Amanda, an 11-year-old girl living with Type 1 DM in Groton, Connecticut, received a very special Diabetic Alert Service Dog delivery today from Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers.
PRESS RELEASE UPDATED: OCT 27, 2017 14:46 EDT
GROTON, Conn., October 27, 2017 (Newswire.com) - Amanda, a Type 1 Diabetic since the age of four, received a very special placement of her own Diabetic Alert Dog from Service Dogs By Warren Retrievers! Based out of Madison, Virginia, Service Dogs By Warren Retrievers, or more commonly known as “SDWR,” places custom trained and bred service dogs for individuals living with invisible disabilities like Diabetes, Autism, PTSD, and Seizure Disorders. With nearly 1,000 families actively enrolled or waiting for their service dog placement, SDWR has a mission to bring each a life-saving service dog. Amanda’s new service dog, Samba, will be expected to perform necessary tasks to assist her diabetes diagnosis.Samba, a Labrador Retriever Diabetic Service Dog, recently graduated from the SDWR Service Dog in Training Raiser program. Samba has already received several thousand hours of training with both volunteers and professional trainers in preparation for working service dog life. With the assistance of a certified SDWR trainer, Samba will continue to develop skills to serve Amanda with actions like alerting to high and low blood sugar, dialing 911 on a special device during emergencies, and increasing her independence.
Amanda wears a dexcom along with an insulin pump and does not always feel when she is low. According to Amanda’s mom, Rebecca, "Her pancreas does not produce insulin. Therefore, she has to monitor her blood sugar by testing and giving herself insulin when she eats food." Amanda’s family is hoping that with the assistance of a Diabetic Alert Dog they will have the security they need to help her stay in a good range. Samba will not only be a life-saving asset to Amanda, but also a companion for her to help her when she is feeling ill.
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 Samba is a service dog and covered under laws in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, he will be able to accompany Amanda everywhere. Thanks to these laws, Samba can accompany Amanda to any of her extracurricular events since she leads a very active lifestyle - from swimming and gymnastics, to playing at the park or riding her bike.
SDWR will return to Amanda’s home 3-4 times throughout the course of the coming 18 months. During this time, they will continue working on Samba’s customized training and public access certification. This certification can only be given to Samba’s handler, Amanda, after a progression of hard work and dedication to the SDWR training program.
For nearly a decade, SDWR has been utilizing the placement and return training method and received positive results with families worldwide. The organization strives to place dogs with families based on their unique personalities to facilitate a strong bond and positivity-based training method. SDWR requires no travel by handlers to custom-train a service dog and instead sends trainers to their homes on a set schedule. This ensures the dogs learn all the custom commands in the environment in which they will be expected to work.
Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers is a non-profit 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, http://www.sdwr.org.
To learn more about Diabetic Alert Dogs visit http://www.sdwr.org/service-dogs/diabetic-alert/.
To find out how you can volunteer as a Service Dog in Training Raiser visit http://www.sdwr.org/volunteer-opportunities.
