Trained Diabetic Alert Dogs
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Available & Upcoming DADsMD Dogs fully trains a few DADs each year. The dogs are raised in our home, go through thousands of hours of training, and pass multiple scent and behavior tests. Once a dog is matched with a recipient, we integrate the dog into the family to ensure a seamless transition with reliable alerts
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About Our Diabetic Alert DogsWhat is a DAD?
DAD stands for diabetic alert dog - a type of service dog. DADs alert a person to low and/or high blood sugar. How does a DAD detect blood sugar changes?
Dogs detect the change through their excellent sense of smell. The dogs can smell the chemical changes in a diabetic's spit, sweat, and other bodily fluids. Sometimes even people are able to smell the somewhat sweet scent of a diabetic's breath when they are extremely high. But dogs can detect this at a much lower, safer blood sugar level. And more importantly, they are able to smell the low blood sugar which we are not able to detect. We are not sure what low blood sugar smells like, but it may be similar to the smell of acetone. Although some scientists are still skeptical, a study showing the reliability and accuracy of the dogs was done in the UK and can be found here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069921 What does an alert look like?
There are multiple methods of alerting, including the following: nose bump on person's leg, paw the handler, jump up on the handler, bark, or pull a bringsel from the handler's belt loop or the its own collar. Does MD Dogs train other types of Alert dogs?
We only specialize in training Diabetic Alert Dogs as that is our passion. However we are happy to provide consultations for public access training and scent training for other types of service dogs. How can I get an MD Dogs fully trained dad?
We fully train just a few dogs each year to match with individuals with type 1 diabetes. Because we are a small organization we do not have a waiting list, and instead accept applications for each specific dog as they are each unique! Below are the steps that an applicant goes through prior to being matched with one of our fully trained DADs: Step 1: Application (link here) Step 2: 4 hour Online Class Step 3: Zoom interview with trainer Step 4: Conversation with another MD Dogs DAD recipient Step 5: In person training session and home visit Step 6: Officially matched! Step 7: Transition training Step 8: Graduation! |
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How accurate are DADs?
The accuracy between dogs varies, but a well trained DAD can be 80% - 90% accurate. Our most accurate DAD is 3 months into her placement at the time of this and is still 100% accurate, but this is abnormal! Dogs will miss alerts, sometimes they get tired or are distracted, sometimes the air isn't circulating in a way that they detect the scent, etc. There are many variables affecting a dog's alert. While factors will affect the dog's accuracy at times, all our fully trained DADs are required to perform at 90% or above on a scent discrimination test before matched, and must alert at 80% accuracy before officially graduating and completing their transition period.
If I get a DAD can I get rid of my pump, CGM, etc.?
No, DADs are just another tool in the toolbox, they should never be 100% relied on. Their alerts must always be verified, meaning you must always check your blood after an alert to see if your DAD is correct, and your treatment should be based on the number on the meter. You should continue to check your blood all the times you did before your DAD, as well as each time your DAD alerts. So, you will be checking your blood more often than before, but this keeps you safer. Also, when verifying your alerts, always go by the meter not the CGM as CGMs are often 15 minutes behind the meter, so your dog will become confused when he is not rewarded.
Who can have a DAD?
Anyone can have a DAD if he or she is: willing to put hours upon hours of work into training the dog, taking all measures possible to manage their diabetes currently, willing to check their blood every single time the dog alerts, comfortable talking about diabetes to the public when confronted, comfortable with dogs and their family is supportive of the decision.
Will I be able to finally sleep through the night?
Night alerting is the most difficult thing to teach a DAD, and it depends on the dog. Young dogs sleep so hard that they will usually not wake up to alert - just like how children can be carried from the car all the way to their bed without waking up. But only approximately 50% of adult dogs alert at night. When DADs do night alert, usually it happens at certain times, depending on their sleep cycle. If the dog changes positions in the night, he may be awake enough to notice the scent, then fully wake up and alert. But again, some dogs just never do it - if a program guarantees night alerting, beware! So no, a DAD will never be reliable enough for you to sleep through the night. Instead, you will get less sleep because a DAD may inform you of unforeseen highs/lows, meaning you must wake up when your alarm has not gone off. You will never be able to turn off your alarms at night and rely on your DAD alone.
How long does it take to train a DAD?
This depends on the dog's age, the dog's history, and what level of training is wanted. For a fully trained DAD, (they will always need continual training, but this means that the dog is mature when you receive him/her), it will take 12 to 24 months. It takes this long because they have to reach maturity before being considered fully trained.
