Three-Year Old Diabetic Girl Has Life-Saving 15-Week Old Dog

May 27, 2012

An adorable three year-old in Gloucester, England has a 15-week old pal who may save her life. Olivia Hamilton is diabetic and needs constant monitoring. Her cocker spaniel Bonnie has been scent-trained to alert the family when Olivia’s blood sugar is low by barking and running around. Bonnie’s done this eight times already.

Click on the image above or go here to ITV News’ Rebecca Broxton’s report The dog that is proving a lifesaver to a little girl with diabetes to read the complete story and watch a very sweet video of this beautiful blonde child, her puppy and her mother.

Of course, there’s nothing not to love in this story. Especially the fact that at three Olivia is unaware of how exactly special and important her new puppy is. A new puppy in the house should always be the center of a young child’s world, how could it be otherwise? It gives me a lot of pleasure imagining how much deeper Olivia’s relationship to Bonnie will be when she fully understands what Bonnie is doing on her behalf.

But what amazes me is that this cocker spaniel could learn this skill so well, so reliably at just 15 weeks! Could this be  some sort of World’s Record for youngest dog to reach this level of proficiency? Does anyone out there know of a similar case, involving a puppy? Color me impressed!

When our first Lab was just under three months old we were congratulating ourselves for successfully house training him. A reliable response to Sit, Stay, Come and Settle Down was a work in progress at that point.

And this amazing cocker spaniel puppy has been trained to detect minute changes in Olivia’s breath and body odor and alert when they go into the Danger Zone. Bonnie also types 60 WPM, speaks French, Dutch and Farsi, drives stick shift, is competitive in mixed martial arts and is having her first novel, Rawhide Chews & Belly Rubs published this fall by Little, Brown and Company.

 

 

 

 

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