I have no doubt that cats can smell the difference even if not quite to the degree that dogs have a superior sniffer.
However with cats - well - they are cats. They might let you know or they might see a bird out the window that looks interesting. Doesn’t mean they don’t know what is going on but I think a Cat’s priorities run in a different direction.
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there is a dog school/training/day care nearby me that has been doing work with diabetes alert dogs for a couple of years now. The owners have numerous Greater Swiss dogs, but the alert dogs are usually labs. from my understanding, their personality lends to such a good fit for the tasks.
the sound alert is probably great for accomplishing a home training with a dog, but their sense of smell is as good if not more reliable than their hearing. We have a Great Pyr, who has dog aggressive tendencies… and in the early years we did scent training with her to try to refocus her. The initial process is to have the dog understand the task of alerting to a scent. once they get that down, transferring the scent is not a lot more work (from hot dogs to the chemical you breath out when you get low). Might be more difficult for home training though, as you’d have to provide the ‘scent’!
it is quite amazing to watch them finally get the task, and then so deftly perform it.
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Hi ,yes a dog or cat can smell your breath and know this some thing wrong .I have a friend him/her sleep in differ rooms and there little angle bitter came in to his room a jump up on bed a barking ,so he fellow to her room and she was almost in to a coma . Save her life with out training .takes a special / lucky pet ? .
I have a 14 week old Mini Double Doodle pup that I am planning on training to be a Diabetic Alert Dog. I acquired him when he was 8 weeks old so we are still working on potty training and basics but I hope to start the Diabetic Alert training when he is 4 to 5 months old. There are lots of training aids available but having a local trainer who is familiar with scent training is probably the best bet. I have two books on the subject, ‘DOG A Diabetic’s Best Friend Training Guide’ by Veronica Zimmerman and ‘Training Your Diabetic Alert Dog’ by Rita Martinez (I prefer the first). There is also lots of information on the Internet - the best online source I have found is Diabetic Alert Dog University (http://diabeticalertdoguniversity.com/). They sell a video course to help you train your dog and also offer classes in the Midwest and sometimes other locations (Seattle in Dec but I decided my dog will still be too young). You can start getting your dog used to the scent at any age. I found instructions for getting samples on the internet - basically you soak a couple of those dental cotton thingys they use when they pull a tooth with your saliva when you are low - the trick is you have to do it before treating to keep scent pure so you have to be aware enough to do so - so far my samples have been from 60’s or high 50’s. I have not tried to familiarize my dog with the scent yet - but I have noticed that when I am low he gets excited and starts licking me. Right now I am more worried about getting him trained obedience wise enough to be a Service Dog I can take anywhere (They say dogs are usually 12-18 months old when they are mature enough to handle this.) He is only in Puppy Kindergarten now but at a Dog Training School that has trainers that help train Service Dogs. There are 2 other dog training places in the Seattle/Tacoma area that train Diabetic Alert Dogs so if I am dissatisfied with this place I can always try another.
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