Would my dad be able to go with me everywherE?
Because DADs are service dogs, they have full public access rights according to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), as long as they are well behaved. They must be clean and well groomed, house-trained, and under the handler's control. So, anywhere the public goes, a DAD can go. This is the link to the ADA laws regarding service animals: http://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm
How much does a DAD cost?
DADs can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $35,000. The lower end ones usually are "started dogs", meaning they are not fully trained, perhaps they are only trained to alert to lows, and the highs are up to you, or they are not fully mature so they are still malleable and need multiple structured training sessions each day. The $20,000-30,000 ones are usually fully trained and will only need upkeep training each day.
How much does an md dogs DAD cost?
In some scenarios, such as the MD Dogs Rooney Project from 2020-2022, we fundraised for the dog and provided it fully trained to a recipient for free. However, this is not sustainable as we are a nonprofit and our time is better spent training the dogs! So in most scenarios we ask recipients to fundraise to cover the training expenses and fees. These fees range from $15,000-$24,000 depending on the dog and time in training.
What is the monetary value of a trained a DAD?
The following are just a few of the costs that MD Dogs has when training a DAD for 12 months.
Training a dog for a year or more, and providing the proper care and health testing to set them up to succeed as a Service Dog for years to come is just expensive! Some of our dogs are able to be provided at a slightly lower cost because of trainer discounts, or because they were acquired for a discount. But this is the ballpark for raw expenses and why we ask recipients to fundraise to cover these fees so that we can focus on training the dogs for more individuals.
- $2,000 - Purchase of well bred puppy with health tested parents
- $1,200 – Test strips and meters (Our trainers aren't diabetic so insurance will not cover these)
- $300 – Spay or neuter
- $500 - Puppy vaccinations and annual checkups and shots
- $1000 – Health testing (PennHIP, OFA hips, OFA elbows, DNA testing)
- $2000 - Food + high value treats
- $400 - Scent training supplies (including acquiring & shipping overnight)
- $300 - Public access outing fees
- $400 – Monthly preventatives
- $560 – Health Insurance
- 365 days of training & boarding at a value of at least $50/day
Training a dog for a year or more, and providing the proper care and health testing to set them up to succeed as a Service Dog for years to come is just expensive! Some of our dogs are able to be provided at a slightly lower cost because of trainer discounts, or because they were acquired for a discount. But this is the ballpark for raw expenses and why we ask recipients to fundraise to cover these fees so that we can focus on training the dogs for more individuals.
Where can I get a DAD?
MD Dogs offers a variety of options
- Self Training - we provide resources to teach you to self train on your own
- Assisted self training - we offer monthly guidance, board and train programs for scent work and public access, and 1-on-1 Zoom calls
- Fully trained DADs - we train 1-2 DADs each year to match with individuals with type 1.
How can we fundraise for our dad?
Fundraising is how most families cover the training fees for a Diabetic Alert Dog. It is a lot of work, but if fundraising for one of our fully trained DADs we are more than happy to help in any way we can! We will share your fundraisers, can set up a page for you and your dog for your fundraisers so individuals can donate specifically to your funds, send receipts to donors, and bring the dog in training to any local events. Below are a few ideas for fundraisers.
- Restaurant profit donations
- Beef and Beer (northeastern terminology, but essentially a casual fundraising dinner with silent auctions, raffles, catered food, etc. These are high effort but tend to be very successful! MD Dogs last event raised $9,000)
- Car Wash/garage sale/etc.
- Fundraising walk
- Church or charities
- Baking (one t1d recipient baked apple pies to raise funds)
- Tshirt fundraisers (bonfire)
- Use your artistic talents! (one t1d recipient painted canvases)
- Share your story! Get on the local news
How Do I know one of your dads will work?
The DAD industry is flooded with dogs that have varying accuracy and success rates, so this really is a great question! Every dog's transition is different so each scenario is unique and progresses differently. MD Dogs provides lifetime support, including free followup training for any reason. We will come to you and help work through any new training scenario you'd like assistance with, or you can send your DAD back to us and we will re-train anything that's needed. We encourage you to reach out to our graduated teams - the best research you can do is talk to teams who have working DADs. This will help prepare you for what having a DAD is really like, and is a great way to research a particular organization. Feel free to contact any of our teams and ask what they liked, what they didn't like, and if they'd do it again!
