Honey, a 16-month-old golden retriever, is making history as the first dog in South Africa being trained to detect low or high blood sugar levels in diabetic humans. If all goes according to plan, Duncan Smuts, 11, will soon have Honey by his side – even at school - so she can warn him if his blood sugar level has dropped and he needs help.Smuts has type one diabetes and his blood sugar has to be checked every two hours, even during the night. His father, Greg Smuts, enquired about dogs that assist with diabetes a while ago but was told they had to be imported from overseas and it was extremely expensive. “I tried to find a trainer in South Africa but there wasn’t anyone.”The family eventually approached Cape Town trainer Carien Meyer, who agreed to do a course and find a suitable dog.“I was lucky because an online course became available at the right time,” she said, and after finding Honey and putting her through a rigorous suitability test, the journey began.“I use Duncan’s saliva, which is collected on dental cotton rolls that he has swabbed in his mouth when his blood sugar is high or low so that there is a difference in smell. Eventually, Honey will detect from his breath if he needs help.”Using positive reinforcement, she is training honey to not just detect a problem, but act on it too.“There are no guarantees, but ultimately we want Honey to be able to fetch Duncan’s mom or dad if need be, or bring him a phone if he can’t get to one, or bring him his medication.”Honey will accompany him to school, rugby matches, parties and other places.”Duncan said he was excited about the training.“The most difficult part of diabetes is having to check my sugar consistently and it is very irritating having my parents on my back all the time telling me about sugar and insulin. I also can’t go to sleepovers because my dad worries about me and he can’t sleep.”Catherine Reeve, a researcher on dogs and diabetes at Dalhousie University in Canada said: “This, along with cancer detection dogs and medical detection in general, is just becoming a field of research. It is very promising.”In the USA, studies are being done on the diagnostic accuracy of dogs sniffing out ovarian, lung and breast cancer in both early and late stages. Duke University is training dogs to distinguish benign tumours from malignant ones in human plasma samples, and dogs are also being trained to sniff out e.coli in urine samples...