This is a new one even for me. I had no idea a dog could be trained to alert to Gluten. Not only that but the smallest traces of grains on a piece of food. Thank goodness my allergy isn’t nearly as bad as this person’s I wouldn’t know what to do. I am very glad they were able to match her with a dog who could help her stay healthy.
COLUMBIA, Mo., Jan. 12 (UPI) — A Missouri college student with an extreme allergy to gluten gets help staying healthy from her hardworking gluten-detecting service dog Elias. Hollie Scott, 22, suffers from such a severe case of celiac disease she can be ill for weeks if she eats food that has simply been sliced with a knife used previously to carve something containing minimal gluten content, USA Today reported.
Elias, Scott’s 2-year-old Beauceron, goes everywhere with the first-year student in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri. After gluten-detection training in Slovenia last year, Elias can now detect and warn Scott away from anything containing gluten, hot or cold, in all its many manifestations, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
Scott was diagnosed with celiac disease two years ago after having spent much of her high school years “in and out of hospitals.” She’s now acutely vigilant about checking labels and trying to avoid cross-contamination.
Celiac disease “brings a whole new level of stress” to the very notion of mealtime, Scott says, and the help Elias provides is “comforting.”
And as if protecting Scott wasn’t enough, Elias is a show champion too, a former American Kennel Club Grand Champion — the first Beauceron to win that title — and will compete in the Westminster Dog Show in New York City next month.
Wow – really interesting! I had no idea that dogs could detect gluten too. Amazing.
Last year I learned about a rescued Chihuahua who became a woman's seizure alert dog. Since then I've begun publishing a book about service dogs (Partners With Paws – Happy Tails Books), but I had never heard of a gluten alert dog until reading your post. Very interesting and useful – people with celiac disease often find themselves going home from a restaurant ill because of food that supposively didn't have gluten in it. A gluten alert dog would be very helpful for them!
OH we could use one of these trained dogs over here!
Kyla – I didn't know about your books about service dogs. I only knew about your Puppy Mills Dogs.