Diabetic Alert Dog

Abbie is 6 years old and was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in August of 2008.  She has been on the Animas One Touch Ping since December 2008.  In 2009, Abbie began developing hypoglycemic unawareness.  Abbie used to be able to feel her lows when her glucose fell between 60 and 70.  Now she doesn’t feel her lows until she is between 45 and 55.  Abbie is also very brittle.  I check her glucose every 2 hours 24/7.  
 
In October of 2009, I read an article on FOX News about a boy and his DAD.  I had never heard of a DAD, but my interest was peaked.  I knew we needed help, maybe this was the solution.  I found and contacted Wildrose Kennels and was put in touch with Rachel Thornton.  Two weeks later, we put down our deposit.  
 
Waiting for Gracie, our WR Diabetic Alert Dog, was like waiting to be a first time mom all over again.  We are a homeschooling family and decided that training Gracie ourselves was the way to go. We had a 7 month wait, so I read every book I could get my hands on.  I talked to people on the forum, asked questions, attended workshops, and took a lot of notes.  I did not want to mess this up.
 
On April 30, 2010, we picked up Gracie (Wildrose Abbie’s Saved by Grace).  Gracie had taken part in the WR Super Learner Program and had been trained on a cocktail of low scent samples (including Abbie’s) since she was about a week old.  The very first day she alerted to a low.  I was AMAZED!  This was the first of many amazing alerts.  
 
Self-training a DAD is a 24/7 job.  Every interaction with your dog is a training/learning experience.  Every low is also a training opportunity.  From day one, each time Abbie checked her glucose, Gracie watched, smelled her finger, and smelled the strip.  If Abbie was low, we party, party, partied.  If Abbie was high, we would tell her that Abbie was high and that we would take care of her.  No party.  We have now added the bringsel to the alert chain, and if Abbie is low, Gracie takes the bringsel (with my help) to all the members in the family and has another party.  It is all about consistency and repetition.
 
Gracie is now 5 months old.  She alerts to high and low blood sugars consistently during the night and day.  She is now alerting with the bringsel on her own.  Gracie goes everywhere we go.  She is doing very well with public access.  She still has her “puppy moments”, but after all, she is a dog!  We still have a long way to go, but I am thrilled with what we have accomplished.
 
I would like to thank Mike and Cathy Stewart of Wildrose Kennels.  Thank you for the wonderful WR Diabetic Alert Dog Conferences and for raising such amazing animals.  Special thanks to Rachel Thornton, KC Owens, and Crystal Cockroft!  Thank you for patiently answering all of my questions, for all of your wise advise, and for the numerous pep talks.  Abi and Mr. Darcy, you are still our heroes!   Thanks again!  I couldn’t have done it without you!
 
 
 

Seth-7 yrs, Dx on Jan. 15th 2007
Rex – 7 months, British Lab

    Seth was diagnosed when he was 4 yrs old and was pumping in 3 months.  As parents of a child with Diabetes we felt we wanted a back up method of safety to prevent seizures, hypoglycemia unawareness, and long term complications, so we set out to get a DAD. I first heard of DADs in an article from Diabetes Health in 2007 and proceeded to research and try and contact any training facilities. We decided to wait until Seth was older before we attempted to move in that direction and add a dog to the diabetes mix.

After MUCH research, we adopted Rex  in June of 2009, when he was only 6 weeks old. Training began immediately!
Rex is now 7 months old and alerts before high’s and low’s. He has a very sweet and loving personality and truly has been patient with all our miss haps.
Rex sleeps with Seth  and has started alerting us at night with exhuberance.

Our goal is to have Rex ready for the Canine Good Citizen test by 2 yrs old. 
Unexpected experiences…
1-Bringing a pup to the zoo is not really a good idea
2- Flying with a 6 week old pup and a 6 yr old takes 3 parents NOT 2
3- Service dog bags are bigger than diaper bags
4- Too much Peanut Butter causes diarrhea  and refer to #2
5-Pups don’t like the smell of Sea Lion’s
6-Vommtting happens / refer to #2
7-7 yr olds don’t like their toys eaten
8-7 yr olds don’t like “the TAIL”
9-Adults can’t read ” Don’t Pet the service dog” patch
10- Americans can’t help but TALK to dogs when seen in public
11-Arizona pavement is 170 degrees in the summer
12- Labs get heavy/ refer to #11
13- Labs also know how to unbuckle children’s seat-belts while driving in traffic at a high rate of speed
14-Labs REALLY like Christmas tree ornaments
15-   To be Continued in the years to come…

(disclaimer: i am sharing experiences with you. I am NOT a dog trainer. I do not have the education nor the experience.  I am sharing with you what I have learned from others and thru trial and error. I will explain WHAT we have done and WHY we have done it and will show you this activity at various levels of progression. I hope this is helpful to someone somewhere . . .) 

