Submitted by PADs for Parkinson’s.

Sasha has been a member of the Parkinson’s Alert Dog Team of super-sniffers for more than six years, and in that time, Sasha has sniffed out an odor associated with Parkinson’s Disease for a record-setting 385 days of attendance and correctly identified more than 140 unique Parkinson’s donor samples. When Sasha sniffs out a Parkinson’s odor sample, she does something quite unexpected. Sasha places her magnificent canine nose just above the rim of the “hot” scent canister and proceeds to make a circular motion around the rim in a perfect imitation of “glass-harping”. Sasha is perhaps the one and only detection dog to ever attempt a musical alert.

If you would like to observe Sasha as she demonstrates her glass-harping alert, along with her 17 “nosey” San Juan Island colleagues in action, contact sanjuanlisa@gmail.com or text 360-298-5494. For more information on PADs, or to support the PADs Program, see www.padsforparkinsons.org

PADs, located on San Juan Island, is the first program of its kind to train dogs for the detection of an odor associated with Parkinson’s Disease.