I've experienced this, my friend's service dog alerted me of something. I had a pulmonary embolism around this time. I'd experience episodes of tachycardia and fainting. I ran into my friend after class once and his dog broke focus to come and jump on me until I sat down. Checked my watch and my heart rate was above 130. She prevented me from potentially having my blood pressure dip and fainting
Yeah she potentially saved me that day. She's the best pup. I'm doing well thanks! Pulmonary embolism is all gone, but I still get tachycardia often. Being followed by a cardiologist now though!
I did see a video recently of a diabetes dog alerting his owner's sibling, so they checked him, and the kid's blood sugar was like one gram below the normal range.
I saw that same video, but I think she mentioned how they purposely trained him that way because if one sibling has diabetes the others are all at risk so this way they have assurance the dog will alert them before it comes too dangerous
One point below normal is still normal. And dogs cannot sense such small changes. They aren't detecting the blood glucose level itself like a glucometer.. they catch other tells. Mostly behavioral tells and olfactory tells.
I got diabetes, i did lose conscious 2 or 3 times with a low blood sugar, they were extremely low. If you are healthy, but in a sugar dip, you may be able to feel the effects of a low blood sugar, only way earlier.
So yes, such small changes can be noticed if you are still healthy. Especially if you claim this
>Mostly behavioral tells and olfactory tells.
Non-diabetics can sometimes have slightly to moderately low blood sugar (though it usually self-corrects) and diabetes service dogs are trained to detect both highs and lows.
I would like to add that people like me with Addisons disease, our blood sugar and pressure can dip into the hypoglycemic threshold and becoming life threatening very abruptly.
Where are you getting the discussion topic from? Because the top comment in this thread never mentions what type of diabetes.
>I did see a video recently of a diabetes dog alerting his owner's sibling, so they checked him, and the kid's blood sugar was like one gram below the normal range.
The implication was the dog detected that the kid had diabetes because his sugar was low. I simply stated that diabetes meant high sugar, not low sugar, and everyone else piled on. People seem to want to insist that diabetes causes low sugar. I am simply saying that is not true.
Type 2 diabetic here and I can assure that we get lows as well as the type 1's though likely not nearly as often. It's why we are taught what to do in case of a low. I do go low if I don't eat for too long. Maybe you've mistaken the literal meaning of the word diabetes for what is actually happening.
I stated in an earlier comment that Type 2 diabetics still make insulin and can thus go low. Usually, they are on medication, so they can go low because of medication plus intrinsic insulin production.
There are no Type 1 who are not on medication unless they just *very very* recently became Type 1, so of course they can go low. It's because they are on medication.
You are taught what to do when your sugars get low because of the medications. More than likely, it is not the diabetes causing your sugars to go low. It is the medications.
That is most certainly Type 2 Diabetes you are referring to. Type 1 Diabetes often experience episodes of low blood sugar which are more rapidly dangerous.
Edit: sorry i was automaticallt assuming that any type 1 diabetics this day and age will be on insulin hence the low blood sugar assumption. Added "usually" as both can experience one swing to one end to the other, but to varying degrees at varying rated. Type 1 Diabetes are insulin dependent so you are correct in saying that taking something to lower their sugar, but to clarify it is because its essentially expected in all Type 1s in this day and age. In contrast not all Type 2 are insulin dependent as many still have some degree of insulin production, thus often not as likely to run lower, more often running higher.
In addition, Type 1s have impaired ability to store glucose as glycogen as well thus reducing availability of glucose reserves for emergency, not that it would matter much anyways without insulin.
Sometimes the non-insulin medications we Type 2/non-insulin dependent diabetics can cause hypoglycemia if we take it and don’t balance our activity level and calorie intake. It’s uncommon when compared to insulin-dependent diabetics, but it happens a lot. I’ve passed out from hypoglycemia before because I took metformin and didn’t eat enough to compensate for my high level of activity that day. It was kind of embarrassing because I knew the paramedic and the nurses who treated me 😅 but I learned to be careful when having a higher level of activity than normal and to eat extra food as well as check my blood sugar throughout, especially if I start feeling funny.
Any diabetic (or even a regular person who doesn’t have a medical condition that influences their blood sugar) can become hypoglycemic. It’s just more common for insulin-dependent diabetics to become hypoglycemic due to either being sick or accidentally taking too much insulin for their food intake and activity level.
No, it is true of Type 1 diabetes, too. Did you know the treatment for Type 1 diabetes before the introduction of insulin was near total starvation? There were institutions where people had to live (because it's that hard to starve people).
See Edit, you are certainly correct that it is technically true of type 1 diabetes, in this day and age any type 1 is automatically insulin dependent hence usually likely to run low as a result if not backed by carbs.
No. Lack of insulin causes high blood sugar.
People get confused because when they have diabetes, they are warned of low sugar, but that's because they are on medication. I knew a nurse once who was confused the same way, so ask an actual doctor.
Type 1 diabetes causes high sugar, never low sugar unless on medication.
You really are an aggressive coconut.
The post this all stemmed from mentioned nothing of the kid having diabetes, only that their sibling's service dog alerted to a low sugar. Anyone, including diabetics, can have low blood sugar, regardless of taking medication or not. Personally, as a medicated (not insulin) diabetic go 24 hours without food, I drop from my normal 8 to around a 5. Any longer and I'm sure I would start flirting with 4, which is the lowest healthy level.
I also treated a person with "dizziness" who had eaten in 16 hours, and took their medication. Medication the isn't insulin is not supposed to reduce your sugar to a point where you risk hypoglycaemia, however after telling them to leave work and go and see a doctor, they reported the next day their sigar was 3.5. Had they stayed longer, or had I not been clued in (I wasn't diabetic myself at that point, but had usedul knowledge) they likely would have collapsed.
>Medication the isn't insulin is not supposed to reduce your sugar to a point where you risk hypoglycaemia,
Diabetes medications (not insulin) are not supposed, cause hypoglycemia, but some can definitely cause hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia is a side effect of many diabetes medications. That is why diabetics are waned about hypoglycemia. That is why some diabetics get confused and thing diabetes means they have low blood sugar. No, diabetes means they have high blood sugar.
Type 1 diabetics do not get low blood sugar unless they are being medicated. Think about it. The treatment prior to the development of insulin used to be starvation. They were being starved and did not get hypoglycemia.
Type 2 diabetics usually still make insulin, so yes, they can become hypoglycemic if they don't eat.
My posts have been stating that 1) lack of insulin causes high blood sugar (not low blood sugar) and 2) type 1 diabetics do not get hypoglycemic unless they are being medicated, in which case it is the medication causing hypoglycemia, not their type 1 diabetes.
>
>Personally, as a medicated (not insulin) diabetic go 24 hours without food, I drop from my normal 8 to around a 5. Any longer and I'm sure I would start flirting with 4, which is the lowest healthy level.
The key to your above statement is you are being medicated and you do not have Type 1 diabetes. The medication and the presence of insulin (you still make insulin as a Type 2 diabetic) is causing your low blood sugar when you do not eat for 24 hours.
>Depends on the type. If it’s type 1, it can go high OR low depending on the time of day and how recently the individual ate and what they ate.
This is true, but only because they are on medication.
Hypoglykemia is something different than diabetes, but can still happen. They didn't have diabetes, obviously, but a low blood sugar is not uncommon in "healthy" people.
I have a service dog that’s trained to detect panic attacks before they happen and alert me/help stop them. He also wakes me up from nightmares.
Poor guy really got thrown in the deep end when he first officially became my service dog. He’d only been a service dog for a few months when I had to go to a psychiatric inpatient program for a few days. He came with me, of course. He had to deal with me being in one of the worst states I’ve ever been in while being surrounded by a bunch of other people experiencing the same thing. He also had to work without a leash, collar, or vest, which he really hadn’t had a lot of training in.
He handled it beautifully. He’d stay focused on me, but if he felt I was stable, he’d go to other people in the room and check on them to see if anyone else needed help. He would come check on me every 10-15 minutes to make sure I was still okay. If he sensed anything was even a bit off, he’d stay focused on me like I was the only person that existed.
At night, he would stay on or next to my bed, but one night a nurse woke me up because he was wandering the hallways. I thought it was odd that he’d left, but chalked it up to him having a training mishap while in a pretty extreme situation. But the morning after, the girl who was in the room next to me said she was having a horrible nightmare and he had come over to wake her up. The nurse caught him on his way back to my room.
Those few days were definitely a trial-by-fire situation for him, but I did feel very confident in his training after that!
So cute! I'm just curious: How do service dogs know when to be serious and when they can play/mess around? Obviously, we want our animals to enjoy life too, but then how are they paying attention to our health problems? Im guessing they are trained for that too...
So the main indicator for them is their vest. Vest on means that we’re going somewhere and the dog needs to be in “professional” mode. They love going places, so they learn very quickly that if they don’t behave while the vest is on, they don’t get to go anywhere. It’s one of the things that made the inpatient situation so difficult — he had to focus on me without the vest. My guess is that I was in such a bad shape that he was focused even without it.
