W. Seattle woman trains dogs to sniff out problems in diabetics | Health

Dogs can act as eyes for the blind or help veterans overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But, there’s a whole lot more they can do.

Mary McNeight owns the Service Dog Academy in West Seattle and is on the cutting edge of discovering what new jobs dogs can do.

“They have amazing scent receptors,” McNeight said. “Dogs are basically just noses with dogs attached to them. Their world is experienced through scent."

Because those noses are 200 times more sensitive than ours, she has trained dogs to help people with diabetes monitor their blood sugar by smelling their breath.

McNeight claims dogs can sense when something is off 20 minutes before a meter can.

She’s also working with a narcolepsy dog right now in hopes he can help his owner with the sleep disorder. It’s something that has never been done before.

“If he can detect low blood pressure, the sky’s the limit in my opinion,” McNeight said. “If there is a biochemical change in the body, we ought to be able to get a dog to detect it.”