This past year I was in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania for my freshman year of college. Just before moving to Philly I placed the second Diabetic Alert Dog I had trained.This meant that for the first time in 10 years I was dogless. To satisfy my canine obsession I worked at the PennVet Working Dog Center for 8-10 hours/week. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be involved in the training of their dogs. I discovered a new realm of working dogs, attended the Center's working dog conference, and worked in the ovarian cancer detection program. Although it was an incredible experience to be involved (and I'm not sure I could have survived without them), I still missed having my own dog that I could train. So, in October I began to inquire about having a Diabetic Alert Dog in training with me while at Penn. Long story short, I asked multiple people, had numerous meetings, received countless rejections, but in a last ditch effort during the last month of school, God sent someone that finally approved my request to have a DAD in training! I was, and still am, ecstatic and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue my passion of training DADs during my sophomore year at Penn.
This summer I conducted research on puppy training methods, so I worked with 8 puppies to compare training method results. The breeder of the puppies (Kathy Burgess) agreed that I could keep one of the puppies as a Diabetic Alert Dog in training to return to school with. It was an 8 week research study and I had 4 weeks to choose the pup I wanted. I'm so appreciative of having the opportunity to get to know all the puppies for such a long period of time prior to having to choose. However, within about 2 days I had narrowed it down to 2 puppies and a few days after that I had chosen the one - JR2, who after much indecisiveness, has finally been named 'Liberty'. |
Liberty is now 5 months old and we are focusing quite a bit on public access because in one week we are both moving to Philly. But we are also still working hard on alerting. She began live alerting a few weeks ago, and while she is definitely still learning, she is doing very well! Today I caught a live alert on video (below) - she began by sniffing me and then was restless so I started to record it. You can see in the video when she recognizes the smell she begins to whine and wiggle all around me. Then all of the sudden she remembers that when she smells that scent, she should paw me. As she has more practice and gains confidence, this process will speed up and she will smell the low blood sugar, then almost immediately paw me. But right now her puppy brain still has to think it all through. Part of her "puppy party" she receives for each correct alert is going through the routine of pawing me and receiving a reward multiple times - this is to help build the drive for alerting and to clarify exactly what I want her to do when she smells the low bg scent.
As she matures and her alerting improves, I will train her to alert using a bringsel. At some point I may try to teach her to alert with the bringsel hanging off her collar, but this will depend on her drive for the bringsel and if it works with her temperament. A lot of DAD training is discovering what methods work best for each dog.
My plan is to place Liberty with a type 1 diabetic near Philadelphia so that beginning in early 2017 we can gradually transition her over to the new family. If you or someone you know is interested and in need of a Diabetic Alert Dog, Liberty will be available at the end of May to be placed with a family - when she is 14 months old. Feel free to contact me through email, phone, or by filling out the DAD application (tab above) if you would like more information about her.
I'm really excited for the upcoming year with Liberty at Penn, and I hope to update the blog at least once a month with her progress. For more frequent updates you can follow our Instagram account @libbysloving leashes or our Facebook page "Libby's Loving Leashes".
My plan is to place Liberty with a type 1 diabetic near Philadelphia so that beginning in early 2017 we can gradually transition her over to the new family. If you or someone you know is interested and in need of a Diabetic Alert Dog, Liberty will be available at the end of May to be placed with a family - when she is 14 months old. Feel free to contact me through email, phone, or by filling out the DAD application (tab above) if you would like more information about her.
I'm really excited for the upcoming year with Liberty at Penn, and I hope to update the blog at least once a month with her progress. For more frequent updates you can follow our Instagram account @libbysloving leashes or our Facebook page "Libby's Loving Leashes".