859-553-9033
- mddogsinc@gmail.com
- M-F: 9am - 5pm
859-553-9033
What: M.D. Dogs will be hosting a 2 and 1/2 day seminar which will teach attendees how to train their own Diabetic Alert Dog. The information covered will be everything from how to pick out a breed and a specific puppy, all the way through teaching live blood sugar alerts and passing a Public Access Test.
The goal for the seminar is to provide comprehensive instructions for a person with diabetes to train their own Diabetic Alert Dog, as well as to provide hands on experience and allow attendees to become part of a self training community to encourage and help each other.
Who: Designed for those with diabetes (or with a family member with diabetes) who are insulin dependent and would like to learn to train a Diabetic Alert Dog to alert to their (or a family member’s) low and/or high blood sugars. No dog training experience is necessary to understand the material presented.Trainers are welcome to attend, but the information will be geared toward those without professional dog training experience.
When: August 10 to 11, 9am to 5pm. There will also be an optional half day on August 9.
Where: Lexington, Kentucky.
Cost: Register after June 18 for $275.
Lunch, workbook, and resources included in cost. Additional family members can attend for $150. If you will be bringing your own dog there is an additional fee of $50. (Additional costs are fixed, rather than per day.)
August 9 from 4pm to 7pm we will offer a workshop to explain in detail where to get your dog, choosing a dog, and hands on practice temperament testing puppies. This will be at a breeder’s facility and cost $60.
Registration: To attend this seminar, please fill out the registration below. At the end of the form you will be provided with a link to a page for the payment, or you can click the button below. When registration and payment are complete, you will receive a confirmation email within 3 business days. Registration closes July 20, and full refunds are available until that date.
Below is the tentative itinerary. We do not know exactly which topics will fall on which days, as it will depend on how many dogs attend as well as what the attendees would like to focus on.
August 9
For those who do not yet have a dog, on Thursday we will meet at a breeder’s facility where we will go over the M.D. Dogs temperament test, used to evaluate puppies as potential DADs. We will then use a litter of puppies and temperament test them and discuss which puppy or puppies would have the potential to become a DAD. Attendees will get hands on practice and be able to perform the temperament tests for the puppies in order to prepare them for picking their own dog.
August 10
Background
Choosing a dog
Basic Training Concepts
LUNCH BREAK
Scent Training
End at 5:00pm
Optional dinner at local restaurant
August 11
Scent Training continued
LUNCH BREAK
Obedience
When to wash out a DAD?
What are your rights?
-In public, housing, schools, work, airplanes, and with dogs in training.
Unique circumstances
– Going to school, flying, and work, and how to prepare
When to graduate a DAD
End at 5:00pm
Libby Rockaway began training professionally in 2011 and has since trained over 50 puppies which have gone to clients across the U.S., Brazil, and Dubai. In 2015 she wrote and published Puppy Steps: Practical training for your new best friend, which describes her methods for training a dog from puppy to adulthood. In 2013, Libby discovered her passion for Diabetic Alert Dogs. Since then she has trained multiple Diabetic Alert Dogs and placed them with children with type 1 diabetes.
Placing a Diabetic Alert Dog is as much about training the people as the dog, since the dogs need continual training even after placement. Because of this, Libby decided to begin helping families to train their own Diabetic Alert Dogs from the start. She wrote the M.D. Dogs Workbook: A guide to self training your own Diabetic Alert Dog, as well as created the M.D. Dogs self training video series with her DAD in training, Filly.