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"I discovered your amazing training methods while searching for " trained diabetes alert dogs."  I am new to all of this.  Our 4.5 year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.   I have no idea where to begin.  Do you know of any reputable breeders and or trainers who will partially train diabetes alert dogs? I understand that much training will need to happen at home regardless, but just wondering what is available close to home."  Stephanie
 
What I would do is choose a breed (or mix) that suits your family and lifestyle. Look for sound health and temperament of the parents (health screens for any conditions that are typical of the breed), find a breeder that ensures the mother is not stressed during pregnancy, does Early Neurological Stimulation.
Look for breeders that raise their pups with the Puppy Culture or Avi Dog programs.

Your best bet is to find a breeder who keeps the dogs to at least 8.5 weeks of age and starts socialization with kids, adults, lots of environmental enhancement such as moving the rearing box to different rooms in the house, introduces different toys periodically, does early neurological stimulation that helps to create a more resilient adult etc, then continue the pup's socialization. The goal is to have all positive experiences in the first 16 weeks of the pup's life. Meet at least 100 different people, visit different indoor and outdoor locations, different surfaces, sounds, sights, modes of transport, meet other dogs that are properly socialized and friendly (even if the final vaccinations have not yet been done), plus expose the dog to any environments you anticipate s/he will be exposed to during her lifetime. etc After the 16 weeks, it is important to maintain all this but not as intensive.

You can start the basic training (sit, eye contact, leave it, nose targeting etc) as young as when you bring the pup home. Some clicker trainers start the pups at 4 weeks as soon as they can hear. But be careful to let your pup be a pup! Your dog is a dog first, family member second and service dog third. If you plan to do other things (like compete in sports), train those later if the service dog is the primary focus. Avoid asking too much of your dog as they can burn out. Working as a service dog for one person is a full-time job for most dogs. Some dogs, like diabetic and seizure alert dogs, are on 24/7 so make sure to give the dog time away from work on a regular basis.
 
The diabetic alert is the easy part to train (takes not many sessions for most dogs to get the hang of it. Generalizing it to other locations is the longer part.) The hardest part is getting the dog's behavior to a level suitable for public access (if you intend to certify) starting with Canine Good Neighbor or CLASS program by the APDT and continuing with a Public Access test. All service dogs need to be bombproof in many environments, with people, other dogs etc.

Know that no service dog is ready to work in public until after about 18 months of age. If someone is trying to sell you a "trained" service dog that is younger than that, especially a 12 to 16 week old pup, then run away! Pups of this age do not have the social, emotional or physical maturity or reliability to handle this job, even if they can already detect blood sugar highs and lows. They have not been trained to work in public. Plus it's not fair to the developing pup to put that level of responsibility on him or her.

You can adopt an adult dog and train it to be a medical detection dog. They do not need to be raised using their nose to learn the task. Dogs know how to use their nose and if they have a bond with you, they can easily learn how to do medical alerts of all kinds. Avoid short-nosed breeds for the job just because they often have health issues due to the short nose structure or heart issues.

Here is a FREE e-book that helps you to select a service dog from various sources.

 

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Here is a 1hr 19 min video on selection of a potential service dog candidate (puppy or adult, purebred or mixed breed, from breeder or rescue). Many things to consider.

[ Assessing Dogs for a Service Career ]
 

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Great Book on Training Diabetic Alert Dogs!

I've heard excellent reviews and the author is an excellent trainer. 
All positive reinforcement approach as well, so it's a 
win, win, win!

Click here to see more about the book and author.

Wheelchair Skills 1.0

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Wheelchair Tasks for Assistance Dogs 1.2

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Tips for a Service Dog Owner


"As a power wheelchair user, I’d like to add some things (to your videos) that might be helpful, especially to people who are raising and training their own service dogs from puppyhood.

Personally, I can’t imagine trying to train and use a
dog that was afraid of the chair. One of the things we tested for and paid
a lot of attention to was a puppy’s ability to recognize and react to
discomfort/pain; quickly recover and then “forgive” whoever or whatever
caused it. By itself, my chair weighs over 350 lbs and although my service
dog, Laurel and I work hard for me to not run her over (it’s only happened
about 5-6 times), as active as we are and the close quarters we are often
in, I believe it is inevitable that I will occasionally do so. It is pretty
traumatic when it does occur and if Laurel couldn’t recover and be willing
to come right back next to my chair, it would severely limit what she could
do for me and what we could do together. At least for someone in a power
chair, the dog must have the ability to get run over and still not be afraid
of the chair.

My service dog is a Labrador Retriever and we got her when she was about 8 ½
weeks old. From that time until she was about 4 months old, when we went out
with her she either sat on my lap or I used a manual chair and she could
walk or sit in my lap. When she got too big to sit in my lap but was still
small enough that if I ran her over in the power chair, I risked breaking
something, I only took her out with my manual chair.

From the time we got her, I used my power chair around the house and she
learned to stay out of its way. When I started working with Laurel, I found
the wheelchair to be a barrier between us which really annoyed me (and there
are still times I feel that way). I think that is because when I could still
walk, I trained and competed in AKC obedience so I know how much easier it
is to train on your feet than in a wheelchair. Early on with Laurel, there
would be times I would get on my feet to train something but since I am a
disaster at walking and I realized that things she learned that way didn’t
necessary translate when I was using my chair, I quickly determined that
regardless of the frustration involved, I needed to stay in my chair to
train everything. On a side note, we have been doing agility for a couple
years now and being in a chair never bothers me but I never did agility on
my feet so I have nothing to compare.

When we started working with Laurel walking next to my power chair, we did
so in a large enclosed training room. We had her off leash and used her
ability to target to come up into heel position. We taught her “left” and
“right” and when we turned left, I would throw a treat in that direction so
that she would move there before my chair did. I still use the directional
commands when heeling, in agility and for all sorts of things.

I realized early on that Laurel’s “heel position” when doing rally and
obedience versus when we were out in public had to be two different things.
When we were out in public, Laurel naturally wanted to walk further forward
than she did when we were in the ring training or competing. I realized that
when we were out, she wanted to be able to see around the chair to the other
side. Since I thought that was pretty reasonable, we trained the two
different positions depending on the situation and she does them
consistently and reliably.

When we started doing rally, obedience and agility, I looked to see if there
were any videos out with people in wheelchairs doing those sports. I think I
found one video of someone in a chair doing rally and that was it. As a
result, I have put a number of videos of us doing those things out on
youtube so that others who want to compete can see that it’s very doable and
a great way to have fun with your service dog."

Linda

"I found leash weights, types, and lengths to be an added concern for
me when working my dogs from my chair. To heavy and I could not hold on to them,
wrong material and they caused pain, to long and they became wrapped up in the
wheels, if I could not gather the leash up fast enough. I have tried many
leashes over the years and found a simple six foot cotton web training leash
with a second handle I tie in the middle to be the perfect set up for me.I can
loop the main handle over my handle bar if needed, and grab the second one to
quickly take up slack and avoid entanglement. The leash setup also serves as a
very versatile ever ready door pull."

Melissa and SD Shiloh

Helpful Leash Tip for Wheelchair Users with Assistance Dogs 1.3

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Generalizing Behaviors and Tasks to Many Locations

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