Nine-year-old diabetic boy rescued from forest by his dogs
Last weekend, a nine-year-old boy collapsed in forest close to home as a result of a diabetic attack, but help was on hand when he was rescued by his dogs Krissu and Luna.
Oskar spoke to ETV's "Aktuaalne kaamera" on Wednesday about how his dogs Krissu, trained as a diabetic support dog, and Luna came to the rescue. "I fell down under the tree and my dog [Krissu] came to me, he started to bark and lick me and then our other dog [Luna] came and saw that I was not well and went to call my dad. She went several times but dad could not understand."
Finally, Oskar's dad suspected that something was wrong as Luna would not stop barking and went to search for his son.
Springer Spaniel Krissu has been trained to signal when a Oskar's blood sugar level is outside of a safe range. Oskar said he would probably be able to cope with diabetes without a dog, but not very well badly. "This Sunday's example would have been very bad for me if I hadn't had a dog," Oskar said. "Let's just say, there is no better friend in the world than him."
Oskar's mother Pille Vaher said they decided to start training their dog as a diabetic alert dog, or hypo dog, when Oskar was diagnosed with diabetes. "Then the idea arose that there might be someone besides myself to help. But now it has paid off, I can't even imagine what would have happened [without him]."
Some of the things hypo dogs are trained to do include bringing juice to their owner to raise their blood sugar, but they are not taught to call for help. Kriss and Golden Retriever Luna were able to help Oskar so well on Sunday because they were able to work together.
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Editor: Helen Wright