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Community Corner

Local Heroes: Diabetes Service Dogs

Some of us are impressed when our dogs chase a tennis ball and actually bring it back. Others expect more; they depend on their dogs -- as their eyes, their ears, or their lifeline.

Meet Rebecca Wilson and her dog, Timmy.  Wilson’s mom lives in Altadena, so likely you have seen or will see Wilson with Timmy in local restaurants, grocery stores, on public transportation, at concerts, theaters, or in airports. Airports, because Wilson is a theater major in Chicago, and jets back and forth.

Wilson copes with Type 1 Diabetes. Timmy can help with that.

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Timmy is a cross of two, four, or who knows how many breeds – but Irish Wolfhound and Labradoodle seem likely candidates. “Basically,” she says, fondly, “he’s a mutt.”

Timmy is a service dog, who uses his sense of scent to detect when Wilson’s blood sugar reaches critical levels – too high or too low. He can’t adjust her insulin, but he can nudge her awake at night or put a paw on her lap during the day to indicate it’s time to use her medical tools to correct a serious imbalance.

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The training for diabetes service dogs starts at a very young age. At first, it's about manners -- how to ride a bus, an elevator, behave on a plane, tuck a small or large doggy body into inconspicuous places (under chairs, for example).  Then, when a  match is made to a specific human, they’ll be trained to detect the scent of variations in that particular human’s blood sugar.

And after a mutual training period, the dog and owner ride off into the sunset and sunrise together. The two will be looking after one another from now on.

About flying between Chicago and LA, Wilson says, “When I’m rich, I’ll buy Timmy his own seat.” For now, the two of them get situated in the bulkhead, which provides Timmy a bit of extra floor space.

Wilson enjoys visiting Altadena, Pasadena, and the surrounding areas, because Southern Californians accept, without question, her assistance dog, everywhere.  Locally, the two have been enthusiastically welcomed at Websters, the Alehouse,  El Patron, Trader Joes… 

Chicago is another matter.  Because in Chicago, some folks without disabilities kit their dogs out with fake assistance vests to sneak them onto public transportation and into restaurants. “It makes it harder and harder for someone like me," says Wilson.

“In Chicago, I’ll take Timmy to a restaurant or where dogs are not ordinarily allowed, and there’s suspicion. Sometimes they’ll say, ‘You have a service dog, but you don’t look sick.’”

They’re right. Rebecca Wilson doesn’t look sick.  She looks wonderful. And that’s the whole point. With Timmy’s help, she is doing just fine.

Wilson and Timmy are so much in tuned to each other, she says it feels, “really weird the few times I am without him. Timmy always heels on my left, and if he’s not there,  it’s like my left hand has no purpose at all. It’s like, why do I even have this left hand?

“Timmy’s on the job, pretty much 24/7; always looking out for me, everywhere I go.”

For more information on service dogs for those with diabetes, you can start with National Institute for Diabetic Alert Dogs.

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