Living alongside a Diabetes Alert Dog will be a lifelong journey for us and one which requires ongoing commitment in order to maximize Bailey's alerting abilities. Positive Reinforcement has been the cornerstone of his DAD training, so after being seperated from us for three weeks, lots of praise and rewards are needed to bring solid alerting back into focus.
In general, the ways in which we communicate to Bailey on a daily basis also impact on how eager he is to alert us. Staying focused and aware of any alerts so that I am responding immediately and enthusiastically, helps develop consistent patterns and positive experiences for him.
Much of our communication is verbally based and the amount of verbal cues given to Bailey is far greater than those used with our pet dog, so it becomes very important to keep them short and simple to avoid confusion. Below are some verbal cues we use with Bailey and the behaviour it communicates to him.
As well as ordinary commands such as SIT, STAY, COME, LIE, DROP and DOWN, we use other cues such as WATCH ME, prompting Bailey to lock eyes with me and essentially, grabs his attention when there's a distraction and encourage him to focus on the job at hand. GET HELP is used by Jason to send Bailey to bring a person back to Jason in an emergency, whilst WAIT is used to encourage self control and stop Bailey moving forward until I say OK. It is used before being fed, when releasing him from the crate or outside so that he doesn't push through the door and bolt outside. BUMP is used to encourage Bailey to bump our leg; LEAVE IT encourages him to ignore an object; BRING IT to return an object to me; SPIN to encourage him to make a circular motion; FIND IT is sometimes used for a game of 'hide & seek' with the kids or to find a hidden object; FIND JASON encourages Bailey to locate Jason's whereabouts; GO to encourage urination; OFF to remove him from furniture or our person; HEEL to walk closely behind me; ENOUGH to cease repeated alerting, YES to indicate a positive action and WHAT'S UP to cue a high or low alert signal.
The SIT command can also be prompted by using a non- verbal, tilt of the head action.
In general, the ways in which we communicate to Bailey on a daily basis also impact on how eager he is to alert us. Staying focused and aware of any alerts so that I am responding immediately and enthusiastically, helps develop consistent patterns and positive experiences for him.
Much of our communication is verbally based and the amount of verbal cues given to Bailey is far greater than those used with our pet dog, so it becomes very important to keep them short and simple to avoid confusion. Below are some verbal cues we use with Bailey and the behaviour it communicates to him.
As well as ordinary commands such as SIT, STAY, COME, LIE, DROP and DOWN, we use other cues such as WATCH ME, prompting Bailey to lock eyes with me and essentially, grabs his attention when there's a distraction and encourage him to focus on the job at hand. GET HELP is used by Jason to send Bailey to bring a person back to Jason in an emergency, whilst WAIT is used to encourage self control and stop Bailey moving forward until I say OK. It is used before being fed, when releasing him from the crate or outside so that he doesn't push through the door and bolt outside. BUMP is used to encourage Bailey to bump our leg; LEAVE IT encourages him to ignore an object; BRING IT to return an object to me; SPIN to encourage him to make a circular motion; FIND IT is sometimes used for a game of 'hide & seek' with the kids or to find a hidden object; FIND JASON encourages Bailey to locate Jason's whereabouts; GO to encourage urination; OFF to remove him from furniture or our person; HEEL to walk closely behind me; ENOUGH to cease repeated alerting, YES to indicate a positive action and WHAT'S UP to cue a high or low alert signal.
The SIT command can also be prompted by using a non- verbal, tilt of the head action.