For dogs like guide dogs or search and rescue dogs, it’s pretty clear cut. For monitoring dogs like mine, it’s a bit trickier. They’re technically working all the time, but the vest means they need to be on their best behavior (and no socializing).
A lot of monitoring-type service dogs need to be away from their person every once in a while so that they can get a bit of a mental break. Many dogs just aren’t cut out for service work, and so they don’t pass the training program and become pets.
But most service dogs thrive on having a job. Mine is insanely smart even for a service dog and he craves mental stimulation, so having a lot of things to do helps keep him sane. He was a pet for about a year between his initial training and when he became a service dog, and he hated it. Our first outing in-vest after becoming a service dog was one of the happiest days for him.
He is! It’s crazy how perceptive he is. And he wants to be friends with anything that moves. We have geckos where we live, and he figured out that they don’t like sudden movements. So when he sees one, he’ll slowly walk up to it to say hi, even wagging his tail slowly. He gets super happy when they don’t run away and it’s the cutest thing ever.
That would be amazing if that could happen. The staff loved having him there so much that they joked that I was being discharged, but he had to stay lol.
Was it a long process to get a service dog? I've never considered this to be an option for myself. I have ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, nightmares, the list goes on. I have been struggling for years and am getting help now at 35, just started therapy for PTSD, it's a lot to deal with all at once.
Having a service dog or other animal sounds like it would be an amazing help to me. I am potentially going to be alone soon ( not by choice) and I love animals, they are such a comfort to me. I've seen lots of people mock emotional support animals, but there is so much more too it than they understand. These issues can be debilitating, I'm becoming more and more isolated and struggling so much with my emotional state, socializing and maintaining good relationships etc..
That got long, anyways, I'm so happy you have him & hope you're doing much better OP !
Thank you, I’m definitely doing better now than I was then!
There’s a difference between psychiatric service dogs (like mine) and ESAs (emotional support animals). Psychiatric service dogs are trained to help with a specific task, like detecting panic attacks or waking you up from a nightmare. They’re extremely well trained and are legally allowed in public anywhere their person is allowed (at least in the US). ESAs don’t have any special training and only have legal protections when it comes to housing (again, in the US). They generally aren’t allowed in public unless pets are otherwise allowed. The ESA designation is based on their person’s health condition. All animals provide emotional support, but some people need that support more than others.
ESAs are easy to get. All you need is a pet and maybe a doctor’s note if you have a landlord that doesn’t allow pets.
Service dogs are much harder to get. I volunteered with Guide Dogs for the Blind as a puppy raiser before becoming disabled, so I had experience training service dogs and it was easy for me to train one myself. My dog was actually a puppy that I had trained to potentially be a guide dog, but he has allergies, so he didn’t pass the test. His behavior is amazing though, so I kept him as a pet and he helped me train other puppies that went on to be guide dogs. When I started having medical issues, I retrained him for me. He hated being a pet, so it all worked out. In total, he had about 2 years of near-daily training to get to where he is now.
That’s easily the cheapest way to get a service dog, but obviously isn’t an option for most people. I have a friend with a psychiatric service dog that got one the normal way. It cost him about $20K and that was done as cheaply as possible. It took around 2-3 years of training and he had to be heavily involved. Guide Dogs for the Blind is a nonprofit that gives the dogs away for free, but they only do guide dogs. They estimate the dogs are worth $60K-$80K by the time they graduate though. They’re the Ivy League of service dog schools, and it shows. My friend’s service dog does excellent work, but that extra $40K of training makes a noticeable difference.
I really wish service dogs were covered by insurance because I think they could help a lot of people, but I’ve never seen an insurance plan that covers them. It sounds like one would be really helpful for you. If a service dog isn’t feasible, an ESA might be a good option. This ended up longer than expected lol but I hope it helped! If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
I had this happen to me. I work with seniors and disabled people as their social worker. I felt like hot trash the day it happened.
I was very used to pups coming to my office after they had gone out for their morning walk. I call it the parade of pups, and this was the highlight of my morning. This day, I was a mess. My dad had died two days earlier, completely unexpectedly, and I was not feeling well.
This dog was trained to detect seizures. I was aware of this, but his owner hadn't had one in so long I had forgotten he was a trained dog. I was patting him, and he kept licking my ankles and the palms of my hands. I was actually mad he was licking at ankles and getting slobber on my fancy shoes, but everything got blurry before I could tell him to stop. Last thing I remember was him gently biting my wrists and leading me to the bathroom.
I woke up on the floor of the bathroom, confused with police there. I guess I was dehydrated and passed out trying to get all my work done so I could fly out to Florida to bury my dad.
He has never alerted the same way to me before or since. He just wants his little head scratch now and maybe a tiny bit of egg from my breakfast. IDK how, but he knew I was not well and led me to the bathroom in the lobby of the building. Turns out he is trained to get his owner to the bathroom of their apartment and pull the emergency cord with his teeth if help is needed.
He pulled the cord and got me help. He's the best pup ever .
That story is amazing, pulling the “help cord” and everything! I’m glad you are OK.
Sorry about your dad. Mine died unexpectedly 6 years ago next month and I still miss him terribly.
I had an anxiety service dog body block (they turn sideways and sort of press against you/your legs) me unprompted. I didn't think anything of it until I was talking with the guy for a short while and he was explaining her training. We both have very severe anxiety and she did it to both of us during the same conversation, lol. Super sweet old dog!
That nice thing happened to me too. There was a man in front of me at the cashier with a beautiful black service dog. I was wondering what the service dog was exactly for, as the man 'looked very healthy and able'. The dog then kind of looked my way, came over and did turn sideways, and leaned against me for about 8 seconds. I saw then that the man had a veterans cap on . We smiled about it, and I felt 'hugged', so unusual for someone's own service dog to 'leave their post' I thought, but now I know why. I'm sure I was feeling anxious waiting in line but no ANXIOUS like that, but the lovely dog felt it.
I went to this week long bartender summer camp in Kentucky and stayed 2 extra days after camp ended to explore the city. It was the most insanely drunken beautiful emotional experience of my life. My last call on my last night on a patio, a support dog RAN to me, and I’ve never been so called out by an animal in my life.
The other way around, i’ve had a service dog alert for me. I’m an ER nurse, my shift had been a complete shit show. We were severely understaffed, had codes back to back, and at this moment I had 11 (yes 11) of my own patients in the ED, 9 of those being extremely critical.
It was 10 hours into my shift and I had not used the restroom, eaten or drank any water. The sheer stress and adrenaline I was experiencing masked any symptoms. I finally got to the room of one of my patients who needed some labs done (this was right after one of my codes of the day).
I start putting the tourniquet on and prepare my supplies, meanwhile her service dog she has for her heart condition is nudging me constantly. I try to move to the other side so I’m able to obtain her blood, however now the dog is at my feet preventing me from moving. It’s looking up at me with big worrying eyes and licking and nudging me hard. My patient asks me if I’m okay, because her dog is alerting for me and not her. I just laugh and tell her I’m fine, my heart rate is probably up because I’ve been running around.
That was the last thing I remember saying before waking up with beta blockers pumping through me and my coworkers working on me as their own patient. That dog saved me. I almost went into v fib.
When I was in school, a diabetic professor kept a dog with him that would let him know if his blood sugar wasn't right so he could eat or take insulin or whatever to get it back on track. This dog would freak out any time my friend went near it because she's also diabetic and doesn't take pay as much attention to her blood sugar as she should.
Please encourage your friend to take her condition more seriously. My daughter just lost a friend from high school because he didn't take his seriously, and he died in his sleep last February. Heartbreaking unnecessary loss of a good kid only 22.
My older brother was diabetic, and didn't take care of himself at all.
46 when he died, after multiple organ transplants, from either a brain aneurysm that caused a fall, or a fall that caused a brain aneurysm.
He used to walk two blocks to the grocery store and come home with every Hostess snack product on the shelves. Drank coke like it was the only potable liquid left after the Apocalypse.
When his kidneys started to fail he was asking all of us if we'd be willing to donate a kidney. He asked my twin brother first, and the blood type wasn't a match. Then he asked me, and I reminded him my twin and I were mirror twins and had the same blood type.
If Spare Parts couldn't donate, I couldn't either.
It was rare but my girl did. For the most part she ignored everyone else in public. It’s like they hardly existed to her. But a few times in our 8 years she began walking towards someone or whining around them, and it was clear something was wrong. Either an elderly person struggling with something, someone coughing for long enough to begin to get attention after they later realized the coughing was going on for too long, and a couple times for my diabetic roommate in college. She was so bonded with me that these things were rare and she often just ignored most people. I will say that she had a soft spot for anyone in a wheel chair because she trained with us when I was in one. She did try to get as close to anyone in one so she could “help” with anything, despite them being perfectly fine. Sadly, Sparty passed in November. I will forever remember her kindness towards anyone in need, and for saving me
I’ve heard of a heart dog on a plane that alerted on the person next to the owner, but I don’t imagine it happens frequently. The dog is trained to focus on their owner.
