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Questions About pickles the diabetic alert dog (dad)

          Have you ever seen a young lady walking on the University of Kentucky’s campus with a cream colored mini Golden Retriever? The dog was probably sporting a little blue vest with a velcro patch that says, ‘Diabetic Alert Dog’ and the lady was probably pulling smelly hot dog out of random pockets and shoving them into the dog’s mouth. If you have, that’s me, my name is Maggie, and the dog’s name is Pickles. Pickles and I’s partnership started over a year ago; when I decided to turn my life upside down to advance my dog training journey by turning Pickles into a diabetic alert dog. Now, at fifteen months old, Pickles is turning out to be a sound service dog and is placed with a four-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes. Throughout this experience I have been asked an abundance of questions regarding Pickle’s and his training, but there are a handful of questions that I get asked consistently. This post is to answer those questions.

            The first question, “What is a diabetic alert dog? It smells diabetes?” First off, a diabetic alert dog (DAD) is a type of service dog. All service dogs must have a task(s) to assist their disabled handler. In our case, Pickles is task trained to alert to low and high blood sugar and retrieve a glucose meter bag. The reason why Pickle’s tasks are so important: type 1 diabetics struggle with feeling their high and low blood sugar levels. Along with that, a type 1 diabetics’ pancreas does not produce insulin, so their sugar will go extremely high or low if not treated. Therefore, DADs were created to tell their handlers when their glucose level is going into highs and lows that need to be monitored or treated.

Pickles is trained to alert to a specific low and high blood glucose level. DADs alert thresholds change per when the diabetic needs to treat themselves but is typically 80 mg/dl and below and 180 mg/dl and above. So, no, the dog is not smelling diabetes, but is rather smelling a blood sugar threshold. Pickles alerts to my highs and lows even though I am not a diabetic. My sugar can go below 80 mg/dl and above 180 mg/dl but my pancreas quickly regulates insulin levels to keep it in the low 100s. While I say this, the world has very little understanding of what Pickles is actually smelling. There have been several studies out there suggesting that they are alerting to isoprene - a natural chemical we release while breathing – because this chemical increases during hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) episodes. However, there have been counter studies released showing that isoprene also increases due to other variables like: exercise, age, and gender. Currently, me and other trainers are just guessing and rolling with what the dogs are offering. 

The second most asked question is, “How can they do that? That is crazy!” On a quiet Saturday morning you can smell bacon being cooked in the kitchen, even though you’re in the living room. The reason you can do this is because of the six million olfactory receptors you have in your nose. Cool, right? What is cooler is the fact that dogs have over 300 million olfactory receptors. I once spoke with an individual with a Ph.D. in Canine Cognition, she told me that not letting your dog sniff on a walk is like putting a blind fold on yourself and expecting to appreciate an art gallery. Dogs live their life through their nose; which gives them the ability to smell chemical changes in our body.

Even though I don’t know exactly what Pickles is smelling, our scent is described as a smoke-like substance. Wind can either help or hinder a DAD in their ability to smell if you are low or not. Depending on how drafty your house is, dogs have the ability to smell lows/highs from the other room. There have been stories of a diabetic child on the field playing a sport and the DAD will alert the parent that is handling him or her. Even yards away, the dog was able to smell the low/high glucose level of the diabetic. Dogs’ noses are the reason why they make such amazing tool for type 1 diabetics.

Third most asked question, “How do you train them to smell it?”  Even though we don’t know exactly what they are smelling, we generally know how to train them to smell when glucose levels go over a certain threshold. How I began training Pickles was by creating saliva samples when my blood glucose level is high or low. To create the saliva sample, I carefully put cotton in my mouth to saturate it in the saliva. Next, I carefully spit the sample into a baggie, put it in a tightly sealed mason jar, and freezed it for training sessions. If the sample isn’t frozen, bacteria will grow on it – resulting a dog who will be trained to alert to bacteria. Not a very helpful task for a diabetic to use.  

Once I created the samples, I paired it with Pickles favorite food: cheese, hot dogs, and beef lung. Simplistically, this means he smelled the sample and I gave him a yummy treat. This continued until Pickles showed undying love for the smell because the smell means he is going to get treats - didn’t take long because Pickles is a pig when it comes to food. When his big brown eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, I knew we were ready for the next step. I started wiping the sample on my leg until it clicked in his head to smell my bodies low/high glucose levels. Once Pickles correctly identified me as low or high, I’d have a “Puppy Party”. A puppy party is rewarding a dog in a very exciting and dramatic way – as excited as if he invented a cure for diabetes. He didn’t, but Pickles doesn’t need to know that. It is important to be enthusiastic so the dog will always alert - the reward must be the most exciting part of their day. Their alerts are lifesaving and the excitement level you give to the alert must be greater than any distraction they come across in the day. If the dog gets more enjoyment out of other dogs than the alert; they are much less likely to alert accurately. At home I will run through the house while he is alerting me to turn it into his favorite game of “chase the smell”. Pickles doesn’t think of working as work; it is more of a game that means he gets tons of treats.

