The dog who transformed her life

Ellie, who suffers from PoTs, lacked confidence because of her condition and rarely left her house until Maggie an 8 week old Labrador retriever came into her life.

Ellie became aware of

Medical Detection Dogs and the life changing work being done for clients, while researching her condition. However, because of the lengthy wait for a Medical Alert Assistance dog from the Charity she decided to buy her own dog, who turned out to be a relation of her childhood dog Bramble.

Maggie was about 9 months old when Ellie approached MDD to explore the possibility of her becoming a medical alert assistance dog, who could help her better manage her condition.

Ellie found implementing the training methods achievable even whilst experiencing difficult periods of poor health. “I had no idea how many hundreds of hours it takes to train a dog up to a high standard” says Ellie.”

Maggie however has a super sense of smell and can sniff out a PoTS episode before Ellie is aware of any symptoms. “She has transformed my life” says Ellie. “She has massively increased my confidence when out and about, especially as I’m a part time wheelchair user. I feel safer with her by my side as she knows to alert before I feel ill myself.”

Maggie alerts by a mixture of responses, such as staring and jumping. “If all of that fails, she tells the nearest person to me,” adds Ellie, who is now able to safely leave the house and work part time for her local council.

Ellie describes Maggie as “a brilliant dog who seems to love her job. When she isn’t working she enjoys nothing more than to sleep on my knee. She is a very happy girl who loves everybody.”