Service Dogs
Joanne Kocourek (jskocour(AT)midway.uchicago.edu)
Wed, 1 Oct 1997 11:30:09 -0600
We also have two dogs. Oreo, our Shepard/Collie mix, responds to all of
Kristen's alarms when we don't have nursing support. (Curiously only when
we don't have nursing support). He barks his "alert/warning" bark and runs
between us and Kristen until we resolve the situation. We did nothing to
train him, he just seemed to instinctively know that the alarm means
something. If we could figure out a way to have him recognize hypoxia and
hypercarbia we'd consider trading a "service dog" for nursing at night or
to give Kristen more independence during the day. Her symptoms are just to
subtle and quick to train a dog effectively. I did contact several of the
service dog placement groups and they didn't have any suggestions either.
Joanne Kocourek
The University of Chicago
jskocour(AT)midway.uchicago.edu