Training a Diabetic Alert Dog - Birth to 8 Months

This video shows the different stages to training a Diabetic Alert Dog. The first stage was imprinting the litter of puppies; they associated low blood sugar scent with nursing. Once they could chew, they were taught that low blood sugar scent equals chicken. The next stage was finding low blood sugar scent in objects around a room. One pup from the litter was chosen to be the DAD; she then progressed to finding the box with the low blood sugar scent inside. Around 4 months old she alerted to her first live low blood sugar. Over the next 4 months we continued scent training, formalized her alerts to a paw, and taught her to alert to high blood sugars as well.

To learn more about Diabetic Alert Dogs, visit: http://www.libbyslovingleashes.com/da...

Sadie is Comfort Retriever, to learn more about Comfort Retrievers visit ComfortRetrievers.com

EDIT: I did not realize the video would become popular, but since it has I wanted to give an update and make some clarifications/suggestions. This method does work and was used to train my first DAD. However, that was quite a few years ago and through experience I have learned that it is best to limit contamination with objects and refrain from having the sample touch the ground and objects unless thoroughly cleaned between each session. You are welcome to use these exercises as they do work, but I recommend keeping the scent in a metal container with holes in the top for the majority of scent training and then holding the bare sample or rubbing it on your skin once the dog is reliably pawing the sample in the metal container. After you hold it or rub it on your skin, thoroughly wash the area to eliminate the odor. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment - I'm happy to help!

Edit 2: All scent training instructions for training your own Diabetic Alert Dog have now been recorded/written down and are available for free at mddogs.org in a book and video series format. Wish you the best!