to Dog Trainers - Page 1

Blitzen posted a while ago about a dog trained for detecting blood glucose level, so I thought of making a new post.

 

Thank you DOG TRAINERS , you make our lives safer and easier, you train dogs for

Riot combat

Bomb detection

Narcotics detection

Find and rescue people during disasters

Property protection

Family protection

Sheep herding

Eye guide

Glucose level detection in blood

 

Thank you our heroes, tell us what else are you teaching and training dogs to do for us !

 

Ibrahim

 

 

Great topic, Ibrahim. I hope you get some good response. 

Adding to your list Ibrahim, there are dogs in training / provided for:

[not just Glucose levels which is great for people with Diabetes] but

 

also  sensing impending seizures in people who have epilepsy.

 

Detection of skin and certain other types of Cancers.

 

Detection of accelerants which caused fires to start.

 

'Buddy' dogs for children, sort of seeing-eye but more than that, for

kids who don't yet go out alone, to need a guide dog in the usual

sense,  but can use the companionship and help of an all-round

Assistance Dog and companion.  UK Guide Dogs Association has

provided quite a number of these already, with more in training.

 

Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.

 

While these are not all GSDs, the Shepherd plays a role amongst dogs used

in all these programmes;  we should be thankful that any & all canines are

so adaptable and helpful.

Ibrahim,

Part pf my dog's service dogs tasks is sugar levels. I was not looking for or going to use service dog and obtained him for companion, show, schutzhund. As a young pup he would snap at my face and my sugars would drop about an hour and half later. I thought he was just being a normal carpet shark until we put one and one together and got the 2 he was trying to show us. He is what they call a natural alerter. He will even tell me when other people around us are having a sugar issue. He is extremely accurate. I have been told dogs can be trained to the scent, but that being able to have a natural alerter is much safer. Their accuracy is so much better. He tells me before I get low so it does not hamper my driving which I had stopped doing, or even before I get to the shaky stage before getting them back up. After you go low it can take a couple days to get over the tired illness you get. He gets me before I drop to that line so I do not even experience that any more. This has made a huge change for the better in my life. He also assists me in other ways for other medical conditions and has been doing so for almost five years now. I have a non functioning pancreas and they can be dealt with by using insulin, which I am insulin dependent. Diabetes is extremely hard to manage and takes over your life with testing, needles, and time. Your daily activities can fluctuate you so much and having to control everything in your life. My health is on an upswing these days. I am recovering from a surgery to fix three issues had recently and I feel the most human I have felt in the last twelve years now. No only does my service dog keep me going, but I have to be going for him, It is a true partnership.

As for use of service dogs in general. Our country greatly abuses this. So many fakers, so many trainers making money off the people that do depend on them and selling non trained dogs. The organizations that only ask a small fee are so back loaded for people waiting that people go to the trainers that have no business training a service dog. When I first started out, I consulted a dog person in the gsd world that is also an internist and deals a lot with diabetes. I asked his help in making sure how to go about fine tuning my dog in a safe manner. Unfortunately I do not believe everyone has the ability to train service dogs. Yet our country gives us this right. There are people with dogs in public that should not be in public much less being used for a medical condition. People have adopted a dog from shelter thrown a service dog vest on it and started using it saying the dog seems fine not understanding the dog has not been trained to any tasks nor do they have the slightest idea if that dog may have any issues that will trigger aggression.

I am one of the VERY few service dog uses who wishes for a test a handler and dog must pass to have public access. It must be something more than what AKC offers imo as well as both the both basic cgc and the advanced because my dog and I recently checked those out by doing them and service dogs require better testing than that very general test. My dog also has a BH that we did. I felt that was better but still feel one needs to be custom designed. It is up to the buyers to be sure their medical needs are met in their service partner. I believe they should have to have certified hips and elbows before working and that all service dog trainers should have to be registered as such. We would not buy medical equipment from substandard manufacturers and service dogs are medical equipment.Many do not want to have to prove they qualify to use a service dog, I have no problems with doing this myself. I can stand up to any scrutiny in all ways and so can my dog. I do understand why many do not want this to be an issue because of how many are fakers. All we hear from the media is dont sell vests.... lamo by law we do not have to vest our dogs. I feel anyone that does not vest is just looking for a fight personally. I vest out of respect to the public.The "groups" that sell service dogs use them as their business cards and that is why they want them limited. These groups are not even controlled in any way by certification or government baking. I want a revamp of the whole system as a service dog handler I support this whole heartedly. The public deserves to know the dog amongst them are safe and trained, service dog handlers deserve to not have to prove themselves to anyone other than a tester, and the frauds need to be removed as well as handlers understand they are held to a standard of behavior with their dogs in public. Bring on any and all tests, certifications. My service dog and I are ready and able.

Excellent post GSDnewbie, thanks for sharing your experience and the good info 

How could a service dog and it's owner be tested?  How would it be possible to test and certify a dog for its ability to warn against seizures or glucose levels or any other disability that is not evident?  IMO a certification would eliminate many people from claiming their dog is their service dog when it's not, but how the heck could that ever be confirmed?

Blitzen, a service dog is one who provides some type of PHYSICAL assistance to the handler...retrieving a phone, turning on a light, opening a door, etc. Those things can easily be tested for. The other type of dog mentioned here is a medical alert dog and if there were any testing for them, I would imagine it would be in a medical setting, similar to taking a stress test, with contrast via IV. I do not forsee that ever happening, too many loopholes for litigation if anything goes wrong during the test.

I get that, HD, that's why I was asking that in response to the suggestion that service dogs and their owners should be subject to testing and certification.

I said that most will not allow a test to prove their medical needs tasks, they will hide behind medical privacy. "service dogs" have attacked the public. Poorly trained, and poorly handled dogs are being used in public. This problem needs to end before the pulic thinks it is all of us. Testing access behaviors. This will get rid of many problem and faker service dog teams because they are not dedicated enough to do the training properly. If a certification later became needed then like for me my doctor confirming my medical conditions would auto pass me as needed for my service dog. Diabetic has been written directly into the ADA. That alone without my neurological issues on top of it will pass me. Most medical alert dogs truly functioning as a service dog will also have non alert physical tasks they also perform that can be displayed for the tester.