The first year goal of Dogs for Cures Foundation is to raise sufficient funds to have Dogabetics train and certify 12 medical service dogs and their Owners/Patient partners to be able to detect high and low blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes individuals. During this 12 month period Dogabetics will develop the first "dog and patient partner training course", including video and audio components. Additional funds will be raised to support scientific research at an independent academic research institution to validate the use of medical alert dogs in type 1 diabetes compared to the standard of care.

The second year goal of Dogs for Cures Foundation will raise sufficient funds to support Dogabetics to train 24 additional diabetic alert dogs and their Owner/Patient partners. During this 12 month period Dogabetics will develop the first "trainer certification course" to certify other trainers to train diabetic service dogs. Also during year two we will raise additional funds to support scientific research at an academic research institution to select additional diseases that can be managed and supported by medical service dogs.

As we undertake this work we will also promote awareness of the use of diabetic alert and other medical service dogs to help improve health and prevent medical complications. We will also increase awareness of ADA regulations for medical service dogs in schools and businesses, and provide ongoing consultation and additional training to ensure the diabetic alerts service dog/patient team succeed as medical conditions change.

Our long range goals (3-5 years) are to have a validated scientific protocol which will expedite the training process with a high degree of quality and accuracy of training of diabetic alert and other medical service dogs. Annually we will fund a doubling or more of the diabetic alert service dog output from Dogabetics and train at least 6 certified trainers from around the country. We will seek additional donations that would provide scholarships for up to half of our trained diabetic alert service dogs.

The Dogs for Cures Foundation was started by Ron Pace and Lisa Kelly to help others find the same level of success that Lisa's son, Liam, found when he was able to secure a diabetic alert dog trained by Ron to help monitor his blood sugar and reduce his risk of having life threatening lows. Through their combined diabetes research and applying years of Ron's scent and training expertise, Ron has developed a series of techniques to train both the handler and the dog for success. Dogs for Cures Foundation board consists co-chairs Ron Pace and Lisa Kelly.

Funds will be raised to pay for:

Consultation, service dog selection and evaluation, scent works training, public access training, obedience training, diabetic patient training, and public awareness promotion/demonstration.

Based on national research the $15,000 price of a fully trained service dog from Dogs for Cures Foundation is competitive (range is $10,000-25,000.) Dogabetics' scent techniques are different and provide individual scent recognition more quickly than other trainers - this will improve rate of success and speed of individual training time.

Presently, the training protocol contains 4 essential components:
1) Obedience training
2) Scent Work training
3) Public Access Work/ADA Laws
4) Owner/patient care and maintenance of the service dog

These four components represent a minimum of 50 hours of training, some in private one-on-one sessions, some in small group (3 or less) formats. The amount of time to train a dog to accurately alert 70-80% of the time is hard to quantify as it depends greatly on the client's ability and consistency with their dog. Often low blood sugars can cause slight to moderate cognitive impairment in the owner/patient which can slow down the rate of progress. Each human and dog team is unique and these numbers are representative of an average scenario.

In order to support both the research and the scholarships, we will set a fundraising goal of $100,000 for the first 12 month period. This would provide $25,000 for the research project to begin at the end of this 12 month period, and $60,000 for scholarships, to provide an average of $5000 per scholarship for 12 diabetic alert service dogs.