Diabetic Alert Dogs alert the handler to low and high blood glucose situations. This is a critical tool for those diabetics that no longer feel their highs and lows - particularly during the night. A diabetic alert dog is in the medical alert catagory.

These dogs are trained to alert day and night, so must be of a temperament with a desire to work 24/7. This arena of working dog is not suited to all dogs. Although all dogs have a keen sense of smell and may detect changes, it's a small percentage of dogs that want a full time job of this scope. Diabetic alert dogs are trained to alert to out of range blood glucose and then indicate whether they detect high or low.

Organizations can typically only place dogs with type 1 diabetics and often only with those individuals that are hypoglycemic unaware. This is because there are simply not enough dogs for current demand.