Medical alerting

[Hedgewitch]

I have a young service dog named Mali. I got her when she was 11 weeks old. I had a trainer come to my home to help with her training through advanced obedience and hand signs, since then I have done the rest of her training and Mali has passed all the rest of her tests with 100%. At time I first posted this, Mali is only 17 months old.

One day we were walking into the bank. I had Mali on a loose lead rather than holding onto her harness, I held onto my husband's arm, Mali was at healing on my left side. We walked passed an elderly woman walking a very slow shuffling step. Suddenly Mali broke healing position just in time to catch the elderly woman who was about to fall. I did not see she was going to fall nor did my husband or we would have reached out for her, but Mali seemed to know it was going to happen and braced herself to take the brunt of the woman's weight. Mali was all of about 11 months old at the time. (She was just a baby really in the Shiloh dog world, as they do not mature until they are 3 years old.) This is not something Mali had been trained for as of yet as she is too young to hold any ones weight.

Last fall Mali began doing something, which I found disturbing, but I could find no logical reason for it. She had never done this before and I had started to do research for the best way to break her of the new unexplained habit. She had started to jump up on me, though quiet gently and place her nose either in my chest or against my throat. Within a couple of days I found out my thyroid was flip flopping, back and forth from hyperactive to hypoactive at least every three weeks and possibly more often. This flip-flopping, had caused my heart to enlarge and could cause me to have a heart attack or stroke at any moment.

This was the first time was I figured out Mali could medically alert. She had been telling me I had an issue with my heart and my thyroid all the time with her cold wet nose. As soon as I took care of my medical issue, she stopped her jumping issues.

Last month a friend came to visit me she has a service do who lets her know if she stops breathing at night and even sometimes when she is driving the car, as she just does not notice she has stopped breathing. We were sitting out back in my fenced in yard so her dog could be loose with my girls and play. Mali just could not stop bothering my friend.

I had to send her away many times. This was not like her, she loved to play with Blue, my friends dog, but we were so busy catching up I did not pay attention to the clues until Mali pointed it out with her cold noise. She came right up to my friend, put her cold noise right up against her left breast, and pushed in deep.

At this point as I pulled Mali back and put her in a down stay, I looked at my friend and asked her directly why she was going to the doctor. She had a cyst at that exact spot on her breast. Since this time, Mali has alerted to sinus infections, and low blood sugar to both complete strangers; and me as well as, she gets very upset with me when I am out in the public and she knows I am in pain. Mali is a very vocal dog she rarely alerts quietly for long if ignored. Perhaps this is a good thing, as her lack of being quiet makes me leave and go home earlier than I might have. I am a strong willed woman and like to push my limits until I have over done it and having a vocal dog makes me leave rather than over do it.

Every day with Mali is an adventure, I never know what new thing she will come up with. Since I first typed this post we have brought a cat into our home one Mali has seen fit to tattle on when he is naughty. Even if she is outside, she will look in through the windows', and if she sees, he is on a table or a counter she will bark in through the windows to alert me he is into something he should not be. I could make this simple post a book but I will not continue here but will add other post as they happen.