September is National Service Dog Awareness month.
30 days to recognize working dogs who help people who may need some extra help from a trained canine.
Joseph Ott has always loved dogs, and over the last few years, he learned how service dogs can help people.
As Ott explained, "With diabetic service dogs, with anyone with service dogs, it can help people obtain their independence again and feel confident with their dog."
Ott's grandma died in 2011 from Type One diabetes and he believes a service dog could have helped her lived a longer and more fulfilling life. As Ott explained, "Unfortunately, she was never able to have a service dog, but if she had a service dog it would have helped her immensely, she wouldn't have to be hooked up to machines, he would have a dog and it would detect it for her."
Although it takes lots of training, teaching dogs to detect low blood sugar for Type One diabetes could make a big difference "Service dogs for diabetes, they can help them detect their low blood sugar, they have a little collar under them where they pick it up and detect low blood sugar", said Ott.
Service dogs can be trained in a variety of ways, some detecting low blood sugar for Type One diabetes early on, while others like Lucy helping veterans with PTSD. While Lucy is trained through a local organization, Ott has worked with places around the country to help people get trained service dogs.
As Ott explained, "Early alert canines, it's based out of California, but they recently opened up applications throughout the whole United States, so people in Erie could obtain service dogs."
Ott's mission doesn't end here, he is working to educate the community about the importance of service dogs. According to Ott, "I just obtained the proclamation from the city and the county for September to be Service Dog Awareness month, so this is pretty new. But I hope to be able to do educational activities and by doing different fundraising and activities throughout the city and the county"