Researchers studying the performance of medical alert dogs found that, even though the dogs were trained to work with one person and one medical condition, they proved adept at alerting to multiple people and multiple conditions.

Medical alert dogs (MAD) are trained to detect certain biomarkers that are associated with conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, allergies, anxiety, and migraines.

Traditionally, they work with one person in a household with a single known condition, but anecdotal evidence has shown that they can pick up on other conditions in that person, or in other people.

The study asked medical alert dog owners about their dogs and found that these exceptional stories applied to many of the dogs.

91% of MAD owners said that their dogs were able to successfully alert them to their specific medical issue.  Most of the dogs were trained for this job, but many were not and picked it up naturally.

Owners reported a total of 33 conditions that their dogs identified.  84% of the owners said their dogs alerted to more than one condition.  The accuracy rate for all the alerts was 75% and over in a majority of the cases.

54% of owners said that their dogs alerted to people other than their target person.  They alerted to other family members as well as to friends and even strangers.  The dogs were especially good at identifying the medical condition of their target person in others.

Overall, 46% of the MADs were reported to have alerted to both other people and other conditions.

The authors of the study note that some dogs are by nature more cautious about their alerts, while others may signal when they detect odors that are close enough to what they were trained to detect.

How owners reinforce alerting behavior, and how much they engage in ongoing training, may also play a role in how the dogs perform their jobs, with the expectation of praise and treats driving their performance.

You can read the full text of the study article HERE.  For more information on medical alert dogs, check out the website of Canine Partners for Life.