whenever they smell that certain smell. From everything that I have read, watched and learned from Bubba (our trainer) these dogs can give a good advance warning on when the blood sugar is changing into a dangerous range and that allows their human to check and treat that blood sugar. We know that this dog will not cure Jack's diabetes or even take away our hyper vigilance of checking and managing this disease. We know that we will have just added another tool to his diabetes care to help him be able to live as normal a life as possible. Another reason why we are getting the dog is for Jack's safety while at school. Jack goes to a very large school and is the only student in the school with Type 1. That is hard for us as parents and for the staff of the school. We appreciate very much all that they have done for us. We want to make sure that Jack is safe at school and that is hard when there is only one person in the entire school that is trained in his care. If there were to be an emergency, the only person that could help would be the nurse and she is all the way in the front office. Some in the school are not thrilled about the dog but as I have told anyone who will listen, if Jack were blind or in a wheelchair there would be no argument.

Type 1 diabetes is a very misunderstood disease. Those that have not had any interaction with it do not understand how serious of a disease this is. They do not understand that Jack has to have insulin all the time. They do not understand how dangerous it is for him not to be able to feel his body's cues of a high or low blood sugar. We are trying very hard to educate as many as we can about this disease and everything that comes with it.

Now for the next question - why did we chose Hub City Service Dogs? A few months after Jack's diagnosis I was researching different things online relating to Type 1. A few news stories came up about a new type of service dog - Diabetic Alert Dogs. After reading about families with these dogs and watching videos of what they do, I began to research trainers and breeders in or around Florida (on the East Coast). I am sad to say that I did not find anything in or around Florida, much less the East Coast. Everything I found was in the mid-West or Western states. Some of the programs had residency restrictions on them. Most of them came with a price tag pushing $30,000. I was on a website for parents of Type 1 diabetics and I ran across a story of a girl that had a D.A.D. and was doing beauty pageants. Now I would normally never do this but I looked for the mother's contact information and found it. I sent an email shortly after just asking if she could give me some advice on D.A.D.'s and trainers. A few days later I received the most amazing reply. The mom replied back with enthusiasm and generosity in answering my questions. She also said that she had talked to her trainer where they lived and asked me to call him. A few days later I did just that. After speaking with Bubba and hearing all about their program, I felt that this was the organization that we would work with. This organization is absolutely amazing. To start with they are non-profit and that makes a world of difference for us. Another thing about Hub City Service Dogs is that they train service dogs for all walks of people. They are not just focused on one select group of clients. Everyone that we have been able to meet have been so passionate about this calling and this organization. That makes all the difference. I know what many of you are thinking - why did you drive to Hattiesburg? Honestly, I would have driven to the moon just to work with these amazing people.

One final thing, as far as Jon and I can tell, we believe that Jack will be one of the only people in Jacksonville with a D.A.D. We are hoping that once people see what this dog can do than all of the misconceptions will go away. We are still trying to fundraise to help the organization place more dogs with other families. If you know of any business or if you would like to donate, please go to http://hubcitydogtraining.com/.

For now.