Why do YOU need a SERVICE DOG?

In the United States, the Ammended 2011 Code of Federal Regulations for the Americans with Disabilities Act states: Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA. 

And that's all you need to know! Rather, that's all any other business person or establishment needs to know.

These items do not matter when you are in conflict with an establishment:

• Whether or not your dog is in a vest 
• Certification of your service dog
• If you got your dog from an organization or self trained them.

An establishment, BY LAW is only required (allowed) to ask the following questions

1. Is your dog a service animal?
2. What task/s do they perform? 

They are NOT ALLOWED to ask your disability!

Now the "forbidden question"...

What makes diabetes so life-threatening and "Service Dog Worthy?"

Disability is 

defined as “a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long- 

term adverse effect on an individual’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day 

activities”. 

Diabetes is now recognised as a disability under the Disability Discrimination 

Act (DDA) 1995/2004.   

The act introduced new laws aimed at ending the discrimination that many 

people with disabilities face, especially in the area of employment. 

Click HERE for Public Access Resource List

WHAT IS TYPE 1 Diabetes?

Simply put, it is an unpreventable, incurable auto-immune disease dependent on insulin hourly in order to live. The part of the pancreas that once worked all this out so the food eaten breaks down properly in the blood, no longer works, so BLOOD SUGAR is a constant, life-threatening issue...

What IS a Diabetic Alert Dog?

A D.A.D is a trained dog raised by professional/experienced and competent handler. This dog is just like any service dog, public access certified, and everything! -Just for a diabetic. They are trained to alert their owner to changes in their blood sugar levels...These dogs go through serious obedience training, fetch and retrieve, etc, so that they can run for juice or for the diabetic's kit when necessary. Link on "Does your DAD need certification?"

How the TWO Connect...

A diabetic alert dog can warn it's handler of their low blood sugar before it gets life threatening. Some are known to begin alerting on the decline, even. Most importantly, the dog MAY alert in the night hours, when blood sugar may rapidly fall drop without correction. This is fatal for diabetics. The dog smells the chemical change in his body and will alert.