A commenter posted this:
If those 3 kids are on NPH or a mixture instead of a modern regimen they may have a lot of highs and lows naturally. Plus, if she has them change clothes every time and keeps them in a ziploc for several training sessions she may have plenty of opportunities without doing it on purpose. Is that possible?
First if those three kids are having a lot of highs and lows, I’d be in the doctor’s office getting it fixed before I’d be worried about detection dogs. I’ve been there, done that, and frankly, that insulin regimin is for the birds. I will give that it would be easier for a child to deal with than an adult, since they didn’t know anything else. The problem with those regimens is that if you don’t do everything exactly right, you are going to have swings.
As to the training. When I trained detection dogs, we used an established training protocol which had been tested. We trained every day. Those of us in the group who either had permits or were police officers and had access to real drugs, trained with them daily. The ones who did not have access to real drugs, used synthethic daily that had been tested in the laboratory AND the field. We trained with real drugs once a week under supervision.
I have some problems with using the used clothing. Do we know for fact what the dogs are being trained for, is actually “in the clothing”? Has anyone tested to find out how long the scent actually does last? Since diabetes itself is barely understood, I’m not even sure anyone knows what scent we are looking for.
Note: after dogs started alerting to certain cancers, they did isolate what was being detected by the dogs.
There are two problems that I see with purchasing a diabetic detection dog. If the dog does a lot of false positives, the user of the dog is going to start ignoring the dog. If the dog does not alert when they should AND the user of the dog is relying on the dog solely to avoid lows and highs, some diabetic is going to end up in the hospital unnecessaily.
I have no problem with someone purchasing a dog or cat, or getting one from rescue or a shelter with the purpose of obtaining a companion THEN noticing that the animal alerts. I do have a problem with declaring that animal a service dog since the behavior cannot be safely and reliably tested.
I also do have a problem with the diabetic relying on that animal solely. See above paragraph.
Another issue with service dogs is that if that label is abused and I know it has been, legimate users of service dogs are going to suffer.