We Finally Have a Puppy!

Posted on 25. Aug, 2007 by Jillian in Glycogen Storage Disease, Glycogen Storage Disease Dogs, hypoglycemia, Medical Service Dogs

We took the plunge; and yesterday we brought home an adorable black Labradoodle (part Labrador, part poodle). Our oldest son, whose dog it is, has named him Luke- as in Luke Skywalker. I was pushing him for a brown one we could name Chewbacca (Chewy for short), but alas, he could not be prevailed upon. Labradoodles make great service dogs because they are bred to have the skill and temperament of Labradors, with the hypo-allergenic coat of a poodle.

Genesis Service Dogs of Boise, Idaho very generously donated this puppy to us. Not only did they give us an extremely intelligent and well behaved canine, but they are also donating their time and talent once a week to continue to train us and him. He has many very strict, yet important rules that we must follow, such as “no people food”, “no rough housing”, “only relieving on hard surfaces” etc. GSD (Genesis Service Dogs) is also letting us use their very expensive training equipment, as well as paying for all of his veterinarian services. The only thing we end up paying for is food. They are such compassionate people. Of course, there is no way to tell at this point if he will be able to detect hypoglycemia, but his uncle was raised by this group and eventually donated to Dogs 4 diabetics where he was successfully trained to detect low blood sugar, so I am full of hope.

We’ll keep the blog posted as to Luke’s progress.