“How does Pickles tell you that you are high/low?” When Pickles was able to identify the scent threshold, I pared the recognition of the scent with a behavior. You can train any type of behavior you want: barking, spinning, jumping, licking, etc. The key is to use a behavior that is not disruptive to the public, so barking wouldn’t be the best option, and it is important that the behavior is easy to perform in tight places: so maybe not spin if it is a big dog. Pickles has three alerts: pawing, bringsel, and doorbell. 

Pickles learned how to do the pawing alert, basically, by teaching him ‘shake’ but he paws my leg instead of the typical hand target. This alert requires consistent nail care to prevent bruises appearing all over my legs. If I he needs his nails trimmed, I quickly know. This is a nice and obvious alert that is convenient for us both. When he is tucked under my desk in class no one notice him communicating with me. My goal is for us to blend in – even though it rarely works because he is so cute.

A bringsel is a 5”-7” strap that is usually attached to the dog’s collar. Pickles has been taught to grab the brinsgel attached to his collar; you’ll see the bringsel dangling from his collar – green because that’s the color of pickles, obviously. This alert is great if the dog is unable to stay close to the handler; the dog can perform this cue without being in proximity. Also, it deflects some of the bruises that occurs with pawing alerts.

Pickles doorbell alert was a recent addition. Due to him going to a little boy I wanted Pickles crated at night – little boys mean little toys and little toys can mean a yummy snack for Pickles. A doorbell is mounted in Pickles crate so he can press it to activate the sound box in the mother’s room. This makes it so Pickles can sleep in the little boy’s room at night but can still tell the mom that the little boy needs monitoring.

               “Does Pickles alert consistently?” Pickles is a dog; he isn’t a robot and I don’t expect him to alert at a perfect 100% success rate. Like us, we need down time and can’t work all the time. However, for me to consider Pickles a fully trained DAD he must alert at an 80% success rate with his new family. Meaning he needs to alert in his thresholds and not miss an alert or false alert. There are a couple reasons why a dog could miss an alert. One is distractions and the other is sleep.

            Though Pickles is highly trained and can usually work regardless of other dogs, people talking/petting him, and other smells, he can mess up. An alert can be disrupted/delayed if someone approaches with effervescent talking or encouraging their spunky pet to say ‘hi’. Even though it seems like I am being mean, I tell people they can’t pet Pickles while vested because I want to set a precedence of paying attention to his handler. If he has his attention on me, he is less likely to miss an alert for his boy.

            Another reason Pickles may miss alerts is because he needs to sleep. Many diabetics want night alert, this is why I trained Pickles to alert with the doorbell, but this is one of the most difficult alerts for dogs to achieve. If the dog is pounding the pavement eight hours a day; they are going to sleep right through dangerous highs and lows. I don’t blame Pickles for missing night alerts: this is a tough one.

         Lastly, false alerts can happen due to many reasons. Now that Pickles understands his job – I don’t worry about false alerts (as long as he stays above 80% success) due to one thing. If you recall, we do not know what these dogs are smelling. I’ve created these saliva samples which have other chemicals in them, completely unrelated to the glucose level, that he has been trained to alert to. Until we can find out what they are smelling and create a chemical compound of that exact sample, there will be inaccuracies. Even with some missed and false alerts, Pickles is doing lovely.

   I hope this information helps you understand Pickles better. The life of Pickles is an interesting one. If you want to see his story, check out his Instagram @pickledperfect_sdit

Lastly, there is no way Pickles and I could be here today without the help of several incredible people in my life. First, my partner Tom Kudla, for supporting me when I told him I wanted to train a puppy in my home for almost a year and a half. Pickles stopped barking the crate after a week, wasn’t that bad, right? A new friend, Hailey Napier, who helped create samples that extend past the lows and highs that I could create. You are a type 1 diabetic warrior. Lara Guthrie, my mentor who showered me in training knowledge, gave constructive criticism and let me attempt to run her dogs: “RAT! Sorry, Nour.” Lastly, Libby Rockaway, without this incredible young entrepreneur I would never have considered taking the leap into this field. Libby’s creation of the non-profit, ‘M.D. Dogs’ which gave me, and many others, the tools to train these dogs. Thank you for allowing me to pester you with Pickle questions and helping me find his family.