#cardiac alert service dog

[tuptastic]

STOP RISKING SERVICE DOGS AND THEIR HANDLERS.

Yesteday, while trying to access a non-pet friendly location with my seizure and cardiac alert SDiT, we were charged by a pet dog. The owners had no control over their dog, allowed it the full six feet of the leash it was on, allowed it to rush up towards my service dog, and when I was shouting "back up, back up" and moving away they laughed at the situation and at us. They gave no apologies - only a "oh guess we have to go this way" as they dragged their dog away from my service animal.

I got inside and collapsed against the check in kiosk. I avoided a medical episode by actual slivers. My service dog behaved phenomenally for this being the SECOND TIME she has been charged and or lunged at by a dog on duty this year, but i could hardly talk or think for the entire time I was at the location, trying to get something important fixed.

It might not seem like a big deal to you to bring your dog out with you. But untrained, uncontrolled pets can cause serious harm and damage not only to service dogs but to their HANDLERS. My closest medical alert contact is an hour away. If I had had a seizure that required an ambulance (anything over a minute unresponsive as per my seizure plan), it would have taken an hour until one of my people could have gotten to the hospital to collect my dog and to help me, someone with severe and extreme medical trauma. MY HEALTH AND MY DOGS SAFETY MATTERS MORE THAN YOUR WANT TO HAVE YOUR PET.

Please. PLEASE. Stop bringing your pets places they don't need to be. It is stressful for them, stressful for us, and not fun for anyone except for you. It is selfish and cruel and terrifying for the service dog handlers who leave every day wondering if today their dog is going to be hurt. ours dogs are our best friends.

Do not take her from me.

[mandana-the-service-pup]

To the guy who spent 15 minutes criticizing my rate of reinforcement while Mandana & I waited in line at the post office…

I barely slept at all last night and have had a piercing earache for two days. My service dog was a bit more distracted than usual on our short trip to the post office. Instead of taking my frustration out on her and demanding her attention, I spent a few minutes outside connecting with her and increased my rate of reinforcement when we went inside.

All you saw was a girl giving her dog treats. You couldn’t see how flawless she was performing. You couldn’t see how she stayed close and engaged with me. How she held the positions I asked without a second thought. How she offered good public access behaviors like tucking out of the way and ignoring the jack ass staring at her. How she performed her medical alerts consistently despite having a stranger hovering around and interjecting himself into a situation he had no business being a part of.

You ended your one-sided conversation by saying you wish you could get BonBons for doing nothing. Sir. That is entirely the point. While you’re grumbling about a service dog getting too many treats, she is by my side making sure I catch her medical alerts. If that doesn’t deserve a treat I don’t know what does.

[tuptastic]

i literally can't go anywhere anymore without having to be on guard all the time about other dogs. my service dog has been nearly attacked twice by a "service dog" and a service dog the handlers admitted hadn't worked in months to a year and they threw her off the deep end to a packed busy event. your ESA is not medical equipment (i also have an ESA, so you cannot debate with me how they actually are the same as my service dog bc they are not), my dog is, my dog keeps me alive, my dog is trained to be chill and behaved in the scenarios we enter and if she isnt we figure out how to make her that way. Your untrained dog is a hazard to our access, to her health and safety, to MY safety, and to the image of all working dogs when you decide you're above the rules.

Emotional support animals don't have public access rights like a service dog has please stop taking your fucking untrained dog with a fake vest you bought on Amazon into stores

[poodle-gutz]

It finally happened! Today I got a diagnosis for my pots!! I went to see a new cardiologist almost 2 hours away and he diagnosed me with pots! I'm so happy someone finally heard me and sees my struggles. 🥹 Attached are some photos from my day at the appointment and in the town!

[bigheckinbraindrain]

About to get a medical alert service dog

Almost a year ago, I had a heart attack. I'm "too young" for all that, but apparently my heart doesn't care.

