What does an alert from your Medical Alert Assistance Dogs look like?

We often get asked what an alert from our Medical Alert Assistance Dogs looks like and the answer is, it can differ for each dog. We train them to recognise their target odour, associating it with a high value reward and encourage appropriate positive behaviours which can vary from dog to dog, but examples include, staring, nudging, giving a paw or offering a head rest. Once the dog lives with their client, these alert behaviours will strengthen and develop further and the alert becomes a special language between the client and their alert dog, where you often see the dog naturally escalate the alert when needed to get their client’s attention. Here’s just some of our dogs in action, alerting to conditions like PoTS, Addison’s disease and Type 1 diabetes.