Profiles

Hi. My name is Kathy. I'm 30 years old and have had type 1 diabetes since the age of 11. My Mum, Gail, (who is also a diabetic) first told me about Paws for Diabetics. Mum was very keen to have an alert dog as she has extremely brittle diabetes. After several conversations with Mum I was a little disappointed to learn that most breeds used were small. However, after talking to Lorraine (the Director of Training for Paws for Diabetics) I realised that my 4 year old boxer Gracie met most of the requirements.

I got Gracie at the age of 6 weeks and from there we developed a very close loving bond. In hind sight I realised the over the years Gracie had tried to alert me of a night, went I can suffer from Hypos, but she was told to settle down and go back to sleep, so I decided to apply to have Gracie in the training program. Gracie has led a full life starting in the show ring but she showed no enthusiasm so we decided obedience and agility was the go. These were activities that we both enjoyed. Our latest adventure is fly ball.

Gracie has a laidback nature and loves everyone. We have been everywhere a regular dog can go and she takes everything in her stride. I believe she will easily handle the extra training she needs to be accredited as an assistance dog. Gracie and I have started scent training so she can pick up on my hypos and this time around Gracie will be rewarded for her efforts. Gracie will still continue to do all the fun things we share. When accredited, Gracie will unfortunately not be able to come to work with me as I'm a Early Childhood teacher. With a large number of children in my care, I feel the distraction would be too great. Gracie has done kinder and nursing home visits where she loves being adored. I’ve done a instructors course at my local dog club. In the future I hope to further my training skills so that I can assist others to train their dogs or to help a person with a puppy enjoy their training journey.

Update 25th July, 2007
Gracie passed her public access test today and is now fully accredited!