How to Train Your Dog to Detect Low Blood Sugar

Hello, For pup to remind you to take your meds, I would associate you taking your meds with something that happens to pup on a similar schedule - like if you take your meds in the morning and evening - it could be connected to your dog's eating schedule, so their internal clock would remind them to remind you when they got hungry. Dogs can't tell time, so a timeline schedule for when to take your meds would be hard to teach, unless your medication schedule can coordinate with something else you schedule into pup's day that they will come to associate with that, like a walk at the same time, eating schedule - more reliable, then have pup earn the thing they want by being required to remind you of your medication before giving them the walk or meal each time. For pup to be allowed at appointments, I would pursue service dog training with her. To qualify as a service dog, pup need to very well mannered in public around various types of distractions and not show aggression or reactivity to any of the other dogs or people or animals, noises, or objects in the area; this means working on pup’s general obedience, socialization, and manners, so that pup can go places, get along well with everyone, and be well mannered enough not to disturb others. Joining a Canine Good Citizen or Intermediate obedience class is a good way to work on those things. How is pup around kids, various ages, races, and personalities of people, new objects, noises, other animals? Since getting out is difficult, if you can hire someone to train pup for you, that would likely be easiest for you. Managers and owners of public places also have the right to ask someone to leave if the dog isn't trained well and is causing a disturbance. To qualify as a Service Dog a dog needs to be well mannered in public as mentioned above, and be able to perform at least one specialized task that directly assists with the medical or psychological condition they are trained to help with. The person also has to have a doctor approved medical or psychological condition that qualifies - anxiety attacks, depression, PTSD, ect.. which you already have from your doctor. Pup reminding to you take medication could be a task. There are also other tasks that can help with anxiety - like teaching pup to detect when you are nervous and apply pressure therapy - such as leaning against you, lying on a foot, or lying in your lap (without resource guarding). Pup can also help facilitate certain social interactions, be taught to lead to exits if needed, or get help. Some dogs are able to detect anxiety based on scent. This is done using saliva samples taken during times of high anxiety. The dog is taught an alert, such as Sit, paw, bark, or nose - like pup is already doing. You then practice having the dog sniff the sample, give their alert, and you reward with a treat. Practice this until you don't have to tell the dog to alert but they will simply alert when they smell the sample, then you reward. Once pup can alert really well on the sample, then Saliva samples taken during anxious times and saliva samples taken during normal times are practiced together - with the dog only being praised and rewarded for alerting to the anxious sample, and not the normal sample. Ignore incorrect alerts and don't reward them. Practice this until pup can reliably alert to the correct sample only. Once pup alerts consistently, you plant the sample on yourself and practice with the scent somewhere like your pocket - rewarding alerts. You then plant the scent on yourself at random times during your day and in different environments to help pup do the alert when they aren't in "training mode" to teach them to pay attention to you in various environments and be ready to alert at all times. You can also teach pup to alert to your anxious "cues", finding things you tend to do while anxious, like bite nails, rub arms, wiggle a leg, ect...Those cues will be unique to you and probably subtle. Pay attention to what yours are. Once you know them, teach pup to alert you whenever you do those things so that pup will also alert when you do them subconsciously while anxious. Typically that's the initial anxiety alert task trained to qualify pup. You can also teach additional things that benefit you. Social media, such as instagram and facebook is actually a good resource to connect and follow other owner-trainers who are teaching their own pups tasks too. It can be a good place to meet others in your city doing the same thing to connect for practicing things with people doing similar training with their dogs. There are trainers who offer remote and in person service dog training assistance - whose role is not to take the dog and train it entirely themselves (which is great but much pricier), but who can guide you in training your own dog as needed for a lower price. Youtube is also a resource to find service dog trainers who share some how to videos on teaching specific tasks to help you trouble shoot as you go. For now, I suggest starting with pup's public access - with socialization, manners, and obedience. You can work on task training at the same time if you have time, but obedience and socialization is often more time sensitive. While doing that, you can certainly reward pup's natural alerts right now to further encourage them. In the United States there is no official certification required for a dog to pass as a Service Dog. A qualifying medical or psychological condition, great behavior while in public, and at least one task that directly helps with your condition is all that is required. Carrying a copy of ADA law regarding service dogs, pup's vet papers, a note from your doctor simply stating your need for a service dog (you don't have to disclose what condition you need help with to anyone), and a vest for pup letting people know pup is a working service dog can help people allow pup into places more easily though. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Oct. 3, 2022

Hello, Generally you can teach pup to alert for all of those things, but they will all need to be taught separately with a distinct alert for each one. Like barking for the narcolepsy, pawing you for the hypoglycemia, and nose nudging for the meds wearing off. The hypoglycemia and diabetic alerts are generally taught using saliva samples - samples during regulated blood sugar, low blood sugar (don't put yourself in danger getting these), and high blood sugar, usually gathered by sucking on gauze during times when you test and can verify which is which, then freezing the saliva gauze in double sealed containers/bags in the freezer to be used later to teach pup to alert to the scents of each. The nodding off can likely be taught through saliva scenting as well - but I am not 100% sure of that; however, you can also act out the nodding off and body language you exhibit during an episode, and teach pup to alert to those physical cues you do naturally during an episode. You would first teach pup the alert commands as a verbal command - like Speak, Touch, Paw, then as you practice the alerts, you would start by giving pup that verbal cue you taught, while having pup sniff the correct sample or acting out the episode, then reward correct responses as pup gives them. As pup improves, you would act out the episode or have pup sniff, but wait a few seconds before giving the verbal cue to see if pup can figure out how to alert without the verbal cue when they detect the situation they need to alert. Gradually you proof that command, hiding the sample, practicing the nodding off when pup isn't expecting it, adding in normal samples to help pup learn to tell the difference, then practicing in public around real life distractions. In most cases it takes about two years to train a service dog. Right now, start with the socialization and public access part of the training - that will be most time sensitive to pup's age, and if pup fails being able to be in public in a mannerly form, then even if pup is able to learn all the proper alerts they won't be able to go with you places to perform them as a service dog. The first year, priority is socialization and manners in public, any extra time you have, you can also begin teaching alerts - pups will probably pay more attention to alert training after six months of age though, so be patient with pup if learning is slow at this age. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Oct. 3, 2022