Diabetic Alert Dogs of America

I first got a DAD from here several years back. She was fabulous at scenting and reading my sugars, but only when at home. Within two weeks of receiving her she was too afraid to be in public in order to help in any way. Unfortunately those alerts were false in order to get me somewhere quiet for me to test and she could get away from people. It was very hard having her at work with me since I taught in a public middle school. None of the steps DAD gave me were able to work. We took the next step and at our cost flew her to Phoenix in order for the lead trainer to assess her. It took only a few hours to determine she could no longer serve as a service dog. We chose to keep her as part of our family and the company would train a new dog. We were to get Blue in December and found out the day prior to his arrival that he did not pass the vet exam. He tested positive for heartworms, so we were given 3 options: they keep and treat him, we take and treat him, or we get a new dog. As we had been anxiously awaiting the dog we chose to have him come and our vet treat him with DAD pay. I was informed at the vets office that he needed to be put on kennel rest due to the heartworms and the health risks of exercise. Problem being the dog chewed through two wooden crates and broke out of two metal crates, luckily he is content with being tethered to the stairs because when no one is home he is a big chewer. The vet prescribed sedatives but noted it would affect his ability to scent my sugars and suggested I take him somewhere to be crate trained. Update: We were contacted by the company and they offered to resolve all problems to the best of their ability without any inconvenience to us.

Diabetic Alert Dogs of America located in Las Vegas, Nevada is a wonderful company consisting of selfless, committed trainers! We couldn’t ask for more than what they delivered to our son through Rocky his service dog! Rocky performs his trained task of alerting our son to elevated blood sugars and low blood sugars quicker than even his cgm alerts! The after support you receive is wonderful, not to mention comforting, knowing your trainers will promptly be there for you and your family for the lifetime of the dog! Your trainers are only a phone call or email away no matter where you’re located inside the U.S.! What a comfort it’s been having Rocky for our son! As parents of a young type 1 diabetic who is hypoglycemic unaware and also hyperglycemic unaware, we highly recommend that anyone searching for a company to provide you or your child with a diabetic Alert Dog, look no further! Diabetic Alert Dogs of America is the place to go! You won’t be disappointed! A+++++ Thank You Diabetic Alert Dogs of America To follow Rocky’s and Davids T1DJourney together, look us up on Facebook at: #TEAMDAVID🐶🐾❤️ #DefendingDavid

I researched Diabetic Alert Dogs and various company's for 6 months before finally deciding to move forward with my decision. Over that timeframe, I contacted Diabetic Alert Dogs of America several times via phone/email to ask many...many questions. They went above and beyond answering my questions. I never felt pressured by this company to make my decision, unlike other companies. My D.A.D., Baymax, has been with me for almost 2 months. He has done a great job. My A1C has been 8.5 over the last 8 years. I'm happy to report my A1C is 7.2. His alerts have prevented several low-lows that I used to struggle with. Before Baymax, I would easily be in the low 30s-40s. Baymax catches my 150-175 range before they go higher. After a quick insulin correction, I am able to decrease the length of time I'm high. His alerts are least 30 minutes before my Dexcom alarms. I'm happy to say "I'm satisfied with my care!" and very satisfied with this company. His trainers, Ahmed and Gus did a wonderful job training Baymax. I had a meet and greet about a month before he completed his training. This allowed me to ease into learning the commands and my responsibilities once Baymax was delivered. I know that for Baymax to continue to be successful, I must reinforce his training and scent games. This is my responsibility, but I know I have the support of Diabetic Alert Dogs of America to assist me with follow questions/training. Hands down the best customer service I've ever experienced. The weekly email updates and Flickr video/photos were great. We loved checking in on his progress and his classmate's progress. Baymax is very intelligent and a highly trained service dog. Baymax is in a public school setting during the day. On weekends and evenings, Baymax works beside me on a farm. He's constantly around children, livestock (goats, pigs, cows, sheep), and 140,000 chickens. He does great regardless of which environment he is in, not skittish by any means. As a diabetic for almost 16 years, I know we all have our "top 5 scary lows." I had one about 2 months before Baymax. I was home with my young daughter, trying to tell her our address in case she had to call 911. I don't have a lingering fear of her having to deal with this scenario anymore. I can't truly express how much Baymax has helped me manage my disease. I'm not scared to be alone with our children, fearing a scary scary low. I'm not scared to be driving down the road with our children with an unexpected low. I know that Baymax has my back and that feels so reassuring and freeing.