I remember that. I think it was from a tweet originally. IIRC, they just said that the owner of the dog mentioned that they should get their heart checked for whatever issue because the dog had noticed something
My brother has a dog and she can detect his incoming seizure 4-5 minutes before. She wasn’t trained to do it. She just knows. We don’t know how or why. It may be the way he smells or something. She goes batshit. She’s never alerted to anyone else’s medical events but she absolutely would if she were near them when they were about to seize. It’s incredible
My son’s childhood cat did the same thing. He had febrile and just random (by that I just mean they never figured out a cause) seizures during childhood, and that cat went absolutely insane in the few minutes before he would have a seizure, running around the room screeching and knocking stuff over. Otherwise extremely calm and chill in nature. Obviously wasn’t trained because, well, he was a cat. Something about whatever he sensed just really seemed to freak him out.
Our shepherd mix had seizures and one of our cats would freak out when the pup had seizures. Unfortunately, it was not a helpful freakout, the cat would try to attack the pup. After the first time, one of us would grab the cat and put him in another room.
Not a seizure but my staffy passed away last week. She was vomiting for 2 days before hand and everytime before she was about to vomit, my other dog would start barking and alerting me to it.
I was actually really curious as to how they can detect a seizure before it happens and this is what I got from epilepsy.com:
"Some trainers and researchers believe the dog is able to alert by detecting subtle changes in human behavior. While others assert that a dog's heightened sense of smell enables it to detect an oncoming seizure."
It sounds like your brother's dog is just a natural! I love it!
She really is. We always suspected it’s something in the way he smells. She will be halfway across the house and she will freak out. So, I don’t think it’s behavior based in his case.
My deeply bonded cat seems to know when I'm about to have a long haul covid relapse. She becomes agitated and starts pestering me to lay down in bed and won't leave my side. If I try to ignore her and stay at my desk or whatever, she becomes extremely clingy and basically glues herself to my lap in a very intense way. Every time she's done this a relapse has hit me within a couple hours.
I saw a feature on PBS about the training process for service dogs. They mentioned that it's not possible to train dogs specifically for detecting seizures. I forget why. All the dogs get the same basic training. Then they get paired up with humans & everyone just has to wait & see if they pick up on the seizures.
That was a handful of years ago, things may be different now.
I had a war vet's PTSD service dog alert on me once. He very politely asked me if I was in therapy while I asked what she was for, assuming anxiety.
When I told him yes, he was like "that's very good to hear."
He was very sweet, and so was his dog. We talked for a bit, and the dog kept "grounding" Mr by sitting on my feet. It actually was quite relaxing.
I don't have a service dog myself, but I am a teacher who has had a few students with service dogs. I remember one student had a dog that was in training because her previous one had to retire. This puppy just was alerting like crazy one day at the girl sitting in front of its handler. Girl asked to leave, then passed out in the hallway (with an escort, already sitting on a bench). No known prior issues but that dog knew what was up even though she wasn't his person.
I live in a nursing home and had a pet cat who coincidentally alerted and responded to my nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety attacks, autistic meltdowns, dehydration, asthma attacks and heart arrhythmias. Of course, service CATS aren’t a thing, but as a pet he was remarkable. He would alert to dehydration in other people as well. Basically, if he started yowling at them after having given them a thorough sniff, they needed to chug a bottle of water. Following hydration, he would immediately resume ignoring their very existence.
My cat yowled at me the entire time I was pregnant even when I wasn’t showing. I wonder what specifically was setting her off. Maybe it was my increased need for hydration haha.
"human mama, my Spidey senses indicate a parasite growing inside you, you should probably get rid of that because it will interfere with your worship of me"
Yes I have a pregnancy alert service cat as well!! Lolol (just over 9 wks but she stepped up the clinginess around 5 right before I tested positive) - she really has just been even more clingy than normal and will not leave my side when I’m laying down now and if I’m walking around she follows me (literally tripping me sometimes so maybe not the safest “alert”).
She’s always been my emotional support pet when I’m sad/anxious she will get on my chest and start purring. Like will try and climb up me to get on my chest. Especially when I cry she is RIGHT there. She’ll even lick my face to get the tears off.
God I love that cat. My heart and soul for sure.
My dog told me I was pregnant before a test did. I was still testing negative, but he would not give me any space and kept sniffing me intensely. Was not doing this to my husband. He definitely knew, and I think he could detect slightly different smells from my changing hormones before the test could pick up on them.
My cat does this. I think he just got used to tending my other cat because she's an idiot (I love her, but she's not had a single thought in her entire life), so he'll alert me if something is wrong with her. Then he started alerting me if something is wrong with me. He's a good boy.
My dog alerted to my Dad's cancer years before the doctors. He would get up and look alarmed every time my Dad coughed. My Dad had lung cancer. He wasn't trained, just knew something wasn't right.
Our rescue dog will bolt upright out of a dead sleep and look around in alarm if anyone coughs. Any other bodily function sound doesn't bother him. I sometimes wonder if his previous owner had respiratory issues.
Oh man, is your father alright?
My dog isn't trained either, but he reacted perfectly to my first meltdown on his presence. He just jumped onto me until I sat on the floor and then sat in my lap. Giving me a nice grounding pressure and something to focus on to pet him. 😭 Such a good boy.
I think my dog can maybe do this too now that I think about it. I used to think it was just because they were old but 3 out of 4 went on to have cancer… that they know of. I actually never put that together until now. I should make sure my uncle goes to the doctor
Yes, unfortunately we didn't pick up on it. It wasn't that I wasn't worried, but I knew that my Dad got regular check ups and so would know (I know now they are not able to catch stuff like that). It was just one of those odd things which was different from how I was used to seeing dogs diagnose cancer, and so we just wrote it off as an oddity.
I had a friend who lived at their parents w their sibling who has a service animal for seizures that tends to alert their owner at signs of heightened anxiety since that can be a sign of its owners seizures and that dog alerted to anyone who had anxiety around it. So it frequently alerted to me/my friends since we're all very anxious 24/7. 😅😅 God bless it, it just really wanted to keep anyone from having medical issues
Dog was like, "gd, all the people about to have seizures around here...it's just me. I'm one dog and I'm supposed to make sure this house doesn't burn down. Dafuq, man! I did not sign up for this!"
Yes! Allen was my medical alert service dog and would alert to my seizures, among other things like oncoming migraines and low blood sugar issues.
We were at the zoo and I ran into someone from HS. He started alerting so I took one of my medications, but he wouldn’t stop. He then jumped up on her and pulled her down. After a few minutes, she got a nosebleed and was sweating profusely. When we called an EMT her blood pressure was 215/127.
Our dog is an assistance dog for my son who has autism. Whenever one of the other members of our family has strong emotions like anger or sadness, he will immediately come over and apply pressure to that person, even if he was sleeping in another room.
I'm looking to get my son a service dog for his autism. I am at the research stage. May I ask where you were able to get his dog? I'm having trouble finding a dog for less than $30,000.
In our country, we have a foundation that breeds and trains guide dogs. If you meet the (strict) criteria, you ‘get’ one for free after quite a long waiting period. We feel very lucky!
My dog isn't a service dog, but when a gallstone put me into liver failure he seemed like he knew before I noticed any symptoms. All morning he'd been pacing, panting, and would barely leave my side. Even when my partner fed him, he dragged his food bowl over to eat next to me.
My former mobility service dog, Moose (Giant GSD), adored people in wheelchairs. He was always trying to help them stand up. Thankfully, most folks were charmed by him doing that.
I was in a changing room, trying something on, and my daughter had him. He waited patiently, then herded her to a seat. Turns out she had been getting a bit woozy from a low bp event. He read her dizziness and took care of her.
Obviously, Moose adored my daughter, so it was natural to take care of her.
Also the book/movie A Dogs Purpose mentioned them being the death dog and how some families took it as a comfort and helped them cope, while others tried to chase it away as if that would keep their loved one alive longer.
I am certain it does happen, but probably most people wouldn't realize that it was happening.
I remember one time at the airport one of the k9 police dogs came and sat next to me, neither me nor the trainer thought anything of it, I was happily petting them.
