Medical Assistance Service Dogs
Service Dogs are task trained to mitigate their owners disability. Some of the Medical Assistance Service Dog tasks include:
▢ Alert to changes in medical condition via scent or sight
▢ Medication reminder
▢ Reassure during medical crisis
▢ Reorient after medical episode
▢ Stay with until help arrives
▢ Wake handler
I am currently diagnosed with CPTSD, Idiopathic intracranial hypertension, reversible cerebral vasoconstriction disorder, and diabetes.
Bindi is task trained for (still working on some, of course):
1. Find my medicine (scented)
2. Harmful behavior interruption, crying interruption
3. Blocking, crowd control
4. Panic alert
5. Deep Pressure Therapy
6. Seizure alert (was natural, but she just went crazy so we are working at refining to an actual alert, which she is doing well at)
7. Oops retrieve
8. Waking me up from nighttime neurologic episodes
9. Leading me to mom or husband in public.
And we may add more as my noggin continues to fizz out thankfully medicine is now helping and Bindi just loves learning.
-Wendy C in Orlando, Florida
Many medical response dogs "alert" their handlers to conditions before they occur. For example, diabetes alert dogs partnered with diabetic persons may be trained to detect when the handler's blood sugar becomes too high or low.
However, that is only one part of what a Medical Assistance Service Dog can do. In addition to the alert beforehand, they can respond during (Medical Response) as well as help their handler after the medical episode (Medical Recovery).
Clover is incredible with his low blood sugar alerts. His window seems to be about 10 minutes before I really feel the effects - basically if I ignore his alert, 10 minutes later I will be dizzy, feeling weak and nauseous.
His heart rate alerts are exceptional - long before I even start to realize it’s going up. He stares me down when I hit about 93-99 and the alert immediately comes out when I hit 100, or over 120 if I’m walking.
Doctors have seen it in action and have remarked how incredible Clover is.
-Sara S in Las Vegas, Nevada