medical alert service dogs

With their phenomenal sense of smell, a medical alert dog can detect changes in medical conditions, like a drop in blood sugar. This “early warning” allows our clients to take corrective action and maintain better control of their medical conditions, avoiding short-term medical crises and leading to dramatically fewer long-term complications.

How do we train Medical Alert Service Dogs? Our dogs are trained using scent detection to identify changes that occur in human body odor. Approved applicants are asked to collect scent samples which are then used by our trainers to teach the dogs to discriminate this odor from others.

 SDV has three medical alert programs: Type 1 Diabetes, Addison’s Disease, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

Medical Alert Applicant Criteria:

  • Must be at least 18 years of age

  • Have Type 1 Diabetes complicated by hypoglycemic unawareness, Addison’s disease, or Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

  • Please see Applicant Criteria for more criteria

If you are interested for applying for a service dog, please read through the Application Process for details.