Recruiting For La Trobe University Research Project

[Diana R]

Hi everyone,

I'm just sharing this on here in case some Melbourne based DOLers may be interested in taking part. The Dog Cognition team up at LTU Bendigo are currently recruiting for a study being conducted in early-mid 2015. The study is specifically looking at a possible training method for Diabetes Alert Dogs, with a view to measuring and hopefully improving longevity of DAD training.

Potential participants would need to be based in Melbourne or surrounds, and already be using rewards based training methods with their dogs. There is no need for previous Nosework or scent detection training, as all participants will be provided with professional training and all of the materials needed.

If you are interested, please see the attached flyer and contact Tiffani for more details or to sign up.

Thanks

Diana

[grumpette]

Damn, I would love to help with this, and Dee would be perfect, but I am a type 1 diabetic, so I guess that rules me out, even though I have very good control.

I wish you all the very best with the training and study.

[silentchild]

This is interesting, I am currently doing nosework with my dog and may be interested. May I ask who is the trainer that will be running the training sessions, and will they all be held up in Bendigo?

[mita]

I'm delighted to see this study re Diabetes Alert Dogs. Hope you get lots of support.

Bit O/T, but I'd love to see dogs trained in Australia to alert for epileptic seizures. We have a dear family friend who's seizures are hard to control... & we were looking at how dogs are trained in the UK. With envy!

[mita]

Double post.

Edited December 1, 2014 by mita

[Jemmy]

This sounds amazing, sadly I'm not in the area but hope it goes well!

[Diana R]

Grumpette, we already have a couple of Type 1 diabetics on board so we'd love to have you. We are using a different scent for this stage of testing, so that we can trial and validate the method and equipment before adding the extra complication of knowing what the dogs are actually indicating on.

Silentchild, Emma from Scent Dogs Australia will be running the training for us. I'm still trying to hunt out a venue that we can use, but we are aiming for somewhere in the northern suburbs (hopefully Hume area).

Mita I'm not sure if they are doing epilepsy dogs (yet) but the Australian Centre for Service and Therapy Dogs have an autism dog program and I'm pretty sure that Yariv, the head trainer, has done work with seizure alert dogs. It might be worthwhile inquiring further if your friend is interested in pursuing it :) Medical Alert Dogs in the UK definitely have an awesome program though!

Edited December 1, 2014 by Diana R

[silentchild]

Silentchild, Emma from Scent Dogs Australia will be running the training for us. I'm still trying to hunt out a venue that we can use, but we are aiming for somewhere in the northern suburbs (hopefully Hume area).

How many dogs do you need vs how many do you already have? It would depend on the location and when/how often training sessions need to be run for me to decide whether or not I can join so I need to know all the information first.

My dog has already been trained to alert to the basic nosework scent (birch, etc) so I wonder if it will interfere with this? I am not that experienced with nosework so not sure if teaching her to alert to diabetes more frequently will cause her to confuse the scents when I do want her to alert to birch.

Still I think it's a very worthwhile cause and would like to contribute if I can.

[Diana R]

Silentchild, Emma from Scent Dogs Australia will be running the training for us. I'm still trying to hunt out a venue that we can use, but we are aiming for somewhere in the northern suburbs (hopefully Hume area).

How many dogs do you need vs how many do you already have? It would depend on the location and when/how often training sessions need to be run for me to decide whether or not I can join so I need to know all the information first.

My dog has already been trained to alert to the basic nosework scent (birch, etc) so I wonder if it will interfere with this? I am not that experienced with nosework so not sure if teaching her to alert to diabetes more frequently will cause her to confuse the scents when I do want her to alert to birch.

Still I think it's a very worthwhile cause and would like to contribute if I can.

We've only started recruiting today, so I'm not sure how many people have contacted Tiffani to be honest. We had a small handful of people already signed up after a diabetes conference that Tiffani attended recently (including some diabetics), but beyond that I'm not sure. This first round of testing is a proof of concept phase - as such we don't need huge numbers and are hoping to get at least 15 owner-dog teams, so that in the event that a few people need to pull out for some reason we will still have a dozen dogs participating.

In regards to the Nosework, we've chosen Myrrh as the scent so that people competing in Nosework are unlikely to have introduced it yet, but can hopefully use the training as a foundation for the Myrrh work later on in training (depending on who you are training with you might not even use Myrrh). The type of indication is flexible, as we only need to know if the dog is indicating, not how. That said, we are aiming to train dogs that will indicate whenever the scent is present rather than on cue, so the final steps in training will be a little different between the two.

[alpha bet]

What type of venue do you need.... what facilities.....

My training facility is located in Wandong..... Northern Suburbs - near the Hume Highway

[Diana R]

What type of venue do you need.... what facilities.....

My training facility is located in Wandong..... Northern Suburbs - near the Hume Highway

We basically just need somewhere with an indoor space suitable to run the workshops, with parking for participants and space for dogs to comfortably hang out in their crates. Toilets and wash facilities for the humans are needed as well, but otherwise we're pretty self-contained and are all covered by our own insurance.

My next point of contact was going to be obedience clubs who have their own club rooms, as I've struck out with council and the local sports and horse riding clubs I've contacted.

[grumpette]

Dogs Victoria Dog centre at the Calabria Club 5 Uniting Lane, Bulla, Vic 3428 (near the aircraft viewing area behind Melb airport)would be perfect.

About Bulla Exhibition Centre

DOGS Victoria has leased the competition areas and meeting rooms at the Calabria Club. The site remains the property of the Calabria Club, who will continue to use the main buildings for weekend functions and occasional weekday events.

The main competition area is the outdoor oval. There is an indoor area suitable for breed club events. Parking is available on four sides of the oval. Download the indoor ring layout, the outside ring layout, the overall outdoor area map, or the meeting rooms plan.

Drinks, coffee, meals and snacks can be purchased from the bar and bistro located in the main building. A small kiosk with seating area is also located next to the secretary's office on the main oval.

Please contact the DOGS Victoria office:

Locked K9, Cranbourne Vic 3977 or by fax 9788 2599 or email to [email protected]

to see if it may be available.

[mita]

Mita I'm not sure if they are doing epilepsy dogs (yet) but the Australian Centre for Service and Therapy Dogs have an autism dog program and I'm pretty sure that Yariv, the head trainer, has done work with seizure alert dogs. It might be worthwhile inquiring further if your friend is interested in pursuing it :) Medical Alert Dogs in the UK definitely have an awesome program though!

Thanks so much for that information, Diana. Sorry to go off topic... but the seizure alert dogs in the UK are indeed awesome. Our friend read the information on that training program's website... & she was so impressed and excited. The owner of one of the trained dogs gives her experience of epileptic seizures ... & our friend could relate so much.

And a very strange coincidence.... our friend has always said she can't remember the 15-20 minutes before a major seizure when to everyone around she is totally normal. The training page said that the dogs are able to tell that a seizure is coming on, about 15 minutes before it does. So there must be some biochemical change even in that period that the dogs can tune into.... but not humans. Our friend said if she had a dog that could do that ... it would give her time to get safe, like sit down or call someone.