work like a dog

Stefany explained, “It was a constant day to day challenge in the early days. Dangerously low blood sugars can cause seizures which ultimately can lead to death and high blood sugars over time can cause various types of organ damage and can also be fatal. We had to figure out how to keep Elle safe and help her live her best life with the disease.” Stefany and Elle never imagined that it would be a dog, a wonderful yellow Labrador…that would change their lives!

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s ‘Children’s Congress’ is a national event with members of Congress. It brings 150 young people from across the country to share with members of Congress what it’s like to live with diabetes and to advocate for medical research funding. Elle and Stefany co-chaired the event in 2011. It was at this event they saw a little girl with a Golden Retriever. Surrounded by 150 kids and 200+ proud parents, Stefany saw this dog get up and circle the little girl while scanning the room for her parents. It turns out that the girl was experiencing a low blood sugar.

This Golden was a diabetic alert dog who alerted the Shaheen family that help may come in an unconventional form. “We left Children’s Congress and started researching more about these dogs. I was skeptical. Here we are working so hard every day trying to keep Elle

Meet the Shaheen Team & Their Coach

By Nancy Dewar

Imagine, as a parent, getting up a few times in the middle of the night for five years to check your child’s blood glucose levels…to keep them alive. That was Portsmouth resident Stefany Shaheen’s life after her oldest child Elle was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 8. And that was her amazingly brave and resilient daughter’s life too. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the body's immune system destroys the cells that release insulin, eventually eliminating insulin production from the body. Without insulin, cells cannot absorb sugar (glucose), which they need to produce energy. Blood sugar levels need to be tested constantly to ensure safe and healthy ranges. Though great advances have been made since Elle was diagnosed, initially this meant pricking her finger 10-12 times a day to test her blood sugar levels and taking 8-10 shots of insulin every day.

healthy, and it was a struggle. How on earth is a dog going to make this work?”

Extensive research led the Shaheen family to CARES (Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Education & Services), a non-profit in Kansas. Costs for a service dog through private trainers can be very expensive; $10,000-$15.000, but not through CARES. CARES dogs and puppies are donated from bloodlines that have been successful service dogs. Once accepted as a service dog, the puppies are placed with a volunteer foster family where they live for several months to learn basic obedience and socialization. CARES also partners with regional prisons for fostering and obedience training. CARES teaches the inmates how to do the basic training of the dogs, which is another big savings. It also is a big gift to these inmates who form loving bonds with their temporary charges; giving them a great sense of purpose. Upon completion of basic training, the dogs go back to CARES for 3 months to learn specific skills needed for their upcoming work. Depending on the dog’s abilities, CARES assigns them to seizure alert, diabetes alert or PTSD specialties.

After a long 18 months of waiting, the Shaheen’s received a call in January 2013. They were getting a yellow Lab named Coach…finally! Elle and her dad Craig headed to Kansas in March to meet Coach and complete public access training. Coach already had about 2,000 hours of training with his first trainer and companion from the Ellsworth Correctional Facility. After a week of one-on-one training (including staying together 24/7) and completing a public access test, Elle and Coach returned to New Hampshire as a licensed service dog team. Stefany shared an amazing story about how remarkably smart these dogs are. “Their first night together in the hotel with Coach, the dog knocked a backpack off a table to wake Craig up, as Elle’s blood sugar was low. This was before they had done any training together, and Coach did not yet have any established signals to alert, but he found a way.”

The connection between Elle and Coach was instantaneous. Though he knows Elle is his charge, he also has adapted to all family members, alleviating one of Stefany’s concerns. “With four children, we also needed a dog who could become part of the family or it wasn’t going to work.” Stefany had another big concern. “Elle had always been a live-out-loud kid; never defined by diabetes. She was known as a great student, a lover of theater and acting. What I feared most when she got Coach…with a dog always by her side…would she become defined by the disease instead of who she is? Will she always be known as the girl with the dog?”

No need for this trepidation either. Elle and Coach became a team her freshman year at Portsmouth High School. Coach had his own student ID, was part of the fabric of the school and became a surrogate school mascot. Elle often said, “He’s a friend magnet.” One funny story…Elle’s English class had tennis balls on the bottom of the chairs to eliminate noise. After Coach tried to bite them off, the teacher brought in a bucket of balls for him the next day! Following their high school graduation in 2017, Elle and Coach headed off to Harvard where they’ve just completed their Junior year. From where they started this journey many years ago, Stefany never imagined being able to send her daughter off to college. “I couldn’t imagine her being busy in college without me there being able to help. Coach helped make this possible.”

Diabetic alert service dogs pick up on the scent of high and low blood sugar levels. The training protocol was developed by a dog trainer who was also living with type 1 diabetes. While training dogs in search and rescue, he discovered their ability of scent detection with his disease. Coach will alert Elle when her blood sugar is below 80 or above 200 and alerts her as many as 2-3 times a day. How does he let her know? “If she’s in class, Coach will paw her. If she’s on stage in rehearsal, he’ll get on stage and circle her. Sometimes we forget how much he can do. Once I left him in the mud room because he was soaked…forgetting that he could open the door! He also can turn on lights and bring Elle her test kit.”

The trainer and founder of CARES often says, “trust your dog.” This was not an easy thing for Stefany to do in the beginning. It wasn’t until Coach woke her up in the middle of the night because he sensed Elle’s blood sugar was low and couldn’t wake Elle up that this started to change. Coach found his way into Stefany’s room, put his paws on her chest and would not leave until she woke up. It was in this moment that Stefany started believing in Coach to help keep Elle safe.

This amazing journey is captured by Stefany in her NY Times best selling book Elle & Coach: Diabetes, the Fight for My Daughter’s Life & the Dog Who Changed Everything, which was

published in 2015. As Stefany wrapped up our wonderful conversation, I asked what things really stand out to her now. “Our journey continues to teach me that you can find hope in unlikely places. It’s important to hold on to hope. When I saw that first diabetic alert dog, I never imagined just how much a dog would change our lives.”

Speaking of brighter days and holding on to hope…the sister of the inmate who fostered and trained Coach reached out to Stefany after her book was published. She shared that her brother asked her to get the book for their parents for Christmas…and she said that after the family read the book together that this was the first time in a long time that they felt proud of him.

The gifts dogs bring to our lives are truly boundless. Thanks so much, Stefany, for sharing the great gifts your family has experienced…thanks to Coach!