How to train medical alert dogs

[TheMadWriter]

Hi! I am working on a project that includes medical alert dogs for a certain condition, and after doing some research I have confirmed that in most cases, including seizure alert dogs, scientists still do not know how dogs can tell about seizures, some websites I looked at told me it was a "sixth sense" that dogs have so they can "sense changes in a humans aura". Anyway, my question is, if we do not know how dogs know, how do we train them to tell us when they know. If anybody knows, I would appreciate the information.

[Endy0816]

Probably picking up faint indications.

 

Dogs that have the knack are rewarded when they respond appropriately.

[jimmydasaint]

Fascinating topic. Do they smell the breath of the person and are the more sensitive dogs selected and then trained in an action when they smell outliers, e.g. to paw at the person?

 

We train Diabetes Assist Dogs to help people with Type I diabetes.

Diabetes Assist Dogs are trained to monitor smells in the air for a specific scent on the human breath that is related to rapidly dropping or low blood sugar levels. They are then trained to “alert” the person with diabetes, usually by touching them in a significant way such as pawing or nudging them. This alerts the person to check his or her blood sugar level. It also informs them that they should get something to eat to prevent hypoglycemia, or their blood sugars getting to a dangerous level. The canine partner can also be trained to retrieve juice or glucose tabs, get an emergency phone, or get help from another person in the house.

Diabetes Assist Dogs wear a backpack identifying them as an assistance dog. This backpack has pockets where medical information, a sugar source, and emergency contact information can be stored. This provides an extra safety net in case the person with diabetes is unable to get help in time. Anyone finding the person unconscious or acting abnormally would know it may be a medical emergency and know how to get help.

How can a dog detect low blood sugar?

The dogs are evaluated throughout “puppy-hood” for a willingness to work and a sensitive nose. Once we have identified their interest in smells, they begin scent training. A person experiencing hypoglycemia produces a particular scent, found on the breath, due to chemical changes in their body. All people produce the same scent when they have low blood sugar. Our training methods are similar to those used to train drug sniffing or search and rescue dogs trained to find people.

Due to the generosity of supporters like you all of our assistance dogs are provided to clients free of charge.

http://can-do-canines.org/ourdogs/diabetes-assist-dogs/

[Function]

Seizure alert dogs; do you mean dogs trained to see a seizure coming by certain factors? If so, I have 2 problems with this specifically, and a practical problem:

• I'm not sure every patient has 'prodromen' when it comes to seizures
• When a patient does have prodromen before a seizure, he will most likely know he's about to have a seizure himself, and doesn't need to have a dog sensing those prodromen to tell him or other persons. When a patient does not have prodromen, he won't see it coming. In those cases, I'm clueless about how you could train dogs in sensing imperceptible changes in humans announcing a seizure.
• Practical problem: it's quite useless? Experiencing a seizure is not immediatly a medical emergency, most of the time helping the patient consists of just putting near objects away, avoiding him to hurt himself; there is no way whatsoever to stop the seizure as a bystander. And that could result from the alert a dog would give you: you could only sit and wait for the seizure, putting the anxious patient away from objects
• Possible solution: if there are dogs that do sense certain prodromen of seizures (but only then, when a seizure is happening, it is, as stated above, quite useless, and is also useless before the seizure when not considering this point), patients with deep brain stimulators or vagus nerve stimulators may want to activate their stimulator, or potentiate (increase) its operation, hoping that that might just inhibit, or impede, the genesis of the seizure

That diabetes dog thing is very interesting indeed. Could you share a more scientifical source?

Edited August 11, 2016 by Function

[Prometheus]

It is sometimes possible to smell pearl drops (a hard boiled sweet in England) on the breath of people going into diabetic ketoacidosis - though i can never smell anything even when others can.

 

I've heard of dogs used to detect cancer. I quick look and i found this paper which found a sensitivity and specificity of 91%. Not bad.