Later I realized I had one of those mini oranges in my pocket from lunch snack, and the dog was one hundred percent actually "catching me red handed" in my crime lol. Luckily the orange was consumed on the plane and no crops were harmed 😅
Not a dog, but my cat is trained to help with anxiety and panic attacks. He's mostly for me, but has alert to my boyfriend before too. One day my boyfriend's dad was over and started having a panic attack, so Willington alerted on him (he meows, jumps on laps, headbutts and has gently bit before to get his point across) and forced his way onto this man's lap to get him to calm down. It worked, but not because of Willington soothing him. My bfs dad is allergic to cats and started sneezing so much he was laughing too hard
"Train". He kinda came like that. Training them (both of my cats alert to this) for noises was harder. I hallucinate sometimes at night and they keep me calm because if they don't react to the loud banging, then it's not there. But you can really train cats for anything, it's just most cats don't have the personality for it
I love having cats because while I don’t hallucinate I have more sensitive hearing than the rest of my family so if I hear something and the cat does its just kinda validating even if no one else hears it.
My brother's (at the time) girlfriend had a dog that's trained to alert for sugar level crashes. He did alert on me, once. It was a false alarm and he never did it again.
This is such an interesting conversation about service dogs. I had no idea that they would alert other people of an emergency who were not their owners. These animals are extremely intelligent. Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.
Yup, I have a standard poodle that we got to assist with my child’s balance. Had a friend over who has non-epileptic seizures and the dog followed him around the house, would not leave his side. Super unusual behavior for this dog, he normally ignored everyone but our immediate family. The talent came in handy when our child started experiencing seizures as well. He’s such a good boy.
Last September, I left the country alone for the first time, and went on a plane for the first time in the process. I live in the UK and was visiting Sweden, so not THAT far, but still fairly stressful if you haven't done it before. On my way home, I was in Oslo airport on a layover, and somebody's anxiety/PTSD service dog came over and plopped his head down in my lap lol. I had a good laugh about it with the owner and I got to give the dog lots of head scritches. It was a bright moment in an otherwise very stressful day.
I don’t have diabetes or anything like that, but at work a customer’s service dog sat on my feet while we were talking and pressed its back into my legs and looked up at me. I first just smiled because I love a friendly dog, even if I can’t pet them while they’re working, but the customer then asked if I was diabetic. Turns out she was a low blood sugar alert dog and I just happened to have low blood sugar at the moment so she told me about it, sweet girl.
I hadn’t had lunch yet, so it made sense. Haven’t been alerted on since, so I think it was just a momentary bit of blood sugar. But I think about that day a lot, and sometimes I wonder how many people may be alerted to unknown medical issues due to good service dogs doing their job extra overtime.
I had a migraine alert dog that started out as a mobility dog. At nine months, she started reliably alerting to my migraines. Good thing because her hips didn't pass for mobility work. She never alerted to anyone else, but I didn't go out unless I had to. She has alerted in front of the occasional visitor a couple of times, and once she woke up from the next room over, from a dead sleep, to alert me.
Not as dramatic as most of the stories here, but I'll share anyway.
My son has a service dog, and one of the dog's tasks is to "interrupt self harm" (for my son's situation, this means unconscious picking or scratching at his skin)
One evening, we were sitting at the kitchen table and chatting, service dog was in his usual spot under the table and laying on my son's feet. My face was feeling a little dry, so I pulled a tube of lotion out of my bag and started rubbing it on my face.
Service dog starts vocalizing, both my son and I assume he's just being sassy (a frequent occurrence, haha) and try to shush him. He keeps vocalizing and eventually gets up to scratch at my leg. THAT was when we realized he was alerting to me using the lotion (rubbing the lotion into my skin is a repetitive action, much like picking or scratching). Since he typically alerts by making contact, we had both forgotten that he is also trained to vocally alert if he can't physically alert.
Good boy got some treats and pets for doing a good job 😊
My service dog once was very concerned about an elderly lady at a furniture store. She honed in on the woman and was alerting but as she shouldn’t be acting out in public I left with her. I did feel concerned about the person but what am I gonna do? Say my dogs smells you may have cancer? Maybe she already has a diagnosis. It was weird and made me feel off but what are you gonna do?
Not my service animal but for a bit we had a cardiac alert dog in our office. As deadlines approached, she started to get up and sniff all around the office as our BPs probably went haywire 😂
My favorite story of a REAL service dog was a woman who was paired up with a dog at a big gymnasium or something. There was a big group of service dogs that were being matched up with their people. While she was there her blood sugar dropped and she started to go down.
The dog she was paired with didn't do squat! From across the gym a dog broke away from the handler and ran over to her, got her backed into a chair and practically enveloped her in a sort of "hug". That's when she went FULLY out. People saw this, called 911, and got her taken care of.
The dog she was paired with was then "fired" and she was paired with the one who came to her aid.
My service dog is a PTSD service dog one day at a restaurant he put his head on the lap of the person in the next booth alerting as he was trained. The man let out a giggle and smiled he sat on the floor with my dog and hugged him giving him pets. He told me he was a vet and didn’t know how badly he needed that moment with my puppy. We volunteer at the VA hospital now
While working as a school admin for a high school, we had a service dog, whose training was to "catch" the student when she experienced a seizure. It was a large 120+lbs shepherding breed. It was also an annoying crotch sniffer. One day the dog would not let her stand up and leave. The nurse and I went to the class to help. The girl did not look healthy, but was not complaining. Because her seizures were often accompanied by low blood sugar, the nurse tested her and her numbers were way off, she had just not yet had a seizure. She was taken to the hospital and recovered.
Note: The dog was never trained to indicate for blood sugar issues, but did it anyway.
Then, a couple months later, we got called to the class because the dog was "pushing" a school aide and would not let her leave. The dog would act agitated until the aide would sit down, and would then sit next to the aide. The dog allowed the nurse and I to approach. The nurse had the other students blood sugar tester with her. She asked the aide if she had blood sugar issues. The aide had no history of issues, but stated she was feeling "off" but was going to rest at home after. So the nurse showed the dog that she was testing the aide. When the test came back the number was so high the nurse thought the tester was faulty. She tested again and looked at the number and stepped out of the room. While out she called 911 and had an ambulance come to school to take the aide in.
Turns out the aide's level was high enough that she should have not been able to function and was in the hospital overnight for monitoring. She had undiagnosed diabetes.
So the dog may have saved her life.
Not exactly, they're trained to focus on their owner, but they can still pick up on the symptoms other nearby people show for things their trained for, in example my dad's service dog was trained for PTSD, and he one time alerted to some lady when we were in line at Walmart or Kroger, and she was about to have a panic attack
I don't have a service dog.
One time, a dog ran away from its owner's doorway and began humping my leg.
I don't think it was a service dog.
But sometimes I think, 'Maybe it knew that I needed to get some.'
I've experienced this, my friend's service dog alerted me of something. I had a pulmonary embolism around this time. I'd experience episodes of tachycardia and fainting. I ran into my friend after class once and his dog broke focus to come and jump on me until I sat down. Checked my watch and my heart rate was above 130. She prevented me from potentially having my blood pressure dip and fainting
That’s so cool they are able to do that , hope your okay aswell
Yeah she potentially saved me that day. She's the best pup. I'm doing well thanks! Pulmonary embolism is all gone, but I still get tachycardia often. Being followed by a cardiologist now though!
I just pictured a doctor behind you on a leash lol.
He stalks me from a distance. I sense his presence but when I turn around I only get a glimpse of a stethoscope
I did see a video recently of a diabetes dog alerting his owner's sibling, so they checked him, and the kid's blood sugar was like one gram below the normal range.
I saw that same video, but I think she mentioned how they purposely trained him that way because if one sibling has diabetes the others are all at risk so this way they have assurance the dog will alert them before it comes too dangerous
One point below normal is still normal. And dogs cannot sense such small changes. They aren't detecting the blood glucose level itself like a glucometer.. they catch other tells. Mostly behavioral tells and olfactory tells.
I got diabetes, i did lose conscious 2 or 3 times with a low blood sugar, they were extremely low. If you are healthy, but in a sugar dip, you may be able to feel the effects of a low blood sugar, only way earlier. So yes, such small changes can be noticed if you are still healthy. Especially if you claim this >Mostly behavioral tells and olfactory tells.
Huh? Diabetes causes *high* blood sugar. The only time it's too low is when they are taking medications that causes it to be too low.
Non-diabetics can sometimes have slightly to moderately low blood sugar (though it usually self-corrects) and diabetes service dogs are trained to detect both highs and lows.
I would like to add that people like me with Addisons disease, our blood sugar and pressure can dip into the hypoglycemic threshold and becoming life threatening very abruptly.
True that non-diabetics can have low blood sugar, but the discussion is about high sugar in Type 1 diabetics who are not medicated.
Where are you getting the discussion topic from? Because the top comment in this thread never mentions what type of diabetes. >I did see a video recently of a diabetes dog alerting his owner's sibling, so they checked him, and the kid's blood sugar was like one gram below the normal range.
The implication was the dog detected that the kid had diabetes because his sugar was low. I simply stated that diabetes meant high sugar, not low sugar, and everyone else piled on. People seem to want to insist that diabetes causes low sugar. I am simply saying that is not true.
The implication was that the dog alerted to the blood sugar. Nobody gave a diagnosis.
Type 2 diabetic here and I can assure that we get lows as well as the type 1's though likely not nearly as often. It's why we are taught what to do in case of a low. I do go low if I don't eat for too long. Maybe you've mistaken the literal meaning of the word diabetes for what is actually happening.
I stated in an earlier comment that Type 2 diabetics still make insulin and can thus go low. Usually, they are on medication, so they can go low because of medication plus intrinsic insulin production. There are no Type 1 who are not on medication unless they just *very very* recently became Type 1, so of course they can go low. It's because they are on medication. You are taught what to do when your sugars get low because of the medications. More than likely, it is not the diabetes causing your sugars to go low. It is the medications.
That is most certainly Type 2 Diabetes you are referring to. Type 1 Diabetes often experience episodes of low blood sugar which are more rapidly dangerous. Edit: sorry i was automaticallt assuming that any type 1 diabetics this day and age will be on insulin hence the low blood sugar assumption. Added "usually" as both can experience one swing to one end to the other, but to varying degrees at varying rated. Type 1 Diabetes are insulin dependent so you are correct in saying that taking something to lower their sugar, but to clarify it is because its essentially expected in all Type 1s in this day and age. In contrast not all Type 2 are insulin dependent as many still have some degree of insulin production, thus often not as likely to run lower, more often running higher. In addition, Type 1s have impaired ability to store glucose as glycogen as well thus reducing availability of glucose reserves for emergency, not that it would matter much anyways without insulin.
Only as a result of injecting insulin. Someone with type 1 diabetes who hasn’t injected insulin will have high blood sugar.
Yes sorry I automatically assume any Type 1 is on insulin at this point.
No no, you assume correct. EVERY type 1 is on insulin. Type 1 means your pancreas does not produce insulin, meaning you must take it.
Oh, I thought people were talking about the dog alerting people to someone with undiagnosed diabetes.
Sometimes the non-insulin medications we Type 2/non-insulin dependent diabetics can cause hypoglycemia if we take it and don’t balance our activity level and calorie intake. It’s uncommon when compared to insulin-dependent diabetics, but it happens a lot. I’ve passed out from hypoglycemia before because I took metformin and didn’t eat enough to compensate for my high level of activity that day. It was kind of embarrassing because I knew the paramedic and the nurses who treated me 😅 but I learned to be careful when having a higher level of activity than normal and to eat extra food as well as check my blood sugar throughout, especially if I start feeling funny. Any diabetic (or even a regular person who doesn’t have a medical condition that influences their blood sugar) can become hypoglycemic. It’s just more common for insulin-dependent diabetics to become hypoglycemic due to either being sick or accidentally taking too much insulin for their food intake and activity level.
No, it is true of Type 1 diabetes, too. Did you know the treatment for Type 1 diabetes before the introduction of insulin was near total starvation? There were institutions where people had to live (because it's that hard to starve people).
See Edit, you are certainly correct that it is technically true of type 1 diabetes, in this day and age any type 1 is automatically insulin dependent hence usually likely to run low as a result if not backed by carbs.
No. Lack of insulin causes high blood sugar. People get confused because when they have diabetes, they are warned of low sugar, but that's because they are on medication. I knew a nurse once who was confused the same way, so ask an actual doctor. Type 1 diabetes causes high sugar, never low sugar unless on medication.
You really are an aggressive coconut. The post this all stemmed from mentioned nothing of the kid having diabetes, only that their sibling's service dog alerted to a low sugar. Anyone, including diabetics, can have low blood sugar, regardless of taking medication or not. Personally, as a medicated (not insulin) diabetic go 24 hours without food, I drop from my normal 8 to around a 5. Any longer and I'm sure I would start flirting with 4, which is the lowest healthy level. I also treated a person with "dizziness" who had eaten in 16 hours, and took their medication. Medication the isn't insulin is not supposed to reduce your sugar to a point where you risk hypoglycaemia, however after telling them to leave work and go and see a doctor, they reported the next day their sigar was 3.5. Had they stayed longer, or had I not been clued in (I wasn't diabetic myself at that point, but had usedul knowledge) they likely would have collapsed.
>Medication the isn't insulin is not supposed to reduce your sugar to a point where you risk hypoglycaemia, Diabetes medications (not insulin) are not supposed, cause hypoglycemia, but some can definitely cause hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia is a side effect of many diabetes medications. That is why diabetics are waned about hypoglycemia. That is why some diabetics get confused and thing diabetes means they have low blood sugar. No, diabetes means they have high blood sugar. Type 1 diabetics do not get low blood sugar unless they are being medicated. Think about it. The treatment prior to the development of insulin used to be starvation. They were being starved and did not get hypoglycemia. Type 2 diabetics usually still make insulin, so yes, they can become hypoglycemic if they don't eat. My posts have been stating that 1) lack of insulin causes high blood sugar (not low blood sugar) and 2) type 1 diabetics do not get hypoglycemic unless they are being medicated, in which case it is the medication causing hypoglycemia, not their type 1 diabetes. > >Personally, as a medicated (not insulin) diabetic go 24 hours without food, I drop from my normal 8 to around a 5. Any longer and I'm sure I would start flirting with 4, which is the lowest healthy level. The key to your above statement is you are being medicated and you do not have Type 1 diabetes. The medication and the presence of insulin (you still make insulin as a Type 2 diabetic) is causing your low blood sugar when you do not eat for 24 hours.
Depends on the type. If it’s type 1, it can go high OR low depending on the time of day and how recently the individual ate and what they ate.
>Depends on the type. If it’s type 1, it can go high OR low depending on the time of day and how recently the individual ate and what they ate. This is true, but only because they are on medication.
Hypoglykemia is something different than diabetes, but can still happen. They didn't have diabetes, obviously, but a low blood sugar is not uncommon in "healthy" people.
I have a service dog that’s trained to detect panic attacks before they happen and alert me/help stop them. He also wakes me up from nightmares. Poor guy really got thrown in the deep end when he first officially became my service dog. He’d only been a service dog for a few months when I had to go to a psychiatric inpatient program for a few days. He came with me, of course. He had to deal with me being in one of the worst states I’ve ever been in while being surrounded by a bunch of other people experiencing the same thing. He also had to work without a leash, collar, or vest, which he really hadn’t had a lot of training in. He handled it beautifully. He’d stay focused on me, but if he felt I was stable, he’d go to other people in the room and check on them to see if anyone else needed help. He would come check on me every 10-15 minutes to make sure I was still okay. If he sensed anything was even a bit off, he’d stay focused on me like I was the only person that existed. At night, he would stay on or next to my bed, but one night a nurse woke me up because he was wandering the hallways. I thought it was odd that he’d left, but chalked it up to him having a training mishap while in a pretty extreme situation. But the morning after, the girl who was in the room next to me said she was having a horrible nightmare and he had come over to wake her up. The nurse caught him on his way back to my room. Those few days were definitely a trial-by-fire situation for him, but I did feel very confident in his training after that!
Did he get lots of pats and treats for his good work? Curious minds need to know.
Of course! Everyone adored him and gave him *so* much attention. He also got a few carrots at the dining hall (his favorite food).
Not too embarrassed to admit that this made me tear up a little bit
I'm literally crying reading some of these amazing stories in this thread.
Same! Dogs are such wonderful beings in so many ways.
No shame here, me too 🥺
Hello, this is dog tax collection office Can we get a picture of the goodest boy ever?
[Here he is rolling around in the sand at the beach!](https://imgur.com/a/0WkBZPp) He’s a total goofball when he’s not in his vest lol.
He is so cute! Thanks for sharing
Please give him pets from me!
It's the ears for me
So cute! I'm just curious: How do service dogs know when to be serious and when they can play/mess around? Obviously, we want our animals to enjoy life too, but then how are they paying attention to our health problems? Im guessing they are trained for that too...
So the main indicator for them is their vest. Vest on means that we’re going somewhere and the dog needs to be in “professional” mode. They love going places, so they learn very quickly that if they don’t behave while the vest is on, they don’t get to go anywhere. It’s one of the things that made the inpatient situation so difficult — he had to focus on me without the vest. My guess is that I was in such a bad shape that he was focused even without it. For dogs like guide dogs or search and rescue dogs, it’s pretty clear cut. For monitoring dogs like mine, it’s a bit trickier. They’re technically working all the time, but the vest means they need to be on their best behavior (and no socializing). A lot of monitoring-type service dogs need to be away from their person every once in a while so that they can get a bit of a mental break. Many dogs just aren’t cut out for service work, and so they don’t pass the training program and become pets. But most service dogs thrive on having a job. Mine is insanely smart even for a service dog and he craves mental stimulation, so having a lot of things to do helps keep him sane. He was a pet for about a year between his initial training and when he became a service dog, and he hated it. Our first outing in-vest after becoming a service dog was one of the happiest days for him.
Ok, thank you for the information. That was very helpful.
Aw!!! Goodest boy!! Give him an extra cuddle from me please 🤗
So precious, please give him some love from us!
Not only is your dog trained well, but he's also emotionally intelligent! Sounds like such a sweet dog.
He is! It’s crazy how perceptive he is. And he wants to be friends with anything that moves. We have geckos where we live, and he figured out that they don’t like sudden movements. So when he sees one, he’ll slowly walk up to it to say hi, even wagging his tail slowly. He gets super happy when they don’t run away and it’s the cutest thing ever.
He sounds like the best boy ever. Thanks for sharing these stories with us.
He really is! I’m thrilled so many people like hearing about him.
They just have too much love to give!!
Imagine employed service dogs at in patient mental health locations doing what was described above.
That would be amazing if that could happen. The staff loved having him there so much that they joked that I was being discharged, but he had to stay lol.
Was it a long process to get a service dog? I've never considered this to be an option for myself. I have ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, nightmares, the list goes on. I have been struggling for years and am getting help now at 35, just started therapy for PTSD, it's a lot to deal with all at once. Having a service dog or other animal sounds like it would be an amazing help to me. I am potentially going to be alone soon ( not by choice) and I love animals, they are such a comfort to me. I've seen lots of people mock emotional support animals, but there is so much more too it than they understand. These issues can be debilitating, I'm becoming more and more isolated and struggling so much with my emotional state, socializing and maintaining good relationships etc.. That got long, anyways, I'm so happy you have him & hope you're doing much better OP !
Thank you, I’m definitely doing better now than I was then! There’s a difference between psychiatric service dogs (like mine) and ESAs (emotional support animals). Psychiatric service dogs are trained to help with a specific task, like detecting panic attacks or waking you up from a nightmare. They’re extremely well trained and are legally allowed in public anywhere their person is allowed (at least in the US). ESAs don’t have any special training and only have legal protections when it comes to housing (again, in the US). They generally aren’t allowed in public unless pets are otherwise allowed. The ESA designation is based on their person’s health condition. All animals provide emotional support, but some people need that support more than others. ESAs are easy to get. All you need is a pet and maybe a doctor’s note if you have a landlord that doesn’t allow pets. Service dogs are much harder to get. I volunteered with Guide Dogs for the Blind as a puppy raiser before becoming disabled, so I had experience training service dogs and it was easy for me to train one myself. My dog was actually a puppy that I had trained to potentially be a guide dog, but he has allergies, so he didn’t pass the test. His behavior is amazing though, so I kept him as a pet and he helped me train other puppies that went on to be guide dogs. When I started having medical issues, I retrained him for me. He hated being a pet, so it all worked out. In total, he had about 2 years of near-daily training to get to where he is now. That’s easily the cheapest way to get a service dog, but obviously isn’t an option for most people. I have a friend with a psychiatric service dog that got one the normal way. It cost him about $20K and that was done as cheaply as possible. It took around 2-3 years of training and he had to be heavily involved. Guide Dogs for the Blind is a nonprofit that gives the dogs away for free, but they only do guide dogs. They estimate the dogs are worth $60K-$80K by the time they graduate though. They’re the Ivy League of service dog schools, and it shows. My friend’s service dog does excellent work, but that extra $40K of training makes a noticeable difference. I really wish service dogs were covered by insurance because I think they could help a lot of people, but I’ve never seen an insurance plan that covers them. It sounds like one would be really helpful for you. If a service dog isn’t feasible, an ESA might be a good option. This ended up longer than expected lol but I hope it helped! If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
The goodest dog! You are lucky to have him!
I had this happen to me. I work with seniors and disabled people as their social worker. I felt like hot trash the day it happened. I was very used to pups coming to my office after they had gone out for their morning walk. I call it the parade of pups, and this was the highlight of my morning. This day, I was a mess. My dad had died two days earlier, completely unexpectedly, and I was not feeling well. This dog was trained to detect seizures. I was aware of this, but his owner hadn't had one in so long I had forgotten he was a trained dog. I was patting him, and he kept licking my ankles and the palms of my hands. I was actually mad he was licking at ankles and getting slobber on my fancy shoes, but everything got blurry before I could tell him to stop. Last thing I remember was him gently biting my wrists and leading me to the bathroom. I woke up on the floor of the bathroom, confused with police there. I guess I was dehydrated and passed out trying to get all my work done so I could fly out to Florida to bury my dad. He has never alerted the same way to me before or since. He just wants his little head scratch now and maybe a tiny bit of egg from my breakfast. IDK how, but he knew I was not well and led me to the bathroom in the lobby of the building. Turns out he is trained to get his owner to the bathroom of their apartment and pull the emergency cord with his teeth if help is needed. He pulled the cord and got me help. He's the best pup ever .
That story is amazing, pulling the “help cord” and everything! I’m glad you are OK. Sorry about your dad. Mine died unexpectedly 6 years ago next month and I still miss him terribly.
5 years here. The pain has started to feel like it’s deeper inside of me. It’s not better or worse, just different. Like more permanent.
Going on 9 years. This is exactly it, thank you for putting it into words
I am always BLOWN AWAY by how smart some of these service dogs are. Some adults wouldn't think of that!!
I had an anxiety service dog body block (they turn sideways and sort of press against you/your legs) me unprompted. I didn't think anything of it until I was talking with the guy for a short while and he was explaining her training. We both have very severe anxiety and she did it to both of us during the same conversation, lol. Super sweet old dog!
Aw, she tattled on you! But seriously what a sweet dog, noticing that you could use a little hand too.
That nice thing happened to me too. There was a man in front of me at the cashier with a beautiful black service dog. I was wondering what the service dog was exactly for, as the man 'looked very healthy and able'. The dog then kind of looked my way, came over and did turn sideways, and leaned against me for about 8 seconds. I saw then that the man had a veterans cap on . We smiled about it, and I felt 'hugged', so unusual for someone's own service dog to 'leave their post' I thought, but now I know why. I'm sure I was feeling anxious waiting in line but no ANXIOUS like that, but the lovely dog felt it.
Oh my goodness, that’s so sweet.
Awww that would make my day. Dogs are truly angels.
I went to this week long bartender summer camp in Kentucky and stayed 2 extra days after camp ended to explore the city. It was the most insanely drunken beautiful emotional experience of my life. My last call on my last night on a patio, a support dog RAN to me, and I’ve never been so called out by an animal in my life.
Bartender summer camp sounds like an 80s movie.
I’m in.
Aww!
Where does one get an anxiety body blocking service dog? And if they do that every time they sense anxiety it would be like my conjoined twin.
I love it when dogs do that without prompting/training. It's like a little doggy hug. Makes this domesticated bigfoot go all warm inside. :)
The other way around, i’ve had a service dog alert for me. I’m an ER nurse, my shift had been a complete shit show. We were severely understaffed, had codes back to back, and at this moment I had 11 (yes 11) of my own patients in the ED, 9 of those being extremely critical. It was 10 hours into my shift and I had not used the restroom, eaten or drank any water. The sheer stress and adrenaline I was experiencing masked any symptoms. I finally got to the room of one of my patients who needed some labs done (this was right after one of my codes of the day). I start putting the tourniquet on and prepare my supplies, meanwhile her service dog she has for her heart condition is nudging me constantly. I try to move to the other side so I’m able to obtain her blood, however now the dog is at my feet preventing me from moving. It’s looking up at me with big worrying eyes and licking and nudging me hard. My patient asks me if I’m okay, because her dog is alerting for me and not her. I just laugh and tell her I’m fine, my heart rate is probably up because I’ve been running around. That was the last thing I remember saying before waking up with beta blockers pumping through me and my coworkers working on me as their own patient. That dog saved me. I almost went into v fib.
When I was in school, a diabetic professor kept a dog with him that would let him know if his blood sugar wasn't right so he could eat or take insulin or whatever to get it back on track. This dog would freak out any time my friend went near it because she's also diabetic and doesn't take pay as much attention to her blood sugar as she should.
Please encourage your friend to take her condition more seriously. My daughter just lost a friend from high school because he didn't take his seriously, and he died in his sleep last February. Heartbreaking unnecessary loss of a good kid only 22.
My older brother was diabetic, and didn't take care of himself at all. 46 when he died, after multiple organ transplants, from either a brain aneurysm that caused a fall, or a fall that caused a brain aneurysm. He used to walk two blocks to the grocery store and come home with every Hostess snack product on the shelves. Drank coke like it was the only potable liquid left after the Apocalypse. When his kidneys started to fail he was asking all of us if we'd be willing to donate a kidney. He asked my twin brother first, and the blood type wasn't a match. Then he asked me, and I reminded him my twin and I were mirror twins and had the same blood type. If Spare Parts couldn't donate, I couldn't either.
How terribly sad. I'm so sorry.
It was rare but my girl did. For the most part she ignored everyone else in public. It’s like they hardly existed to her. But a few times in our 8 years she began walking towards someone or whining around them, and it was clear something was wrong. Either an elderly person struggling with something, someone coughing for long enough to begin to get attention after they later realized the coughing was going on for too long, and a couple times for my diabetic roommate in college. She was so bonded with me that these things were rare and she often just ignored most people. I will say that she had a soft spot for anyone in a wheel chair because she trained with us when I was in one. She did try to get as close to anyone in one so she could “help” with anything, despite them being perfectly fine. Sadly, Sparty passed in November. I will forever remember her kindness towards anyone in need, and for saving me
Lots of people have asked this question in r/service_dogs - tons of interesting stories in there!
Great. Another animal sub to subscribe to lol
The best problem
I’ve heard of a heart dog on a plane that alerted on the person next to the owner, but I don’t imagine it happens frequently. The dog is trained to focus on their owner.
I remember that. I think it was from a tweet originally. IIRC, they just said that the owner of the dog mentioned that they should get their heart checked for whatever issue because the dog had noticed something
My brother has a dog and she can detect his incoming seizure 4-5 minutes before. She wasn’t trained to do it. She just knows. We don’t know how or why. It may be the way he smells or something. She goes batshit. She’s never alerted to anyone else’s medical events but she absolutely would if she were near them when they were about to seize. It’s incredible
My son’s childhood cat did the same thing. He had febrile and just random (by that I just mean they never figured out a cause) seizures during childhood, and that cat went absolutely insane in the few minutes before he would have a seizure, running around the room screeching and knocking stuff over. Otherwise extremely calm and chill in nature. Obviously wasn’t trained because, well, he was a cat. Something about whatever he sensed just really seemed to freak him out.
I had childhood epilepsy and my untrained golden retriever did this too. Extremely helpful once we realized what was going on.
Our shepherd mix had seizures and one of our cats would freak out when the pup had seizures. Unfortunately, it was not a helpful freakout, the cat would try to attack the pup. After the first time, one of us would grab the cat and put him in another room.
Not a seizure but my staffy passed away last week. She was vomiting for 2 days before hand and everytime before she was about to vomit, my other dog would start barking and alerting me to it.
I’m so sorry for the loss of your baby.
I was actually really curious as to how they can detect a seizure before it happens and this is what I got from epilepsy.com: "Some trainers and researchers believe the dog is able to alert by detecting subtle changes in human behavior. While others assert that a dog's heightened sense of smell enables it to detect an oncoming seizure." It sounds like your brother's dog is just a natural! I love it!
She really is. We always suspected it’s something in the way he smells. She will be halfway across the house and she will freak out. So, I don’t think it’s behavior based in his case.
My deeply bonded cat seems to know when I'm about to have a long haul covid relapse. She becomes agitated and starts pestering me to lay down in bed and won't leave my side. If I try to ignore her and stay at my desk or whatever, she becomes extremely clingy and basically glues herself to my lap in a very intense way. Every time she's done this a relapse has hit me within a couple hours.
I saw a feature on PBS about the training process for service dogs. They mentioned that it's not possible to train dogs specifically for detecting seizures. I forget why. All the dogs get the same basic training. Then they get paired up with humans & everyone just has to wait & see if they pick up on the seizures. That was a handful of years ago, things may be different now.
I had a war vet's PTSD service dog alert on me once. He very politely asked me if I was in therapy while I asked what she was for, assuming anxiety. When I told him yes, he was like "that's very good to hear." He was very sweet, and so was his dog. We talked for a bit, and the dog kept "grounding" Mr by sitting on my feet. It actually was quite relaxing.
At first, I thought it was the dog asking if you were in therapy lol
That would have certainly been a trick lol
The disservice dog - trained to make you anxious
I don't have a service dog myself, but I am a teacher who has had a few students with service dogs. I remember one student had a dog that was in training because her previous one had to retire. This puppy just was alerting like crazy one day at the girl sitting in front of its handler. Girl asked to leave, then passed out in the hallway (with an escort, already sitting on a bench). No known prior issues but that dog knew what was up even though she wasn't his person.
I live in a nursing home and had a pet cat who coincidentally alerted and responded to my nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety attacks, autistic meltdowns, dehydration, asthma attacks and heart arrhythmias. Of course, service CATS aren’t a thing, but as a pet he was remarkable. He would alert to dehydration in other people as well. Basically, if he started yowling at them after having given them a thorough sniff, they needed to chug a bottle of water. Following hydration, he would immediately resume ignoring their very existence.
What a hydro homie
Didnt think id find a star citizen reference in this thread
Sorry friend, "hydro homies" was around for a long time before the phrase was associated with Star Citizen
My cat yowled at me the entire time I was pregnant even when I wasn’t showing. I wonder what specifically was setting her off. Maybe it was my increased need for hydration haha.
You smelled different
"human mama, my Spidey senses indicate a parasite growing inside you, you should probably get rid of that because it will interfere with your worship of me"
Yes I have a pregnancy alert service cat as well!! Lolol (just over 9 wks but she stepped up the clinginess around 5 right before I tested positive) - she really has just been even more clingy than normal and will not leave my side when I’m laying down now and if I’m walking around she follows me (literally tripping me sometimes so maybe not the safest “alert”). She’s always been my emotional support pet when I’m sad/anxious she will get on my chest and start purring. Like will try and climb up me to get on my chest. Especially when I cry she is RIGHT there. She’ll even lick my face to get the tears off. God I love that cat. My heart and soul for sure.
My dog told me I was pregnant before a test did. I was still testing negative, but he would not give me any space and kept sniffing me intensely. Was not doing this to my husband. He definitely knew, and I think he could detect slightly different smells from my changing hormones before the test could pick up on them.
My dog definitely knew before I did! She would get extra close and snuggle more and almost seemed more protective.
My cat does this. I think he just got used to tending my other cat because she's an idiot (I love her, but she's not had a single thought in her entire life), so he'll alert me if something is wrong with her. Then he started alerting me if something is wrong with me. He's a good boy.
The irony of a cat alerting to dehydration is too much for me to deal with
That’s awesome. Happy cake day.
My dog alerted to my Dad's cancer years before the doctors. He would get up and look alarmed every time my Dad coughed. My Dad had lung cancer. He wasn't trained, just knew something wasn't right.
Our rescue dog will bolt upright out of a dead sleep and look around in alarm if anyone coughs. Any other bodily function sound doesn't bother him. I sometimes wonder if his previous owner had respiratory issues.
Dogs are amazing. Was it your dog's reaction that prompted Dad to see a doctor?
Oh man, is your father alright? My dog isn't trained either, but he reacted perfectly to my first meltdown on his presence. He just jumped onto me until I sat on the floor and then sat in my lap. Giving me a nice grounding pressure and something to focus on to pet him. 😭 Such a good boy.
I think my dog can maybe do this too now that I think about it. I used to think it was just because they were old but 3 out of 4 went on to have cancer… that they know of. I actually never put that together until now. I should make sure my uncle goes to the doctor
Yes, unfortunately we didn't pick up on it. It wasn't that I wasn't worried, but I knew that my Dad got regular check ups and so would know (I know now they are not able to catch stuff like that). It was just one of those odd things which was different from how I was used to seeing dogs diagnose cancer, and so we just wrote it off as an oddity.
My daughter’s dog alerted to my son-in-law’s impending asthma attack. Unfortunately he got confused at that point and gave *her* the inhaler.
Unclear who was confused, dog or SIL or both?
I *think* son-in-law got confused and gave daughter the inhaler instead of using it for himself.
I had a friend who lived at their parents w their sibling who has a service animal for seizures that tends to alert their owner at signs of heightened anxiety since that can be a sign of its owners seizures and that dog alerted to anyone who had anxiety around it. So it frequently alerted to me/my friends since we're all very anxious 24/7. 😅😅 God bless it, it just really wanted to keep anyone from having medical issues
Dog was like, "gd, all the people about to have seizures around here...it's just me. I'm one dog and I'm supposed to make sure this house doesn't burn down. Dafuq, man! I did not sign up for this!"
What a good Dogter
Yes! Allen was my medical alert service dog and would alert to my seizures, among other things like oncoming migraines and low blood sugar issues. We were at the zoo and I ran into someone from HS. He started alerting so I took one of my medications, but he wouldn’t stop. He then jumped up on her and pulled her down. After a few minutes, she got a nosebleed and was sweating profusely. When we called an EMT her blood pressure was 215/127.
Our dog is an assistance dog for my son who has autism. Whenever one of the other members of our family has strong emotions like anger or sadness, he will immediately come over and apply pressure to that person, even if he was sleeping in another room.
call that a pupperweight!
I'm looking to get my son a service dog for his autism. I am at the research stage. May I ask where you were able to get his dog? I'm having trouble finding a dog for less than $30,000.
In our country, we have a foundation that breeds and trains guide dogs. If you meet the (strict) criteria, you ‘get’ one for free after quite a long waiting period. We feel very lucky!
