The nomination "Our Brothers": the border collie is Russia's first officially trained four-legged assistant for people with endocrine diseases.
The training and the existence of such an assistant in general became possible thanks to the "The Matter is in he Dog" project, which appeared in the country three years ago. The project team now has more than sixty volunteers, including professional dog handlers and psychologists," the NTV journalists said. This is a completely charitable story, it began with the fact that the volunteers themselves needed help.
"The practice of training dogs that help people with various diseases has been around for more than 20 years in different countries. Since I need an assistant dog myself, I decided that I should try it in Russia. At that time, I was already volunteering for people with mental illnesses. Since 2022, Katya joined us, who needed such an assistant dog," says Nyuta Ginsburg, head of the charity project "The Matter is in the Dog.”
Ekaterina Goryacheva, the future owner of the miracle dog Koda, suffered from type 1 diabetes. She collected information about dogs that can recognize dangerous conditions in various diseases bit by bit. She even translated foreign methods to combine everything into a single manual for Russian volunteers.
Koda was adopted as a puppy and began to learn how to "smell" diabetes. For training, Ekaterina used samples of her saliva collected during a drop in glucose levels in her body. Koda has memorized the characteristic smell and now reacts sensitively to a dangerous change in the condition of the hostess. Now the dog Koda is an integral part of not only Catherine's life, but also of herself. He accompanies Katya everywhere, on walks, at work.
"He warns me about the drop in sugar, brings me juice, insulin, helps me with anxiety attacks. My life has changed dramatically, and I've never known who I am now. Koda changed me a lot, and with him I stopped being afraid," says Ekaterina Goryacheva.
Ekaterina is currently leading the project's training of helper dogs for people with diabetes. The volunteers of the "The Matter is in the Dog" project work closely with doctors on specialized diseases. As practice has shown, such assistants can save the lives of many who are seriously ill. Currently, the project trains 10 dogs to recognize crisis states in mental illnesses, epilepsy, heart problems, blood vessels, and even allergies.
"Over the past three years, we have translated more than 400 materials, including international studies. And recently there was a scientific breakthrough. Scientists have found that during an epilepsy attack, a dog can react to a change in the smell of sweat. And thanks to this, we have developed our own methodology for training dogs to help during an epilepsy attack," Nyuta Ginsburg continues the story.
But the problem is that in Russia such dogs, unfortunately, are not legalized in any way. If, for example, guide dogs, having all the documents, can accompany their owner everywhere, and even in the cabin, then everything is different with helper dogs. And the entire team of the "The Matter is in the Dog" project is now trying to amend Russian legislation to equate such animals with guides.
Photos from Nyuta Ginsburg's personal archive.