Europe’s largest regional airline has welcomed nine Medical Alert Dogs on board as part of the dogs’ comprehensive training and socialisation programme.
Organised by the charity Northern Ireland Assistance Dogs (NIAD) the aircraft visit was part of a familiarisation session of George Best Belfast City Airport where the dogs experienced all aspects of taking a flight from check-in to boarding.
Eight golden retrievers are in training to be Diabetes Alert Dogs alongside one Spanish water dog who is trialling the ability to become an Allergy Alert Dog onboard Flybe aircraft.
Aged between one and two and a half years old, the youngsters are in various stages of their Medical Assistance training, having already reached a high standard of obedience and socialisation thanks to their ‘puppy parents’ - volunteers who look after and train the puppies from just eight weeks old.
They were walked through every area of the airport from check-in, through security and finally onto a Flybe aircraft.
Flybe cabin crew Katherine Maxwell and Stacey Allen welcome the NIAD medical alert dogs on board
Andrea Hayes, Flybe Regional General Manager, said: “The comfort and safety of our passengers is at the forefront of everything we do at Flybe.
"As such approved assistance dogs are very welcome on our domestic flights. We have always facilitated Guide Dogs on board and as the skills of our four-footed friends have become more sophisticated, we are now seeing increasing numbers of other specialist assistance dogs as well."
Flybe cabin crew member Stacey Allen with NIAD medial alert dogs Ember, Scout, Isle and Ted getting ready to board
Judith Byrne from NIAD said: “We train and provide medical alert dogs to adults with medical conditions such as diabetes. Our Diabetes Alert Dogs are trained to warn their partner that a hypo or hyper glycaemic episode is imminent, thus allowing time for the person to get to a safe place and take medication or appropriate action.
"The whole aim of these specially trained dogs is to enable the person to lead a more independent life. Flying is an integral part of most people’s lives now and as such our dogs need to be fully confident when accompanying their partners.”
NIAD is a registered charity which aims to make a positive impact on the lives of adults and young adults live with unstable / brittle diabetes and their families, by providing exceptional, well trained Diabetes Alert Dogs.
The charity is currently investigating other areas where medical alert dogs can be trained to assist people such as for those suffering with nut allergies.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel