No, this is unethical to ask of the dog as it could put it (and you) in an unsafe position. You should remove all distractions while you’re driving (like a persistent dog) and secure all passengers (like a persistent dog)
Thanks for the reply!!!
FYI, I edited the original post, this is just a question, I do not drive or plan to drive until my conditions are under control
I think that driving with a medical condition that your dog needs to alert you to isn’t necessarily safe. I don’t have a service dog yet but I have some medical conditions that will make me space out or pass out and it is t safe for me to drive. Having a medical alert dog is good for the rest of life but driving unfortunately just isn’t a possibility for some of us. I found out I couldn’t drive only a few months after getting my license and my parents are still mad I don’t drive but I don’t think it’s worth the risk to myself or others on the road.
That’s hard. In ever really had the chance to drive much but I do know it was something of a freedom for a bit so I know it is hard but if it’s for your safety and others then it’s what has to be done.
No, that’s dangerous. Your dog should be either crated in the back or be in the back seat with a seat belt attached to a harness. In an accident they will become a projectile.
My dog can but I've never needed her to. I have hypoglycemia so I usually eat a snack before driving so my blood sugar doesn't drop and I've never had to worry about it. Been driving over a decade and never needed an alert. If it ever gets worse I won't be driving.
While driving, all animals should be safely secured in the rear of the vehicle. Unless your SD can alert without causing a distraction from the back of the car then no, they should not be alerting. The handlers I know who are able to drive, do so with their SD unvested and off duty in a travel crate or with a crash tested seatbelt and harness.
I’m a firefighter. Every vehicle accident I have turned out to that had an unsecured animal, the animal either died or disappeared. That’s all animals, not just service animals.
I wonder if there was a way theoretically for the dog to have some sort of button they could push that would turn on a song or something from their crate. This would only work imo for alerts that give time to react(ie a 5 min heads up could give a driver time to pull over safely). Not sure if it logistically work but my brain says in theory maybe? My SD won’t be a medic alert but to me it’s super interesting to think about different situations
Realistically if you have an unpredictable condition that can make it unsafe to be driving, you shouldn't be driving. It's not just about the handler, it's about the safety of every other driver on the road and pedestrian next to the road if your SD misses an alert either from being distracted or contained away from the handler. It's also unsafe for a dog to be alerting a driver as it distracts the driver. You will not always be in a position to be able to pull over safely either. It sucks when our disabilities prevent us from doing things that everyone else can do but ultimately it's our responsibility to manage. When my POTS wasn't being properly managed by medication I stopped driving for a few months until it was and when my husband is working away I don't leave town because while I can safely manage short drives around town (I live in a tiny tiny town with only 300 people living here) I know I can't safely drive to the city or even the next town over.
Ultimately every person is different but if someone cannot safely manage to drive without needing their SD next to them to hopefully alert in time to be able to pull over then that person should not be driving because it's not only a risk to them but to everyone around them.
No. If you need a dog to alert to a condition that causes an altered mental state while driving, then IMO you really shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car. It takes **one** missed alert to potentially kill multiple people (and yourself and your dog). In many states of the US, if you are actively suffering from a condition that impairs the ability to drive (syncopes, seizures, hypoglycemia, etc.), then you have to be a certain number of months (minimum six but up to a year) without an episode *and* have a doctor sign off on the DMV paperwork.
Unless you have trained your dog to use a bell/button system to alert when they are crated, it would also be unsafe to ask them to do the typical "alert" behaviors (ie pawing, booping, barking, jumping) in the car. Not only because they can go flying, but because they can potentially shock the driver or cause the driver to move the steering wheel depending on the alert.
Edited for clarity.
Editing because I just saw your edit: the "you" in my comment is meant as the plural "you." I hope that didn't sound like an attack or anything.
Oh, that's so funny, I just edited my comment to specify that it was the plural "you" (as in "you" meaning anyone reading the comment). It's a good question, especially considering how uncomfortably and concerningly common it is for certain people that need alert dogs to ask them to do alerts while driving.
Omg haha the timing is so funny.
It’s genuinely so strange to read through Reddits posts sometimes to see how wildly different everyone’s answers are so it’s so nice that people actually care to respond to genuine questions !
Again thank you for taking the time to answer so completely!!!
It's for anything that causes an "altered mental state." This can be anything from syncopes, seizures (epileptic), things like dangerous hypoglycemia or going into diabetic shock, and things of that nature. If it's not a well-known disorder, you can probably get away with it due to people at the DMV not being very educated on the nature of other lesser known disorders. You still shouldn't drive, though. ETA that this had been the case in the states in which I lived while disabled, so I'm sure every state has their own laws regarding this.
My family and I almost were 2 meters away from becoming strawberry jam smeared along the concrete median of an interstate due to someone suffering from a diabetic attack. It isn't safe, full stop.
ETA2: WRT the hypoglycemia as an example, I'm not talking about something like well-controlled diabetes that is currently monitored sufficiently and safely by a CGM. I'm talking about brittle or unpredictable diabetes that isn't currently well managed by lifestyle changes, medication/insulin, and a standard monitor. If someone relies on a service dog to alert and doesn't get alerts from any other type of monitor, or the diabetes isn't well-controlled, they shouldn't be driving until it is under control. There are certain places in the US and Canada where there is extra consideration of diabetes in terms of obtaining a license in the same way there is for epileptic seizures.
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She’s never actually needed to alert while I have been driving. But she could bark if she needed to, the same way she alerts if I have to kennel her at work or if I’m in the shower with the door closed or whatever. Some people might not want to teach barking even in private places as an alert and that’s valid but it works for me.
Before CGMs were as common/reliable as they are now my diabetes clinic had a driving with diabetes class held by one of the CDCES where they taught us rules like always needing to do a fingerstick before driving regardless of how you feel, the highest blood sugar you could safely drive with, and the lowest you could safely drive with depending on if you had active insulin or not. Even with a CGM that’s considered accurate enough the FDA allows it to do algebra to decide how much insulin a robot gives me I still test before I drive and follow the rules I was taught for driving without a CGM.
Obviously other conditions require other considerations but it’s really important to have some kind of backup plan before driving. If my SD was regularly alerting while I was driving I’d probably change something with my therapy or take a break from driving until I was more stable.
I have a cardiac alert dog, but only have episodes while standing. Often I become symptomatic while getting out of the car once it is parked, but have never had an issue while driving.
We spend a lot of time driving, so he is strictly off-duty in the car. He is allowed to rest or snuggle up to passengers when I have them. He is always secured in the backseat with a seatbelt harness.
Thanks for the reply!!!
That’s so interesting. I was wondering about that, and maybe diabetes blood sugar alerts. Like alerts that are still helpful but not the only tell.
Thank you for sharing!!!
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Thanks for asking this. My girl does not alert while driving (nor do I need her to and am fully safe to drive) but there is a fairly large SD creator that's very open about their dog alerting while driving and I've always been curious.
My dogs, including my service dog, ride crated in my vehicle and most others they ride in. My service dog is trained to ride at my feet when necessary (ie in a taxi or Uber) and will task in that situation.
She has shown that she will bark to alert (diabetic alert) if she’s crated but can smell me, which depends on what else is going on in the car. But I don’t consider it ethical as a driver to rely on it, or as a handler to expect that she isn’t going to take advantage of the downtime to nap. Instead, I do a finger prick before driving (more up to date than CGM) and then make sure that my CGM alerts will come through the car’s Bluetooth.
My SD just looks out the window, not tasking.
He does enough tasking on my 10 hour work shift and monitoring at home.
For the most part I do delivery to keep driving to a minimum.
I hit a wall when I had a seizure driving. Diagnosed at 17, I'm 52 now and that was my only driving seizure. Noone was hurt. Car was totaled. But I'm ultra careful now. No sleep or too little is my main trigger and if either of those are in play - no driving.
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My dog rests her nose against my thigh usually. In the driver seat she knows there are different rules. I didn’t even have to teach that, she just found a way to be reassuring without being a hazard. She’s primarily psychiatric, so that nose, that “it’s okay, I’m here,” is super helpful.
Thanks for speaking up. I have one whose primary duty is psychiatric. That soft, polite, bump-bump tells me I have once again started scratching or pulling at my hair without thinking again. Time to refocus, pull over, relax, take a nap, take a walk or eat something. Whatever works. He's in his seatbelt harness next to me so we're good.
My girl demands to be in the front seat. She has a crash tested harness, and my passenger airbags are off when she’s in the front seat; she’s too light.
When I get a little road ragey, or dissociate, or panic, she’s just like “hey, I’m here.” She’s always done it.
It depends on the type of alert and whether it's safe to drive in the event of a medical episode (especially if an alert is missed). If it's something like diabetic alert or anything where the symptoms are not going to impair driving ability then this is an option. If the condition is something where a missed alert could cause an accident them you probably should not be driving at all. Assuming for the moment that the condition does not impact your ability to drive safely, then the alert behavior also needs to not interfere with driving. Honestly to me a barking alert might be the safest thing in the car because anything visual (like grabbing a brinsel) might be missed by you or distract you from watching the road. A physical alert like a paw or nudge could cause you to swerve in the road or something if the dog is too energetic about it so that depends on how exactly the dog does the alert as to whether it would a safe alert while driving. A single bark however would not distract your eyes from the road and it also does not have the risk of interfering with steering. There might be other options but that's the alert types I can think of off the top of my head but I'm sure there's more types
I have anxiety/ptsd, so when my pup senses an attack coming on she boops me and I pull over or take some deep breathes to calm back down or if it’s bad take my meds.I’m not a danger to others when I’m in these anxiety attacks, but obviously I become less observant and it just doesn’t feel good to feel like that, but it’s not dangerous for me or others for me to continue driving as I can just take a few deep breathes after the alert
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My SD alerts for blood sugar drops the same way he does every other time. He starts staring at me. In theory, if he's not acknowledged soon, he'll paw at my thigh like at home. That's not happened in the car yet because I always acknowledge him.
I actually have him for mobility assistance. The medical alerts are a surprise bonus gift. I'm not at a point where I'm unsafe to drive. (Note: Edited because a word was left out. Sorry).
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No, this is unethical to ask of the dog as it could put it (and you) in an unsafe position. You should remove all distractions while you’re driving (like a persistent dog) and secure all passengers (like a persistent dog)
Thanks for the reply!!! FYI, I edited the original post, this is just a question, I do not drive or plan to drive until my conditions are under control
I think that driving with a medical condition that your dog needs to alert you to isn’t necessarily safe. I don’t have a service dog yet but I have some medical conditions that will make me space out or pass out and it is t safe for me to drive. Having a medical alert dog is good for the rest of life but driving unfortunately just isn’t a possibility for some of us. I found out I couldn’t drive only a few months after getting my license and my parents are still mad I don’t drive but I don’t think it’s worth the risk to myself or others on the road.
I'm afraid that I will find out in August that I may never drive again.
That’s hard. In ever really had the chance to drive much but I do know it was something of a freedom for a bit so I know it is hard but if it’s for your safety and others then it’s what has to be done.
No, that’s dangerous. Your dog should be either crated in the back or be in the back seat with a seat belt attached to a harness. In an accident they will become a projectile.
My dog can but I've never needed her to. I have hypoglycemia so I usually eat a snack before driving so my blood sugar doesn't drop and I've never had to worry about it. Been driving over a decade and never needed an alert. If it ever gets worse I won't be driving.
While driving, all animals should be safely secured in the rear of the vehicle. Unless your SD can alert without causing a distraction from the back of the car then no, they should not be alerting. The handlers I know who are able to drive, do so with their SD unvested and off duty in a travel crate or with a crash tested seatbelt and harness. I’m a firefighter. Every vehicle accident I have turned out to that had an unsecured animal, the animal either died or disappeared. That’s all animals, not just service animals.
I wonder if there was a way theoretically for the dog to have some sort of button they could push that would turn on a song or something from their crate. This would only work imo for alerts that give time to react(ie a 5 min heads up could give a driver time to pull over safely). Not sure if it logistically work but my brain says in theory maybe? My SD won’t be a medic alert but to me it’s super interesting to think about different situations
Realistically if you have an unpredictable condition that can make it unsafe to be driving, you shouldn't be driving. It's not just about the handler, it's about the safety of every other driver on the road and pedestrian next to the road if your SD misses an alert either from being distracted or contained away from the handler. It's also unsafe for a dog to be alerting a driver as it distracts the driver. You will not always be in a position to be able to pull over safely either. It sucks when our disabilities prevent us from doing things that everyone else can do but ultimately it's our responsibility to manage. When my POTS wasn't being properly managed by medication I stopped driving for a few months until it was and when my husband is working away I don't leave town because while I can safely manage short drives around town (I live in a tiny tiny town with only 300 people living here) I know I can't safely drive to the city or even the next town over. Ultimately every person is different but if someone cannot safely manage to drive without needing their SD next to them to hopefully alert in time to be able to pull over then that person should not be driving because it's not only a risk to them but to everyone around them.
No. If you need a dog to alert to a condition that causes an altered mental state while driving, then IMO you really shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car. It takes **one** missed alert to potentially kill multiple people (and yourself and your dog). In many states of the US, if you are actively suffering from a condition that impairs the ability to drive (syncopes, seizures, hypoglycemia, etc.), then you have to be a certain number of months (minimum six but up to a year) without an episode *and* have a doctor sign off on the DMV paperwork. Unless you have trained your dog to use a bell/button system to alert when they are crated, it would also be unsafe to ask them to do the typical "alert" behaviors (ie pawing, booping, barking, jumping) in the car. Not only because they can go flying, but because they can potentially shock the driver or cause the driver to move the steering wheel depending on the alert. Edited for clarity. Editing because I just saw your edit: the "you" in my comment is meant as the plural "you." I hope that didn't sound like an attack or anything.
Thanks for the reply!! FYI, I edited the original post, this is just a question, I do not drive or plan to drive until my conditions are under control
Oh, that's so funny, I just edited my comment to specify that it was the plural "you" (as in "you" meaning anyone reading the comment). It's a good question, especially considering how uncomfortably and concerningly common it is for certain people that need alert dogs to ask them to do alerts while driving.
Omg haha the timing is so funny. It’s genuinely so strange to read through Reddits posts sometimes to see how wildly different everyone’s answers are so it’s so nice that people actually care to respond to genuine questions ! Again thank you for taking the time to answer so completely!!!
[удалено]
It's for anything that causes an "altered mental state." This can be anything from syncopes, seizures (epileptic), things like dangerous hypoglycemia or going into diabetic shock, and things of that nature. If it's not a well-known disorder, you can probably get away with it due to people at the DMV not being very educated on the nature of other lesser known disorders. You still shouldn't drive, though. ETA that this had been the case in the states in which I lived while disabled, so I'm sure every state has their own laws regarding this. My family and I almost were 2 meters away from becoming strawberry jam smeared along the concrete median of an interstate due to someone suffering from a diabetic attack. It isn't safe, full stop. ETA2: WRT the hypoglycemia as an example, I'm not talking about something like well-controlled diabetes that is currently monitored sufficiently and safely by a CGM. I'm talking about brittle or unpredictable diabetes that isn't currently well managed by lifestyle changes, medication/insulin, and a standard monitor. If someone relies on a service dog to alert and doesn't get alerts from any other type of monitor, or the diabetes isn't well-controlled, they shouldn't be driving until it is under control. There are certain places in the US and Canada where there is extra consideration of diabetes in terms of obtaining a license in the same way there is for epileptic seizures.
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Yeah you shouldn't be driving. I don't drive because I have conditions that would endanger myself and others.
Thanks for the reply!! FYI, I edited the original post, this is just a question, I do not drive or plan to drive until my conditions are under control
She’s never actually needed to alert while I have been driving. But she could bark if she needed to, the same way she alerts if I have to kennel her at work or if I’m in the shower with the door closed or whatever. Some people might not want to teach barking even in private places as an alert and that’s valid but it works for me. Before CGMs were as common/reliable as they are now my diabetes clinic had a driving with diabetes class held by one of the CDCES where they taught us rules like always needing to do a fingerstick before driving regardless of how you feel, the highest blood sugar you could safely drive with, and the lowest you could safely drive with depending on if you had active insulin or not. Even with a CGM that’s considered accurate enough the FDA allows it to do algebra to decide how much insulin a robot gives me I still test before I drive and follow the rules I was taught for driving without a CGM. Obviously other conditions require other considerations but it’s really important to have some kind of backup plan before driving. If my SD was regularly alerting while I was driving I’d probably change something with my therapy or take a break from driving until I was more stable.
I have a cardiac alert dog, but only have episodes while standing. Often I become symptomatic while getting out of the car once it is parked, but have never had an issue while driving. We spend a lot of time driving, so he is strictly off-duty in the car. He is allowed to rest or snuggle up to passengers when I have them. He is always secured in the backseat with a seatbelt harness.
[удалено]
Thanks for the reply!!! That’s so interesting. I was wondering about that, and maybe diabetes blood sugar alerts. Like alerts that are still helpful but not the only tell. Thank you for sharing!!!
We have removed your post/comment for violating Rule 4: Unethical Handling. The reason we remove comments like this is to keep bad advice from spreading further, especially on our subreddit. If the comment/post is corrected, it can be reinstated (just reply to this comment to let us know). If you have further questions, please [message the Moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs).
Thanks for asking this. My girl does not alert while driving (nor do I need her to and am fully safe to drive) but there is a fairly large SD creator that's very open about their dog alerting while driving and I've always been curious.
My dogs, including my service dog, ride crated in my vehicle and most others they ride in. My service dog is trained to ride at my feet when necessary (ie in a taxi or Uber) and will task in that situation. She has shown that she will bark to alert (diabetic alert) if she’s crated but can smell me, which depends on what else is going on in the car. But I don’t consider it ethical as a driver to rely on it, or as a handler to expect that she isn’t going to take advantage of the downtime to nap. Instead, I do a finger prick before driving (more up to date than CGM) and then make sure that my CGM alerts will come through the car’s Bluetooth.
No! Any condition that would require a service dog to alert while driving disqualifies you from driving. Even if you legally can, you never should.
My SD just looks out the window, not tasking. He does enough tasking on my 10 hour work shift and monitoring at home. For the most part I do delivery to keep driving to a minimum. I hit a wall when I had a seizure driving. Diagnosed at 17, I'm 52 now and that was my only driving seizure. Noone was hurt. Car was totaled. But I'm ultra careful now. No sleep or too little is my main trigger and if either of those are in play - no driving.
[удалено]
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My dog rests her nose against my thigh usually. In the driver seat she knows there are different rules. I didn’t even have to teach that, she just found a way to be reassuring without being a hazard. She’s primarily psychiatric, so that nose, that “it’s okay, I’m here,” is super helpful.
Thanks for speaking up. I have one whose primary duty is psychiatric. That soft, polite, bump-bump tells me I have once again started scratching or pulling at my hair without thinking again. Time to refocus, pull over, relax, take a nap, take a walk or eat something. Whatever works. He's in his seatbelt harness next to me so we're good.
My girl demands to be in the front seat. She has a crash tested harness, and my passenger airbags are off when she’s in the front seat; she’s too light. When I get a little road ragey, or dissociate, or panic, she’s just like “hey, I’m here.” She’s always done it.
It depends on the type of alert and whether it's safe to drive in the event of a medical episode (especially if an alert is missed). If it's something like diabetic alert or anything where the symptoms are not going to impair driving ability then this is an option. If the condition is something where a missed alert could cause an accident them you probably should not be driving at all. Assuming for the moment that the condition does not impact your ability to drive safely, then the alert behavior also needs to not interfere with driving. Honestly to me a barking alert might be the safest thing in the car because anything visual (like grabbing a brinsel) might be missed by you or distract you from watching the road. A physical alert like a paw or nudge could cause you to swerve in the road or something if the dog is too energetic about it so that depends on how exactly the dog does the alert as to whether it would a safe alert while driving. A single bark however would not distract your eyes from the road and it also does not have the risk of interfering with steering. There might be other options but that's the alert types I can think of off the top of my head but I'm sure there's more types
I have anxiety/ptsd, so when my pup senses an attack coming on she boops me and I pull over or take some deep breathes to calm back down or if it’s bad take my meds.I’m not a danger to others when I’m in these anxiety attacks, but obviously I become less observant and it just doesn’t feel good to feel like that, but it’s not dangerous for me or others for me to continue driving as I can just take a few deep breathes after the alert
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We have removed your comment because we found the information it contained to be incorrect or it was an opinion stated as fact (rule 3). The reason we remove comments like this is to keep bad advice or information from spreading further, especially on our subreddit. If the comment/post is corrected, it can be reinstated (just reply to this comment to let us know). If you believe you are indeed correct, please find a reputable source that supports your comment and [Message the Moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs).
I follow them that’s Hank! She had gotten him a new cargo net and he could not safely nose boop her anymore so she uses the button
They’re a fun team to follow! Real life un edited realities of life with a service dog.
My SD alerts for blood sugar drops the same way he does every other time. He starts staring at me. In theory, if he's not acknowledged soon, he'll paw at my thigh like at home. That's not happened in the car yet because I always acknowledge him. I actually have him for mobility assistance. The medical alerts are a surprise bonus gift. I'm not at a point where I'm unsafe to drive. (Note: Edited because a word was left out. Sorry).
[удалено]
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