In the past few years, I've also had two strokes. I currently have an issue caused by long-COVID which causes my heart rate to rest at about 120 to 160. I also have high blood pressure. I take meds to help with this, but it's imperative that I notice when things are going too high to be able to course-correct. My apple watch can tell me if my heartrate is too high for over 10 minutes, which is great, but I sure would love to know that it's happening before it gets that high for that long. And Apple watch doesn't tell me jack all about my blood pressure. I usually don't know it's crept up to be too high until I can feel my pulse literally making my head bop.

My doc recommended a cardiac alert service dog who could alert me to these issues before they get too bad.

Have you ever looked into getting a service dog? I hadn't. Until I did (duh). They can cost about $30,000 if you pay for it, and if you get on a list for a free service dog, it can take a few years before you get one.

Honestly, I didn't want to get on a free list because there are people with way rougher medical stuff than me who would be able to use that spot much more. Guilt. I don't want to go on one of those lists for guilt.

So, $30,000 OR, or I just train it myself.

The ADA states that a medical service dog can be trained by their handler/borked owner who needs a service dog, so that's what I'm going to do. I will get a puppy or a very young bestgoodboi™ and do my own obedience training, socialization training, and alert training, and it is daunting af, friends!

And since this current blog is just a brain dump kinda diary, I'm going to start a separate blog for just the doggo stuff. If you're interested in watching the journey, come check out Cardio Canine!

[cardriocanine]

Puppy Power!

1/20/25 -

We picked up Onyx on Saturday. It was an hour-and-a-half car ride, and he did great on the way home; just a little whining for the first 10 minutes, and then he settled and laid down for the rest of the trip.

He's been pretty good at home. He's not overly responsive to outside stimuli, he really wants to play with the cat but she's not there quite yet, he loves his toys and has no clue how to use his massive paws.

Also, he's never seen stairs before, of which we have many. The entire first day and part of the second was me carrying him up and down to go potty.

He had quite a few accidents in the house the first day as we figure out his potty schedule. His poops were runny so they were hard for him to control.

I took him to the vet today. He's 23.8 pounds. The vet also found that he has something called Giardia; it's a parasite that they can get from contaminated water. She perscribed him two meds that I will administer for the next 5 days. She said she's never seen so many in a single specimine and was really surprised he wasn't vomiting frequently (which he has not, at all). She informed us that he's likely have been a few pounds heavier if not for the bugs, and we'll see weight gain quite a bit over the next couple of weeks.

Giardia rarely passes from dog to cat or dog to human, but is very transmittable between dogs. To be on the safe side, we aren't letting him and CookieKris (the cat) too close, and we're frequently washing our hands. I'm also washing his bowl between uses. I've been using the carpet cleaner on his accidents already, so that's covered.

He's doing well with Sit, and Lay Down (most of the time, unless Cookie is on the banister and he just hyperfocuses on her lol), and he loves to be glued to my side so Here hasn't really been all that tested. He is only 11 weeks old, after all, so I don't expect too much from his at this point.

He is very food-driven, and is in love with his snuffle mat.

And moreover, he's just such a cutiepie!!!

[queen-penelope-of-ithaca]

My smartest pupper! Cardiac Alert/Response dog (And some other tasks) :)

[cripplecharacters]

I feel super embarrassed to admit I need advice on how to write a character for a discord rp for rain world where everyone role plays as iterators. I was thinking of having a character who was blind and has a Slugcat (which are basically the characters in the game you play as and have the intelligence of a non human primate) who serves as kind of like a seeing eye dog, but I worry that since Slugcats are so intelligent they might end up taking on so many tasks that the character I rp as would become overly reliant on the slugcat. any advice to prevent this?

Hello!

The biggest and most obvious solution here is to simply... not let that happen? As the writer, you're the one who chooses what tasks your character's Slugcat does.

There's also the fact that a lot of people with service animals won't have the animal do a task that they themselves can do without issue. If somebody only needs a service dog to detect allergens in food, the dog wouldn't also be going around and opening doors for the person or guiding them.

