Life with mara

[panda]

the ada is surprisingly simple, which can in itself be confusing. people can ask two questions: is it a service dog, and what service does it perform. you are not required to disclose anything about anything else, including additional treatments or devices, and wearing a cgm doesn’t have anything to do with access. if the dog behaves in public and alerts to a blood sugar change, she’s covered by the ada. there are no additional ifs ands or buts, that does it. it doesn’t matter if someone has a redundant device/treatment, the law doesn’t include exceptions for that. do i want more from her? sure. is it legally required? nope, not at all! other treatments or options that might be in play are just not covered by the ada, meaning they have no bearing on its application here. you don’t have to prove that you have no alternative to the dog, just that the dog is there to do a job of some kind.

state laws may vary, but ultimately federal law always overrules. so any state law that could be interpreted to run afoul or impose restrictions not part of the ada, would be overridden by the federal ada statute, returning us to the above-stated textually unambiguous square 1. and in addition, anyone getting to the level of asking about a cgm IS definitely violating the law. a big point of the ada was to make it so this stuff isn’t subject to argument or negotiation based on case-by-case factors like an alternative alert device…i really hate that sometimes the simplicity of the system leaves those of us in it a bit adrift, and not quite sure what’s required of us (you’ll have to forgive me, i literally just accepted an offer from my top choice law school and i have an obvious interest in disability law…i can build up a real head of steam on this, my apologies!)

[Trying]

@panda

she is almost always off leash, so this is pure voice control), she’ll kind of nudge me in the back of my knee when something catches her interest

Wow, that is wonderful for the BOTH of you! I hate having to have my pups on a lead all of the time when we are out and about. It just seems so restrictive for them. They can run free together in the yard but that’s it for their freedom. I’d love them to be more like Mara, but I don’t think I could ever risk letting them off lead where I live w/ people and cars always present! Your environment sounds wonderful! I try not to be a “walk dictator” though, and they try not to run “rough shod” over me! I know they really try as everyday they pull and dart off less!

I am familiar with the intelligence of the malinois as our local police use them. The officers take them home and they are members of the officer’s family. They are definitely great companions, just as you say, like toddlers! I love Mara’s photo!! She is definitely smiling!!

[panda]

i tell everyone most mals become cops or join the military, i got the nurse who’s heading to law school and yup, mals in law enforcement are almost always housed with the handler, for that very specific face time all the time factor: the breed doesn’t thrive in kennels.

[panda]

@MsCris if someone is arguing with your friend first off i am so sorry to hear that! we have never had this happen to us and it shouldn’t happen to her and i am so sad to hear that. and second, she doesn’t have to tolerate that and all she needs to do is tell them they are violating the law and the dog does diabetic alert. it’s a service dog, it does diabetic alert, that’s it. they aren’t allowed to ask what sort of alert or anything like that, there is no burden of proof of any kind for the handler, and there is literally nothing further to be said on the matter. so that is the end of that conversation, and if it isn’t i’m calling a lawyer because that’s about to be a huge settlement. (i am just the funnest at parties, can you tell? )

mara actually wears patches on her vest that say DIABETIC ALERT, which answers both questions under the ada and positions me with the legal upper hand if challenged: since her insignia answers both ada questions, actually nobody ever has a legal right to ask anything you can’t learn by looking at her. and since she declares her status on her gear, if you press me further we have an issue, and i can refer to her clear labeling in any court action, which immediately places the questioner in the wrong and makes a very easy case. and the ada doesn’t include exceptions for redundancies like a cgm, so it’s irrelevant under the law so long as she performs a service related to a legally described “disability”.

my doctor didn’t want to prescribe me glucagon. i asked, because i too am the queen of over prepared! specifically i wanted to carry it on long trail runs in case of dire emergency, but my provider wasn’t stoked and didn’t give me the Rx

[panda]

getting to the voice control is just a matter of incremental difficulty increases and practice practice practice! but i probably would keep her leashed in a more urban area even so. we are really lucky to live where it’s literally hiking trails out the door and population density under 1400 people per square mile

[Trying]

@panda

we are really lucky to live where it’s literally hiking trails out the door and population density under 1400 people per square mile

Wow, yes, indeed, that is wonderful for the BOTH of you!!! We are envious!!! But very happy for you!!

[panda]

come visit some time! it’s pretty great! it does have some tradeoffs (like it’s a fifty mile round trip drive on a twisty two lane road to the nearest pharmacy and it gets spicy when it’s icy , and i wish you luck finding an endocrinologist…), but we love it here. it was actually my husband’s idea to move here early in the pandemic (such a stereotype i know), and i just fell so deeply in love with the area that i stayed here after his passing. i was lucky enough to land a work/school situation that lets me do that, and i genuinely don’t know if there’s a better place on earth to be a dog!