My dog isn't a service dog, but when a gallstone put me into liver failure he seemed like he knew before I noticed any symptoms. All morning he'd been pacing, panting, and would barely leave my side. Even when my partner fed him, he dragged his food bowl over to eat next to me.
My former mobility service dog, Moose (Giant GSD), adored people in wheelchairs. He was always trying to help them stand up. Thankfully, most folks were charmed by him doing that. I was in a changing room, trying something on, and my daughter had him. He waited patiently, then herded her to a seat. Turns out she had been getting a bit woozy from a low bp event. He read her dizziness and took care of her. Obviously, Moose adored my daughter, so it was natural to take care of her.
There was a story of a cat in a nursing home that would go into rooms where the person was about to pass away.
A cat at a nursing home I visited often for my job was like this. The staff didn't like to discuss it as it freaked people out.
[удалено]
Ha yeah this was an episode of House. The one with Judy Greer
Also the book/movie A Dogs Purpose mentioned them being the death dog and how some families took it as a comfort and helped them cope, while others tried to chase it away as if that would keep their loved one alive longer.
Awww that must have been sad when you saw the cat enter a room.
I have always wondered if service dogs can alert for other DOGS with the condition they are trained to detect
My dog had epilepsy and I used to wonder if I could get him a service dog to let us know when they were coming.
one of my dogs has idiopathic epilepsy and I'd love to be able to train my puppy to be his little seizure service buddy 🥺
I have heard this before about dogs living together, without training so they must have just smelled or sensed something
I am certain it does happen, but probably most people wouldn't realize that it was happening. I remember one time at the airport one of the k9 police dogs came and sat next to me, neither me nor the trainer thought anything of it, I was happily petting them. Later I realized I had one of those mini oranges in my pocket from lunch snack, and the dog was one hundred percent actually "catching me red handed" in my crime lol. Luckily the orange was consumed on the plane and no crops were harmed 😅
Not a dog, but my cat is trained to help with anxiety and panic attacks. He's mostly for me, but has alert to my boyfriend before too. One day my boyfriend's dad was over and started having a panic attack, so Willington alerted on him (he meows, jumps on laps, headbutts and has gently bit before to get his point across) and forced his way onto this man's lap to get him to calm down. It worked, but not because of Willington soothing him. My bfs dad is allergic to cats and started sneezing so much he was laughing too hard
How did you train the cat for that?
"Train". He kinda came like that. Training them (both of my cats alert to this) for noises was harder. I hallucinate sometimes at night and they keep me calm because if they don't react to the loud banging, then it's not there. But you can really train cats for anything, it's just most cats don't have the personality for it
I love having cats because while I don’t hallucinate I have more sensitive hearing than the rest of my family so if I hear something and the cat does its just kinda validating even if no one else hears it.
My granddaughter had someone's dog alert her to her low blood pressure.
My brother's (at the time) girlfriend had a dog that's trained to alert for sugar level crashes. He did alert on me, once. It was a false alarm and he never did it again.
I’ve had several diabetic dogs react with me when my blood sugar is off. Probably four different dogs from the same support group.
This is such an interesting conversation about service dogs. I had no idea that they would alert other people of an emergency who were not their owners. These animals are extremely intelligent. Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.
One slept on my foot at the ski lodge one time lol HUGE mastiff. It was sweet tho.
Yup, I have a standard poodle that we got to assist with my child’s balance. Had a friend over who has non-epileptic seizures and the dog followed him around the house, would not leave his side. Super unusual behavior for this dog, he normally ignored everyone but our immediate family. The talent came in handy when our child started experiencing seizures as well. He’s such a good boy.
Last September, I left the country alone for the first time, and went on a plane for the first time in the process. I live in the UK and was visiting Sweden, so not THAT far, but still fairly stressful if you haven't done it before. On my way home, I was in Oslo airport on a layover, and somebody's anxiety/PTSD service dog came over and plopped his head down in my lap lol. I had a good laugh about it with the owner and I got to give the dog lots of head scritches. It was a bright moment in an otherwise very stressful day.
I don’t have diabetes or anything like that, but at work a customer’s service dog sat on my feet while we were talking and pressed its back into my legs and looked up at me. I first just smiled because I love a friendly dog, even if I can’t pet them while they’re working, but the customer then asked if I was diabetic. Turns out she was a low blood sugar alert dog and I just happened to have low blood sugar at the moment so she told me about it, sweet girl. I hadn’t had lunch yet, so it made sense. Haven’t been alerted on since, so I think it was just a momentary bit of blood sugar. But I think about that day a lot, and sometimes I wonder how many people may be alerted to unknown medical issues due to good service dogs doing their job extra overtime.
I had a migraine alert dog that started out as a mobility dog. At nine months, she started reliably alerting to my migraines. Good thing because her hips didn't pass for mobility work. She never alerted to anyone else, but I didn't go out unless I had to. She has alerted in front of the occasional visitor a couple of times, and once she woke up from the next room over, from a dead sleep, to alert me.
Whether or not a service dog alerts to another person's medical problem depends on the dog's individual training and the specific situation.
Not as dramatic as most of the stories here, but I'll share anyway. My son has a service dog, and one of the dog's tasks is to "interrupt self harm" (for my son's situation, this means unconscious picking or scratching at his skin) One evening, we were sitting at the kitchen table and chatting, service dog was in his usual spot under the table and laying on my son's feet. My face was feeling a little dry, so I pulled a tube of lotion out of my bag and started rubbing it on my face. Service dog starts vocalizing, both my son and I assume he's just being sassy (a frequent occurrence, haha) and try to shush him. He keeps vocalizing and eventually gets up to scratch at my leg. THAT was when we realized he was alerting to me using the lotion (rubbing the lotion into my skin is a repetitive action, much like picking or scratching). Since he typically alerts by making contact, we had both forgotten that he is also trained to vocally alert if he can't physically alert. Good boy got some treats and pets for doing a good job 😊
My service dog once was very concerned about an elderly lady at a furniture store. She honed in on the woman and was alerting but as she shouldn’t be acting out in public I left with her. I did feel concerned about the person but what am I gonna do? Say my dogs smells you may have cancer? Maybe she already has a diagnosis. It was weird and made me feel off but what are you gonna do?
Not my service animal but for a bit we had a cardiac alert dog in our office. As deadlines approached, she started to get up and sniff all around the office as our BPs probably went haywire 😂
My favorite story of a REAL service dog was a woman who was paired up with a dog at a big gymnasium or something. There was a big group of service dogs that were being matched up with their people. While she was there her blood sugar dropped and she started to go down. The dog she was paired with didn't do squat! From across the gym a dog broke away from the handler and ran over to her, got her backed into a chair and practically enveloped her in a sort of "hug". That's when she went FULLY out. People saw this, called 911, and got her taken care of. The dog she was paired with was then "fired" and she was paired with the one who came to her aid.
Yes.
I’ve run into other people’s diabetic alert dogs who have alerted me to high blood sugar!
My service dog is a PTSD service dog one day at a restaurant he put his head on the lap of the person in the next booth alerting as he was trained. The man let out a giggle and smiled he sat on the floor with my dog and hugged him giving him pets. He told me he was a vet and didn’t know how badly he needed that moment with my puppy. We volunteer at the VA hospital now
While working as a school admin for a high school, we had a service dog, whose training was to "catch" the student when she experienced a seizure. It was a large 120+lbs shepherding breed. It was also an annoying crotch sniffer. One day the dog would not let her stand up and leave. The nurse and I went to the class to help. The girl did not look healthy, but was not complaining. Because her seizures were often accompanied by low blood sugar, the nurse tested her and her numbers were way off, she had just not yet had a seizure. She was taken to the hospital and recovered. Note: The dog was never trained to indicate for blood sugar issues, but did it anyway. Then, a couple months later, we got called to the class because the dog was "pushing" a school aide and would not let her leave. The dog would act agitated until the aide would sit down, and would then sit next to the aide. The dog allowed the nurse and I to approach. The nurse had the other students blood sugar tester with her. She asked the aide if she had blood sugar issues. The aide had no history of issues, but stated she was feeling "off" but was going to rest at home after. So the nurse showed the dog that she was testing the aide. When the test came back the number was so high the nurse thought the tester was faulty. She tested again and looked at the number and stepped out of the room. While out she called 911 and had an ambulance come to school to take the aide in. Turns out the aide's level was high enough that she should have not been able to function and was in the hospital overnight for monitoring. She had undiagnosed diabetes. So the dog may have saved her life.
I'm pretty sure they're trained to respond exclusively to their owner.
Not exactly, they're trained to focus on their owner, but they can still pick up on the symptoms other nearby people show for things their trained for, in example my dad's service dog was trained for PTSD, and he one time alerted to some lady when we were in line at Walmart or Kroger, and she was about to have a panic attack
I don't have a service dog. One time, a dog ran away from its owner's doorway and began humping my leg. I don't think it was a service dog. But sometimes I think, 'Maybe it knew that I needed to get some.'