Diabetes alert dogs

Lately I have learned that there is such thing as a dog trained to alert for low (and sometimes even high) blood sugar levels. They might not be as accurate and/or consistent as a CGM (Continues Glucose Meter) but are for sure more user friendly and non invasive. As opposed to what many people think; insulin pumps, unless they have an integrated CGM, do not check blood sugar. Diabetic patients nowadays still have to prick their fingers to draw blood for a manual blood sugar meter test, multiple times per day, so it wouldn't hurt to have another set of ears or in this case nostrils, in our house. So I started reading and inquiring about it and found that these dogs are now being recognized as guidance or alert dogs for every aspect it might have. They are scent trained and can tell when their owner's blood sugar is not in range. The web is filled with amazing stories of diabetes alert dogs that have saved their owner's life by detecting dangerous low blood sugars (also known as hypoglycemia). But, and there's a BIG but, a fully trained dog would cost around $10,000 and up (some even over $25,000). There are some states and funds that recognize the need and fully sponsor the pleasure (with several years on a waiting list) but living in an isolated place like Washington DC, we are not eligible for such benefits (waiting list or not). So I decided to train our own family dog to be a diabetic alert dog. Although she is a Pug and dogs from this breed are not considered to be of the working dogs kind, she has a lot of the qualities suitable for guidance dogs; like food motivation which makes them easy to train, a strong prey drive - she hunts down our shoes and my kids' toys persistently and she is a champ in tag of war games. There are several canine training schools that are willing to help with these kind of missions, some give mainly phone advice and some sell tapes with instructions. But before we can even consider scent training we need to make sure she excels in basic obedience first. Well, she doesn't even have to excel, maybe at least learn some obedience... Like come when called instead of making us chase her all over the house, NOT peeing on carpets, no wrecking the house, no nipping on bare feet toes, no grabbing the kids' toys... But she is also just a puppy so I guess we need to give her some time to grow up. Maybe we should go for a CGM after all.