Our experience with Diabetic Alert Dogs is nothing short of amazing. We were matched with Finn in May of 2016 and he arrived home to us early January 2017 to assist my two boys with their type 1 diabetes. After my second sons diagnosis I knew we were going to need some extra assistance with their care. The every day care of one diabetic is a lot and throwing in a second... any little extra help we could get was worth it to us. At the time of our purchasing and being matched with Finn there were ZERO negative reviews whatsoever! Our trainers Christy and Patrick are a husband and wife team whom definitely puts their all into these dogs. Finn was not only trained far past our expectations but they treated him like family. Finn knows his job and does his job extremely well. On average he runs roughly 30-45 minutes faster than their Dexcom’s. I was thoroughly impressed even with Ed as the head of the company. He called me at one point to let me know he wasn’t sure how well it was going to work out with 2 and possibly 3 diabetic children. My youngest was actually diagnosed and then revoked later. He was concerned that it would be a stagnant smell in the house all the time because the odds of all the children being in range even 50% of the time would be unlikely. I appreciated his honesty but told him that this dogs face was plastered all over our house. He isn’t just a dog he is a part of our family. If he does his job that’s great. If he doesn’t then he will be one hell of an expensive pet. I told him as a mother I was making a promise to be fully in this with the company, we would do whatever it took to get the job done. This was all worry for nothing but again I appreciated the concern. He could have just took the money and sent us whatever dog and not caring whether it would work or not. Very rarely over the last year and a half have I had to contact Christy for anything more than help with vest straps and even with that sent them to me for our convenience so I didn’t have to try to find them my self. We love her and love this company! Finn is the best thing that could have happened to our boys. I can’t count the number of times he has saved their lives. Money comes and goes but for this dog I’m forever indebted. He is literally mans best friend and our k-9 hero!! Owning a service dog isn’t about buying a dog that just lays there on the floor. It takes work and dedication from not only your trainers and company but from the buyer in need. I think lack of this dedication is more than half of the issue with anyone who has anything negative to say about this company.

I happen to know one of the individuals who left a review here, and the dog which this business delivered to her. The dog was delivered to her with the representation that he was a fully trained "alert dog," ready to perform all of the duties for which he was purchased. The dog was skittish from day #1. This was explained away as "unfamiliarity with new surroundings," something which made sense - on the surface. However, I watched as no matter what the family did to familiarize the dog with his new surroundings and his duties, it did not work. The dog was extraordinarily skittish toward men, including the son of the purchaser - he would bark aggressively whenever he entered the room, and the effort required to bring the dog back under some semblance of control was far beyond anything "reasonable." What's more, this didn't occur just when the dog was "startled" - it would occur whenever the son entered the room. Needless to say, I received the same treatment whenever I visited the home. When out in public, the dog was not at all confident or attentive to his mistress; again, he was skittish, easily startled, and, if startled, would begin barking, to the point where the family would often have to leave wherever they were to regain control of the situation. While I'm not a dog trainer, the dog's behavior in public suggested it was fearful - hardly the attitude you'd want in a dog which is supposed to accompany a diabetic in all walks of everyday life. First, a fearful dog is not going to be able to perform the duties for which it is trained - it will be distracted, and, second, what person is going to want a "service dog" which goes berserk on them on a regular basis? There is no way in the world this dog was capable of performing the functions for which it was allegedly trained, and I cannot believe for a minute that this business thought it was. The business took advantage of a family desperate for a means to better manage a child's diabetes. The proprietor will undoubtedly say this is all a "lie" (which will be a lie) . . . that's his M.O. That's also his M.O. when a family contacts him once they have issues with the dog he delivered. He's claimed he "never did business with the family" in this arena, while in a different arena he claimed he was selling the family a dog which had "washed out" of the alert dog program and they knew it. The difficulty is it's hard to train these animals for these tasks in the first place, it's difficult to evaluate just how effective they are in performing the task, and there's no "independent" source, board, etc. to which families can turn for assurance that their dog is, indeed, capable and the business they're dealing with is reputable (the better business bureau is worthless in this regard). You really have to dig . . . . Maybe these guys have provided good service to someone - maybe. All I can say is, based on the service provided to the one family I know, and the ethics displayed in dealing with that family, I doubt it. Can I give "zero" stars?