Food is a motivator for every dog. So, using meal time as a training time is a great idea.

Diabetic Alert Dog team: Valerie and Lucy, Toledo, Ohio

I brought four month old Lucy home on Sunday, January 6, 2008. Only a little more then twelve hours later she started going to full time graduate school with me. In her adorable and tiny pink vest, Lucy curled up on her pink fuzzy mat and slept while I learned all about neural anatomy and exercise physiology. After a few weeks of hard work and training Lucy was waking up during my classes to alert to my high and low blood sugars. She started jumping on top of me every morning when the alarm went off and as a result I never missed a single class, exam or meeting which had been a constantly struggle for me solely because of turning off my alarms. Overtime she has brought my blood sugar average down from 287 mg/dl to 179 mg/dl and this average continues to improve. As opposed to the numerous grand mal seizures I’ve had in the past, I have only has one 2 minute long partial seizure since I’ve had Lucy.

              Lucy does so much more then I ever thought possible. During my forty hour weeks on clinical working with a physical therapist she brought smiles to hundreds of patients, encouraged a man with a spinal cord injury to use his injured hands to pet her, retrieved golf balls for one of my stroke patients who was working on his swing and, was the highlight of physical therapy for a college student with a traumatic brain injury. When I developed a condition that causes low blood pressure and a very rapid heart rate Lucy learned to alert to the low blood pressure and lick my face repeatedly if I pass out so I regain consciousness quicker.

              Lucy and I still have lots of work left to do but, I don’t mind the training. She saves my life everyday and takes a huge weight off my mind. She loves to gives hugs and hopefully she’ll say yes to being the ring bearer in my August wedding

The following post is written by Liz Norris, Pawsibilities Unleashed in Frankfort, KY. Liz has helped so many diabetic alert dog teams! Liz helped Abi select Mr Darcy when he was a 7 week old pup and she held our hand and guided us down a LONG road from puppyhood to a mature, consistently alerting diabetic alert dog. She promotes positive reinforcement training methods, is an AKC-CGC Instructor / Evaluator , a member of IAADP and APDT, as well as being a certified clicker trainer instructor.  

Any trainer or organization that tells you they can take your dog and train it can, but  …..they can not guarantee the dog will work for you when you get it. One reason : whoever trains the dog gets the dogs respect. In order to have a dog that works for you on any level, you must learn how to become the trainer of that dog. People who do not train, think they do not have to learn anything to work the dog when it comes home. They are looking for the dog to come with a, “remote control”. Some people can simply not be trained to work with animals and have no natural talent for it.

Other reasons trainers can not guarantee the dog will work for you :
They do not live with you and can not control how you work the dog.
They have no control over your environment.
They have no control over the socialization you give the dog.
They have no control over the stress level in your home and how it effects the personality of the dog you are living with. (arguments, fights, verbal abuse, physical abuse of spouse or children, alcoholism or drug use in the home, etc. all contribute to how the dog holds its training and works).
They have no control over whether you use the, “correct” commands.
They have no control over how consistent you are with your commands and task work.
They have no control over whether you keep up the use of the, “correct” equipment.
They have no control over how well you take care of the dog, keep it vetted and what quality of feed you give it.
They have no control over whether you frontline the dog or give it heartguard and have its physical every year.
They have no control over whether you exercise your dog enough.
They have no control over whether you groom the dog and keep its cleanliness up to par (that means toenails trimmed too folks).
All  of these contribute to how the dog works for the owner and whether it respects the hand that feeds it. None of these are things that a trainer can control and therefore they can not guarantee that any dog will work for you, the handler, unless you learn to become the trainer.

Learn how and why commands are given and when to use them appropriately. IF you Learn all you can about training the dog and how to teach it the scent work ,  then  you can take the dog over and keep up the level of work it has. This will  insure a higher percentage of dogs that can save lives.

Jane met Cooper in June of 2009. Cooper is older dog who is being ‘re-jobbed’ to work as a diabetic alert dog.  Jane and Cooper are loving each step of the way . . .

This is an excerpt from a note that I recently received from Jane:

“Cooper graduated from Obedience Training (Beginner’s Class) and then we got invited to a private school.

The graduation was really nice and I do have pictures. The teacher at the private school made pictures while I spoke to the 3rd grade class. Cooper and I both enjoyed it. Cooper did some tricks for the kids and we talked about Medic Alert Dogs, the dogs responsibility and how children should act when they are around the dogs. We had a really good time and the children
really loved Cooper. He was real gentleman. Hope you enjoy the pictures. We are having so much fun.

Your friends,
Jane Daniel and Cooper”