Service animals aren't "one size fits all", they're trained in a very specific way to assist their handler with very specific tasks. Even if a service animal is able to open doors or guide somebody, they won't be trained for that if it's not what's needed from them.

In short: Just because the animal is capable of performing the task, it doesn't mean it has to.

If this is something you want to involve with your character, however, I'd suggest looking into intelligent disobedience in service animals, which is when a service animal goes against the handler's instructions to make a better decision. The obvious example here would be something like a guide dog refusing to cross the street if there's oncoming traffic but it can also occur in cardiac alert dogs, allergen detection dogs, and really any other type of service animal.

Something else that may be interesting to explore because of Slugcats' high intelligence is just simple disobedience or behaving in a way that doesn't directly benefit their handler. For example, a guide dog knows that she gets treats whenever she successfully leads her handler across a street so, when guiding her handler to the bank, she takes the longer way that crosses more streets to get more treats.

It isn't necessarily harmful to the handler but it does show how smart service animals are and it could be something to explore with your character and their Slugcat.

In general, the main thing to keep in mind is that you are the writer. The Slugcat taking over too many tasks is only an issue if you decide to make it one.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[felixsxfreckles]

Do you guys like… wanna meet my dogs?? I feel like I could definitely introduce them now because whenever I post about them I get a lot of notes sooo I guess you guys want to meet them!

Rocky is older than time, a true angry-about-everything relic. He’s a 15-year-old Shiba Inu mix who bites everyone but me, including my husband.

Cleopatra is a staffordshire bull terrier. She’s nearly 8, and she was a fully trained cardiac alert service dog in her youth. She knows everything and will absolutely use it against you.

Remington is still under two and acts like it. He’s my first Doberman Pinscher and literally could not be any sweeter or gentle. He is good with animals, children, men, and especially women.

That’s the gang!

[bitchfitch]

does anyone have tips/advice for someone who's like. Neutral on dogs but needs a service dog? I don't dislike them, I'm definitely more of a cat or fish person, but I've never had a dog that weighed more than 15lbs and he was more my parents dog than anything else and so I'm. A bit out of my depth when it comes to evaluating breeders and puppies and trainers and what to get and what to not get etc etc etc

(I'm specifically looking for a mobility and cardiac alert dog, so a Bernese Mountain Dog, Newfoundland (the ideal tbh), saint bernard etc)

[purplesaline]

Morning cuddles with the boys.

Also just a reminder that Parker is an exceptional service dog candidate who doesn't have his forever home yet. Since we hadn't found him a placement at 8 weeks my plan was to raise him until he was one year and do some foundation training on him. For the right person he can go home any time between 6 months and a year.

We also ship anywhere in the world.

His cost will be

the initial purchase price ($1900 CAD) which was cost recovery only and includes his first set of shots.

Vet fees for his second and third round of shots ($365 CAD)

Food ($50-$100/mth. He gets the good stuff and he deserves it, so between $500-$1000 CAD by April)

Training: I'm not charging anything at all for my time but we do have a trainer helping us out because of my physical limitations. She charges $80/hr for 1-2 hours a week. By April we'd likely be looking at $2000 CAD

Any incidental costs that pop up between now and then, fingers crossed we won't see any

This would put the total for a 1 year old service dog candidate, specifically bred for service work (5th generation), with foundation training at approximately $5000 CAD, not including shipping. Which is so ridiculously cheap it should raise red flags as to whether you would actually be getting what you're being promised. You would be and I can prove it. The price is that low because everyone involved is more concerned with helping disabled folks get access to service dog candidates that are set up for success than we are with making money.

In fact we're so concerned that the right person gets Parker and Parker gets the right person that cost doesn't even need to be paid all at once! We know that it can be harder for disabled folks to save but it can be a lot easier to manage a monthly payment, so payment plans are an option we can talk about. And if that's still out of the budget the trainer is willing to negotiate on her pricing as well, despite also being disabled and on a limited budget.

Basically we'd be giving this pups away if we could afford to.

