For over a year I read and thought and dreamed about a diabetic alert dog. A dog that could become part of our family.A dog that my daughter would grow to love. That would alert if she went to high or more important if she were to drop to low in the middle of the night.So I found a wonderful website with wonderful people .We filled out the form and waited. today I got my answer. As much as they wanted to,they could not help us at this time.At this time they are working only with people in their area.So much training and one on one work has to be done... anyway I think these people are great.Helping type 1 people at no cost for the person needing the dog.It cost them 15 thousand to train alert dogs,if I remember right. oh well,I am going to search around for another alert dog.
My son has had diabetes for over 6 years now and we have had 3 different dogs in that time. Our present dog is a shitzu and maltese cross. He sleeps with our son, at first because they got along and he is the youngest kid and still wanted to sleep with the dog. Well, 3 times in the last 2 years our dog has woke "zach" up. There are times I have gotten up and taken zach's sugars at 3 am and he was low and the dog never woke him up. We are just thankful for the 3 times that he did wake him up. My mom now insists that the dog comes over too when zach stays at my moms. It would be awesome if somehow you could train a dog to do that.
It might be worth checking with the company you applied to or other diabetes alert dog companies. I read about one company (but I can't recall which) that would provide training tools to help people train their own dogs. It can't hurt to ask.
Here's one company that does diabetes dogs, but I think you have to live in CA, if I remember correctly. I'm sure it says on their website somewhere. Or maybe they know of companies in other states that do the same?
I just wanted to say that it would be a great thing to have a dog that alerted when we are having problems. We adopted a dog last yr and she always sleeps with us and when I go low espically at night she is always there for me. She will start to lick any part of my body that is sticking out from under the blankets and she will cry(wine) until I wake up. Then as I'm stumbling to the kitchen she will be right beside me to make sure I make it there safely. Once in the kitchen she will leave me alone until I have eaten everything I need to, but she will sit right beside me until I'm ready to try to go back to bed. And when these times happen she will curl back up in bed beside me and she will stay awake for a while to make sure I'm ok. I don't know if she would really be an alert dog but she is close enough for me. I didn't train her to do it but when we got her I was going to a rough patch with always going low and I think in some ways she got used to it and she can sense the changes in me before I can. But hopefully you are able to get the dog for your daughter and they will be everything both of you need.
Try to contact any service dog training facility i.e. seeing eye dog, seizure alert dogs. There are more of those type of training facilities around. Tell them what your looking for and they may lead you in a better direction. They will be familiar with trainers closer to your home. Right now I have a 13 month Weimaraner which at 6 months I sent away for general training (10 days away from home, then 10 session of in house training (to train me) and then 3 follow up appointments for $800). Now that he's getting a bit older I can have the same trainer train him as a service dog (which I anticipate doing in the fall). This will cost another $800 which is a lot of money but it's something that I have had time to buget. It's just a suggestion. I figure it can't hurt to try.