[Trying]

@panda

i genuinely don’t know if there’s a better place on earth to be a dog!

Haha, I agree!!! Mara and you are BOTH lucky!!! I love Mara’s bandana in this photo!! Such a smart doggie, mind and fashion wise!! I haven’t said before, but I am so very sorry for the loss of your husband. What a heartbreak. Your husband and you made a wonderful move, and you have a wonderful doggie to keep you on your toes! I am happy for you, despite your new diagnosis… After getting to know you here on FUD, I am sure you will be able to cope with D’s ups and downs and your alert doggie companion!!

[panda]

well thank you, like so many things we must play the hand we’re dealt. i miss him every day, but there was also nothing that gave him more pride or purpose than being an airman: he wouldn’t have had it any other way. (it wasn’t a combat death, but was a service death, for those wondering: ptsd.) as you astutely observe, there are many permanent, life altering parallels to draw here.

at any rate i also try to remain grateful for the gifts he left me: for example, he’s paying my law tuition through military survivors’ benefits, and i keep my tricare insurance forever, which are tremendous blessings. the health insurance especially. i was diagnosed almost exactly two years after he died (i have wondered if that was the precipitating event, in fact, all the associated longterm stress and poor sleep etc), so i initially had no idea how much that would come to matter. it’s of course not what anyone wishes for when we say i do… but also, it is what it is and it would be a shame not to embrace the gifts that he left me and lead a full, rich life. so that’s my approach. and thank you again for your kind words

(mara also thanks you regarding the fashion compliment )

“smile pretty”

[Trying]

@panda

embrace the gifts that he left me and lead a full, rich life.

Yes, for sure!! And without a doubt, he would say the same, and want you to pursue your own gifts that you can offer the world by pursuing your own goals and strengthening your own talents, of which you clearly have many!! Not least is your training knowledge and dedication to happy Mara!!! Love this selfie of you two!!

[Marie]

What a beauty! In case this is helpful, I know of someone that used this technique to train their dog a few years back.

This guy has a series on training an alert dog.

How to train a diabetic alert dog! Scent imprinting.

[panda]

@Marie i love the internet!!! every trainer has their own little tricks and their own style, so even if you know how to do something, there is literally always something to glean by watching others. see also: this forum! so great. endless learning!

m’s primary function is to be my backup and support in the woods/backcountry: that’s the real reason i started this journey with her. by most people’s standards i’m a fairly serious outdoorsperson, and i do a lot of sports/activities that frequently involve extended periods of exertion waaaaay out alone in the woods. (think: hiking, multi day backpacking, backcountry/resort/XC skiing, recreational trail running, 10k and half marathon races, etc.) i’m widowed with no kids, and i live alone in a really rural and fairly isolated area. my only living companion 90%++ of the time is mara: i count on her in a lot of ways, not all of them obvious nor diabetes-related it’s just nice to have backup because otherwise i am totally alone, sometimes measured in literal miles, and that can get challenging for diabetes (and much more too!).

she has at times woken me up during serious lows, and she’s interrupted runs before only for me to discover, under her incessant pestering, that my cgm had crapped out mid-run and the glucometer popped real low when i got it out and did the stabby-stabby. every time that happens our trust on this grows and she becomes more integrated with my daily management. the outdoors stuff was the prompting issue and the MAIN focus and reason for doing all this with her, and as such we do put a lot of emphasis on athletics and the outdoors. but there’s no such thing as a part time service dog! the training requires consistency and practice and so we are also completing the full public access curriculum, and she has competencies for both in town and out in the wild.

her next big adventure is actually coming up: we got into law school!!! so now i have to teach a 1.5yo (she will be just over 2 when we start school) malinois that sitting quietly through lecture is fun. in other words, teaching that “doing nothing is doing something”. she understands sitting quietly, but grad school lectures are lengthier (hour+) than most of what we have practiced to date. i am optimistic that the relative lack of interesting distractions in a classroom will make it fairly easy to convince her to settle. we will be doing a practice run with a campus visit next month: i’ll update with any insights about becoming a full-time grad student with an alert dog.

[Marie]

I love it!!!
Congratulations on getting into law school!

