I never cease to be amazed at the things dogs can be trained to do.
At airports, they can sniff out drugs and explosives. In prisons, some are being used to find prisoners' banned cell phones. Several have also been taught to detect certain cancer cells.
In other words, dogs have more skills than just fetching the morning paper.
Now comes this news, reported by Reuters: In England, dogs are being trained to warn their diabetic owners when their blood sugar levels fall to dangerously low levels. Amazing, eh?
In a survey last year at Queen's University Belfast, researchers found that 65 percent of 212 people with insulin-dependent diabetes reported that their pets reacted when they had hypoglycemic episodes. The dogs barked, whined, licked or offered some other form of awareness.
The Cancer and Bio-Detection Dogs research center in Aylesbury, England, is working with 17 rescue dogs to teach them to detect subtle changes that can occur when a person is about to have an attack.
Claire Guest, chief executive of the research center, told Reuters: "Dogs have been trained to detect certain odors down to parts per trillion, so we are talking tiny, tiny amounts. Their world is really very different to ours."
Different, perhaps. But what would we do without them?
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