Parker's brother, Bentley, was also a service dog candidate from this litter and is living in North Carolina with his handler learning to be a cardiac alert and mobility dog. He's doing SUCH a good job and is already consistently alerting to two different types of scent during training sessions.

Parker has the potential to be an amazing servuce dog doing mobility, psych/PTSD, diabetes alert, allergy alert, or cardiac/POTS alert. If it's not on the list here he'd probably still be good at it, I'm just less familiar with the training that goes into the other types.

He is a soft, sensitive little lad who likes to test boundaries to see just how much he's allowed to get away with so he'll need someone who is a soft handler but consistent with enforcing the rules because this boy will find every single loophole that exists and exploit it fully otherwise.

He's gonna be a BIG boy. 65-75lbs at least. Genetically one of the healthiest dogs you'll ever see, his mom is completely clear for all genetic issues common to collies and his dad has also been DNA tested for health. Parker was DNA tested as well, though not as completely as his mom or dad as he won't be breeding. You can see Merry's (mom) test at LestWeForget Collies and Levi's (dad) test at High Country Collies

And if Parker isn't right for you but you're still interested in a service dog candidate puppy from us don't worry! We'll be having more litters and even plan to do a repeat of this last litter with Merry and Levi. I can't guarantee we'll have any older pups available but if you can't start with a puppy but are able to cover the costs of raising we can definitely work something out.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns!

[tuptastic]

My service dog has to go to the vet today. Not sure what to expect and I'm very anxious about it. Asking for good vibes and energy for her and that it's something wrong can fix easily for her sake. She's still wanting to work, especially because she just gets to sleep the entire time, but I'm so worried for her. Our vet is close friends with our best friend and has known our dog her entire life, and we trust her immensely (she was the only vet we would've trusted to fix the injury she had as a puppy), but it's never easy to go and do.

Ugh. When it rains it pours.

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Cardiology appointment was a success!

Big thanks to @doomspaniels for sharing their experience & knowledge with me. It really helped me put together a convincing presentation. My Cardiologist was happy to order an Echocardiogram + Bubble Study. Hopefully it will shed some light on why my blood oxygen has been dropping so much. He said if they don’t find a big enough hole to “justify” the low blood oxygen then he’ll send me to a lung specialist to see if it’s something else but fingers crossed we get some answers soon 🤞

Mandana was awesome and she had a blast. She has really been enjoying these appointments. My only complaint was that she was whining a little during my apt when I was talking to the doctor. I can’t really blame her for that because I was ignoring her alerts and when my Cardiologist stopped to check my heart rate sure enough she was spot on!

[briarpatch-kids]

There's this weird thing I've seen about service dogs where people with like... minor conditions will be like "ohhhhh I wonder if that person's cardiac alert dog will alert to my slightly too fast heart beat!"

And it just kinda rubs me the wrong way. That's someone else's medical equipment. This isn't like trying on your buddy's glasses in 3rd grade and going "woah you're blind hahaha!" Get your own service dog if you want one to alert to you.

[poodle-gutz]

Today I got an echo cardiogram and a heart monitor placed. If my horrible cardiologist did anything she at least did this for me. Molly was such a good girl for the whole procedure! She laid quietly the whole time, only moving to alert or when instructed to help me sit up from the bed.

I did get approval for her to be on the bed with me during the test, as I have a hard time sitting up and need assistance with almost any position changes. The tech said as long as she didn't get in the way, it would be fine, and Molly's a great dog and stayed completely out of the way.

I also brought 2 of my stuffed dogs with me, the golden retriever was a gift from my Pgf, kiki, and comforted me so much, especially when they put my IV in.

Overall the appointment went great an I was so impressed with Molly!

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

How many service dogs does Honey have and what are each of their dogs?

He has three service dogs!

A black female labrador named Mary Puppins, trained to recognize panic attacks and acts as an emotional support for his anxiety.

A male golden retriever mix named Sherlock Bones, trained as a cardiac alert dog to prevent fainting.

And Chewbarka, a female American staff, retired due to old age but used to be trained for both anxiety and as a cardiac alert dog.