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Hey all! It's been a while since I've posted on this forum, and, with a new change in my life, I'm finding that I need the people of the boards' infinite wisdom once again!

 

After a very long, unexplained illness, I was recently diagnosed with Addison's Disease back in May. Some time ago, at our local Costco, there was an event for veterans and military members going on and after seeing the most adorable Saint Bernard puppies with a group providing service dogs for veterans with PTSD for free, I came upon the idea of turning Brady into my own service dog. Problem is, I don't really know where to or how to start. There have been people who have trained their dogs as service dogs for their Addison's but they seem to be in the UK and the only documentation is in newspaper articles.

 

Brady would have to be able to detect my cortisol levels and alert when they're low, giving me an added protection of knowing how to stop my body from going into crisis. I believe he's done it before without training, because when I was sick and had no idea I had apparently won the genetic lottery for this rare disease, he would lie next to me in bed and lay his head across either my chest or my stomach. Recently, when I was being stubborn and not taking my steroids as directed, he would do the same thing. I believe this is his "alert." It could very well be just him snuggling, but his version of cuddling is to just lie next to me and press against me for five seconds and then run off to play.

 

I don't really know that much about service dogs and I have NO IDEA how to capture this behavior because it's so rare and I don't know how to capture that smell of low levels.

 

I remember a couple of you guys using your collies as service dogs and was wondering if you could give me some advice on training your own? References of where to start would be great, too! I thought about asking the school that provides service dogs for the deaf, blind, and otherwise handicapable people of the Northwest, but I wanted to ask people who have self-trained first.

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Sorry to hear about the Addisons.

 

Yes, you can train your own service dog. It's not a job for sissies, I must warn you :)

 

Your instinct to get in touch with the closest official body that deals with service dogs is correct. They will have lists of resources and people you can talk to - who will have other lists and so on.

 

If you have had your Border Collie a while and he is generally a well behaved dog with a high level of obedience and willingness to please (gets upset in a "let me quietly make up for that by being really good" way if you are mad at him is the best general indicator) he will make a really excellent service dog if you do not require the sort of service that a blind person would have (which really does require a dog trained very specifically).

 

The transition from "things we do just because" to "things we do as part of an important job" changes the dynamic in the dog/person relationship a lot. Voluntary acts of service, if you will, that arise from love and loyalty are not the same as the kind that arise from a trained routine that includes them perforce. In other words, he can't randomly notice things, he has to be trained to scan for them.

 

You will need a mentor or training partner who will help you with the basic stuff - but I feel I should warn you that your dog may have been with you long enough that some behaviours won't be able to be conditioned and some other behaviors won't be able to be re-conditioned.

 

So, yeah - find the closest official body that deals with service dogs and go from there.

 

Good luck and I would love to be kept posted.

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I would look for advice from people who have trained diabetic alert dogs as it seems the training and work you want will be similar to that used for that type of service dog.

...alternatively/ and contact the folk in the UK who helped train the service dog for the patient with Addison's disease ( sorry to hear about your condition) . If you need it, I think this may be the link. http://medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/medical_alert.html

The video for Karen and Coco (originally a rescue dog) seem to be the relevant one- the direct link for the short video that describes Karen's story when it was put forward for the 2010 Crufts Dogs for Life award is here

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Kristi, Canine Companions for Independence might be able to help you. Their Northwest office is in Santa Rosa, CA, very close to where I live. You can google them - I can't cut and paste to the board for some technical reason, or I would have included it. I think, (not positive) that CCI was the first organization to train dogs to do other services than guide the blind.

 

They do service dog training for many, many different things, and would be a great place to start. I'm not sure they do medical alert training, but they might.

 

Good luck!

 

Ruth and SuperGibbs

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Here is a recent story about a scent detection service dog here in the states. Not the same scent, but the same principle -

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/service-dog-sniffs-girls-disease-operating-room/story?id=21279329

 

The dog in the story was trained by Eyes Ears Nose and Paws and from the page linked it appears that it might be worthwhile contacting them.

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Kristi, Canine Companions for Independence might be able to help you. Their Northwest office is in Santa Rosa, CA, very close to where I live. You can google them - I can't cut and paste to the board for some technical reason, or I would have included it. I think, (not positive) that CCI was the first organization to train dogs to do other services than guide the blind.

 

They do service dog training for many, many different things, and would be a great place to start. I'm not sure they do medical alert training, but they might.

 

Good luck!

 

Ruth and SuperGibbs

 

Canine Companions in southern CA is an especially fine organization, with excellent trainers and high standards and I second the suggestion of contacting them. They are likely to be able to direct you to the right people to help if they do not do that kind of training themselves.

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It is a good question, My beagle does this with out ever being trained, I want my BC to learn, the other day I had an alert from my beagle, I went and laid in my bed, the BC knew something was up, she went in a bit of a panic mode for a moment, I got her to calm and relax, she came up on the bed and laid on top of me tell I felt better. I am going to be working with a service dog trainer, I am currently in the process of deciding between 2 trainers, I plan to start early part of the new year.

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  • 4 weeks later...

You can do it! I am currently training my dog for my Celiac Disease. He is doing really good! I am doing his obedience training with The Dog Wizard, and have done his scent training myself. No it is not for whimps, it takes a lot of time and patience if you plan to do it yourself. I know you can get books on how to train dogs for Diabetes, so maybe get some of those and use them to help. If you have any questions feel free to ask. :)

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I understand that some people do have a need to train their service dogs to put pressure over their bodies, I am not sure how they go about doing this, I know that they can be trained to sense oncoming things like seizures and such as well. I have a beagle mix who can detect my seizures way before I can, she learned this on her own. I have a feeling that you would benefit by discussing these things with a trainer who has worked in these areas, I know that for myself I am doing most of my service dogs training on my own, but have a trainer who assists me on specialized aspects and needs that I have.

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