You might be wondering how Jagger is doing with his diabetic alert dog training. We started training him from the day we got him. At first it was little things like sit and stay which we always rewarded with food. We only feed Jagger through training or work to eat puzzles to help with his frustration tolerance. The work to eat puzzles make it a game for him and they keep him engaged. He has to work to get his food which means if he's really hungry, he won't give up until he has all the food. Which will eventually translate into him not giving up when trying to alert us when Brady's blood sugar is low. Dogs are so food motivated which is why it's so easy to train them, especially our puppy. We divide his food up to four portions and use those portions for training sessions. We don't starve him, we just don't give him food in a bowl like you would with a normal dog. He has to work for everything he gets.
We still give Jagger work to eat puzzles about once a day but the rest of his food and training comes from scent training. We have collected saliva samples from Brady when his blood sugar is low and we use those to train Jagger's nose to recognize that smell with food. Here is a video of Brady and our neighbor Livie working with Jagger on scent training. Brady has put the scent on his hand and every
time Jagger sniffs Brady's hand he gets a click from Livie's clicker and a small amount of food.
Eventually all this hard work and training will pay off and Jagger will start alerting us when Brady's blood sugar is too low. Our trainer says that puppies have started alerting as early as 4 to 6 months old. This whole process and been so interesting and extremely rewarding. Mary McKnight the trainer who developed this training is a person you can tell absolutely loves what she is doing. She is a hard working no nonsense gal who I totally admire because when she was searching for a service dog to fit her needs and couldn't find one she didn't just give up she taught herself how to train a dog specific for her needs. Now she's gracious enough to teach the rest of us. She's pretty freaking awesome. They will train dogs from as young as 8 weeks to as old as 10 years. Here is the link to her companies web site. It's really easy to navigate and super informative: www.servicedogacademy.com
This training really only works for people who have the time and dedication to train a dog. It's by no means easy. It's a lot of hard work and thankfully Aaron and I had some previous experience training our older lab as a hunting dog so we knew a little about what we were getting into but we definitely spend about an hour every day training Jagger which doesn't sound like a lot but with everything else going on in our lives between three kids, school, and jobs, it's a busy day no matter how you look at it. You certainly can't half ass this training. Not only do you need to have the time and dedication to train the dog but you also really need to have your diabetes under control before you even think about getting a Diabetes Alert Dog. And when I say under control I mean that you are actively trying to eat healthy, you check your blood sugar more than just at meal time, count carbs and dose the correct amount of insulin, and keep your A1C within range. A diabetes alert dog is going to do you no good if you don't care enough about your health to take care of your self. I realize that some people do all those things and their A1C's still aren't in range, trust me I know how hard it is with a kid to keep his A1C where it should be. It's no easy task. But more often than not it's due to people not having the discipline or the self love to live a healthy lifestyle.
You may be wondering if the training facility provides already trained diabetic alert dogs. They do on a very limited basis and it is through a scholarship program. We bought our puppy from a wonderful breeder in Ellensburg that trains pointing hunting labs. We specifically asked for a calm puppy with a good nose and delivered just that. We were supposed to get our puppy a week earlier than we did but the breeder didn't feel like there was a calm enough puppy for us in that litter but he had the perfect calm puppy for us the following week from a different litter. And we couldn't be happier with his choice because all though Jag is still a puppy who loves to play and bite, he is so calm and lovable. He prefers to sleep on any one's lab willing to have him or on top of any ones head. We love our Jagger a ton. Here is the website of the breeder we got our puppy from: http://www.pointinglabs.com/pages/faq
Alas, we couldn't have gotten to this point without all the help from our friends, family, and community. We started last fall with a fundraising video, and then a lemonade stand at a high school football game, on to selling bracelets at grid kids football games and from all those middle school kids in Dale Hagy and Randy Siegss' advisory classes. We even have a few kids in our community doing their senior projects on fundraisers for Brady's dog. How awesome is that?! We are truly amazed and humbled by all the help we've received in getting our puppy and training paid for. We plan on being in this community for a long while so we will have lots of opportunities to pay it forward.
If anyone has any doubts about a dogs ability to detect the slight differences in someones blood sugar with only the use of his nose. Do yourself a favor and watch this video from 60 minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57580582/sniffing-for-bombs-meet-americas-most-elite-dogs/
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| Brady and Aaron doing scent training at the Service Dog Academy of Seattle. |
time Jagger sniffs Brady's hand he gets a click from Livie's clicker and a small amount of food.
Eventually all this hard work and training will pay off and Jagger will start alerting us when Brady's blood sugar is too low. Our trainer says that puppies have started alerting as early as 4 to 6 months old. This whole process and been so interesting and extremely rewarding. Mary McKnight the trainer who developed this training is a person you can tell absolutely loves what she is doing. She is a hard working no nonsense gal who I totally admire because when she was searching for a service dog to fit her needs and couldn't find one she didn't just give up she taught herself how to train a dog specific for her needs. Now she's gracious enough to teach the rest of us. She's pretty freaking awesome. They will train dogs from as young as 8 weeks to as old as 10 years. Here is the link to her companies web site. It's really easy to navigate and super informative: www.servicedogacademy.com
This training really only works for people who have the time and dedication to train a dog. It's by no means easy. It's a lot of hard work and thankfully Aaron and I had some previous experience training our older lab as a hunting dog so we knew a little about what we were getting into but we definitely spend about an hour every day training Jagger which doesn't sound like a lot but with everything else going on in our lives between three kids, school, and jobs, it's a busy day no matter how you look at it. You certainly can't half ass this training. Not only do you need to have the time and dedication to train the dog but you also really need to have your diabetes under control before you even think about getting a Diabetes Alert Dog. And when I say under control I mean that you are actively trying to eat healthy, you check your blood sugar more than just at meal time, count carbs and dose the correct amount of insulin, and keep your A1C within range. A diabetes alert dog is going to do you no good if you don't care enough about your health to take care of your self. I realize that some people do all those things and their A1C's still aren't in range, trust me I know how hard it is with a kid to keep his A1C where it should be. It's no easy task. But more often than not it's due to people not having the discipline or the self love to live a healthy lifestyle.
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| Brady and Jagger doing tape training at the Service Dog Academy in Seattle. |
Alas, we couldn't have gotten to this point without all the help from our friends, family, and community. We started last fall with a fundraising video, and then a lemonade stand at a high school football game, on to selling bracelets at grid kids football games and from all those middle school kids in Dale Hagy and Randy Siegss' advisory classes. We even have a few kids in our community doing their senior projects on fundraisers for Brady's dog. How awesome is that?! We are truly amazed and humbled by all the help we've received in getting our puppy and training paid for. We plan on being in this community for a long while so we will have lots of opportunities to pay it forward.
If anyone has any doubts about a dogs ability to detect the slight differences in someones blood sugar with only the use of his nose. Do yourself a favor and watch this video from 60 minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57580582/sniffing-for-bombs-meet-americas-most-elite-dogs/
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