Moby, a Medical Detection Dog
Moby is the dog sponsored by Accu-Chek Mobile to be trained by Medical Detection Dogs in order to become a partner to a person with diabetes who has extra needs, such as having no hypo awareness.
Claire Pesterfield who has Type 1 diabetes and has her own hypo dog, called Magic, is also a registered diabetes nurse and works with Medical Detection Dogs, a charity based in Milton Keynes, to help match trained dogs with the right partners.
Pesterfield told us how Moby’s training has been going over the last six months since we interviewed her in a ‘My Diabetes Kit’ story for this magazine. She told us, “Moby has been out and about as she continues her assistance dog apprenticeship, travelling as far afield as London, Bournemouth, Coventry and Leicester.”
While most year-old doggies are learning to catch balls in the garden Moby is learning the art of being a Medical Detection Dog and has so far mastered superb behaviour while out shopping, visiting cafés and riding on public transport with her trainer.
Claire Pesterfield, who has Type 1 diabetes, with her hypo dog, Magic
“Moby has all the basic behaviours well-rehearsed,” says Pesterfield, “and is now moving on to some of the more advanced training, such as retrieving to hand, off lead control and recall away from distraction. Now we are now particularly focusing on Moby’s motivation as this is where additional work is required, she has never been a particularly foodie dog! She is now nearing final stages of her public access training and is joining the socialisers with all their daily activities, whether that’s a walk in a country park, the cinema, theatre or a restaurant. Moby very much enjoyed her recent trip to Bournemouth where she played on the beach using her new-found confidence with water, dashing in out the sea fetching her ball.”
At this stage of her training, Moby is being assessed to determine what age and lifestyle of client would be most suitable to match her with.
We’ll follow up with another update in a few month’s time.
Moby’s training is being sponsored by Accu-Chek from Roche Diabetes Care.
News items and features like this appear in the Desang Diabetes Magazine, our free-to-receive digital journal. We cover diabetes news, diabetes management equipment (diabetes ‘kit’ such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring equipment) and news about food suitable for a diabetic diet including a regular Making Carbs Count column. Go to the top of this page to sign up – we just need your email address. www.desang-magazine.co.uk
