Warning. This post is going to generate some issues for me. People wont like it. Its incoherent and rambling. But I need to get it off my chest. There are well trained DADs and DADs that are sold off as trained but truly arent. And let me preface this all by saying there are anomalies. No DAD is accurate 100% of the time. Even in my own home, I have 2 DADs because they compliment each other, they have different strengths. While there are DAD teams that I truly admire, teams that I sometimes look at and get a little jealous, I use those teams as road maps for training, as yardsticks to measure improvement. I also stand back and look at all the work we have done, and I am pretty damn proud of what we have done, how far we have come. Hard work, constant work, consistent work. It still continues. It will never end, and then there may be a new dog/puppy. And for what? So what do you get by having a dad? (this is not the same question as who should have a dog) If it isnt more sleep and less testing, what is it? If the DAD in question is well trained in scent work, what you get is more real time data and trending information that allows you to avoid extremes from either end of the scale. A solid alert dog can clue you in to dogs and rises in blood sugar before any meter or CGM will see them. So you can generally avoid/fight off the 300s and 40s before they happen, give you a heads up, fair warning. Now here is where I may get crucified. This next paragraph. So be it. Im to old to care what others think of me, I just feel the need to share in an effort to make sure people arent taken for a very expensive ride. I see a lot of posts from families with dads from some lessor DAD organizations. Posts bragging about how their dogs alerted them to a 395, or a 560, or a 35 and prevented something serious from happening. What I always want to ask is why didnt your Dad alert you at 175, at 240, at 300, at 60? While my daughter has gone to 300 and dropped to 35 on what seems like more and more rare occasions, those arent the places where my dogs alerted, by the time we see those numbers, the dog has been alerting consistently, and we know we have an issue other than a random BS. We have a site issue, or ineffective insulin, a bad carb count, or an illness. But the first alert at 395? Hell, Angus acts weird at 395. These dogs arent alerting. Or at least if they are, they arent alerting well. And when you read about the dog that was 4 hours ahead of the drop? Like my dad alerted at noon, so i checked my son and he was 135. At 1, he was 130. At 2 he was 115. at 3 he was 100. t 4 he was 65. He is amazing! He alerted 4 hours before the drop! While that seems ridiculous, I see those posts on a daily basis. Dont believe that those are great, amazing DADs. Those are dogs that have been trained to do a trick for treats. That are seeking attention. That are being cued by their handlers, being sent mixed signals. Here is something else you need to be aware of. Even if you get an amazing DAD from a wonderful organization, if YOU are not properly trained, you can do serious damage and ruin all the great work that organization did in a hurry. If you are considering getting a DAD, please do your homework. Ask a lot of questions. Learn everything you can about dog behavior, training dogs, find an organization that also invests time and effort into training you, the handler. Now here is a disclaimer. I am not a dog trainer. I am not a Dr. But I AM a father of a type 1 that has 2 DADs, and has been in and around this industry longer than most. I spend a lot of time with other families that have DADs. I have met a tremendous amount of people in this business, many that I admire, and a few that I wouldnt let pet Major or Raven, let alone train or sell a dog.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 03:16:25 +0000
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