(Speaking of medication, service dogs can also use their internal clocks to remind a patient to take his medication at a specific time, including waking the person up in the middle of the night for a dose.) After the person regains movement control, the dog can provide balance and support in getting off the ground and can fetch medication. These dogs can also be taught to stand over the person as a crime deterrent or to find help (in the form of human assistance or by dialing 911 from a doggie phone). During an attack, the dog can be taught to place himself in front of the patient so the patient can drape their body over the dog, versus falling onto a hard surface. That gives the patient the chance to sit or lie down, get to a safe location, call a friend, and take other precautions to minimize harm. The dogs can provide up to a 5-minute warning of an impending sleep attack, McNeight says. “I put up a notice on my website talking about how I was inspired to see if a dog could really alert a narcoleptic and within a month I had a student who was willing to be my guinea pig.”Ī Service Dog Academy-trained narcolepsy service dog places himself over a student during an attack to prevent her from falling off a chair.
Several of my diabetic alert dog students were reporting that their dogs were alerting to not only their blood sugar levels but also things like charley horses and atrial fibrillation,” McNeight says. I reconnected with her on Facebook in 2010, a year after I started doing diabetic alert dog training. “I had a friend in high school who was diagnosed with narcolepsy. Mary McNeight, CPDT-KA, CCS, BGS, Service Dog Academy director of training and behavior, began working with narcolepsy service dogs in 2010. While the public is more aware of other types of medical alert dogs, such as those that warn diabetics of low blood sugar, narcolepsy service dogs play no less crucial a role to their human counterparts. It is one of several programs throughout the United States that train narcolepsy alert and narcolepsy response canines. In the Morgan Junction neighborhood of West Seattle, Wash, Service Dog Academy breeds hope for narcolepsy patients.
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