[panda]

thank you!!! truthfully though i am a little nervous . there has been so much change for me since 2020: i was married, working in first response at the time and ended up mobilized for regional covid crisis response. i spent six months in a leadership role as well as hands-on with patients, in all settings from emergency transport to vaccinations. then i had major knee surgery and my husband (let’s call him t from now on) died in 2021, a former coworker began stalking me in the wake of the death to the extent of a court protection order, said coworker continued his harassment throughout 2022 culminating in a permanent no contact order, and then in 2023 i got my diabetes Dx in the emergency room…

everyone’s life has been a mess these last few years so it’s not a contest! all the same i feel like it’s been kind of a lot, and in particular the diabetes will follow me into the classroom in ways i don’t know how to anticipate or plan for yet. i also always worry, as a dog handler, that we will have some kind of issue or that people will judge us or resent us or think i’m faking/bullspitting them. i’m not! and she is very, very good. but also she’s still pretty young and she’s a dog not a robot, so mistakes do happen: a vocalization at someone who startles her, fussing when she starts getting bored on extended waits, that’s the kind of mistakes we have - never never ever aggression or merchandise issues or soiling indoors! but i still worry about every microscopic slip we make because i feel so strongly that i am claiming an accommodation and therefore i have responsibility to honor my half of the deal. we work really hard at it, but school is going to be a major new chapter and i don’t totally know what to expect. exciting and anxiety provoking in the same breath!

basically i am really stoked, but also nervous! …and i am also new to this publicizing of health info thing, and she announces to everyone really loudly what my Dx is just by her presence. i’m not totally sure how i feel about that, and i know we are definitely going to stick out on campus, so i have worried some about that. it’s been so nice to have this community: i lurk here a lot in addition to posting. i have said it before but i was feeling super lost and alone before i found FUDiabetes, and i’m so so grateful to be here!

[panda]

An update from dogland!

As I believe I have mentioned before, we’ve accepted our offer of admission and will begin law school this fall. I started the law school project prior to being diagnosed. My diagnosis came within days of getting my LSAT score back, so I uncorked a classic PandaBerserk™ and decided I would be damned if diabetes derailed my plans. I completed my applications and got in at my first choice school.

Knowing we start classes this August (sooner than it seems!), today Mara and I saddled up and drove many hours across the state to take a tour and get some experience on campus.

I am not very nervous about being a law student, but apparently Mara is! Compared to where we live, this was a LOT of people. Also, academic buildings are very strange to her. She rode her first elevator…. then rode it again, and again, because it terrifies her, so we needed practice. (I think the only elevators in our town are the hospital and maybe a hotel or two has one? Limited options to practice so we took advantage of the ones at school…)

She also just found the degree of movement and some of the noises and surfaces (super slick shiny stone floors, slamming autolock security doors, the bustle of passing periods) sort of alarming. She will adjust, but we had some unwanted vocalization, and she was a little skittery and skittish - not as solid on her heels and sits as usual, and just tail tucking and clearly wigged the heck out.

Needless to say, it’s a good thing we visited. I spoke with the dean of admissions and he encouraged us to return at will over the summer, and just get her some practice being in the buildings and getting used to the city. I think this is a good idea. Mara is a very special girl, but this is clearly going to be a big new adventure for a little dog.

I am a very, very harsh grader but I would give me and Mara (as a dog/handler team) a C for today. We didn’t epically flame out, but we have a lot of room to improve. She is still pretty young (not quite 2yo) but this seemed to really push her boundaries. Not every day with a service dog is a slam dunk! But people were incredibly nice and understanding about our minor faux pas, and we have our training tasks, and have been offered resources to tackle said tasks, so I am confident we will get there! She is an ace at her blood sugar work, she just needs some practice doing blood sugars while also being a law student.

Stay tuned for the adventures of Lady Mara, Pawttorney at Awwww!

[CarlosLuis]

@panda

Stay tuned for the adventures of Lady Mara, Pawttorney at Awwww!

I predict that Mara will be awarded an honorary JD.

[panda]

Based on how challenging yesterday was for her, she’s gonna have to really work hard and earn it!

[Trying]

Wow, I didn’t know she was so young! She is just a pup still! She will definitely earn her way given what she and you have accomplished thus far in her short life!!

[panda]

Yes, she’s still quite young: she’s almost but not quite 2yo. I was diagnosed 6mo ago, and she has been doing formal sugar alert training for about 5mo and public access training for about 4mo. She is doing incredibly well in context! We are just a team that always strives for excellence. I am confident in her ability to master this by the time we start classes in August. In fact, my 10K friend has put me in touch with her alma mater, which is less of a drive from home, puts us in a training situation separate from our actual classmates/professors which is something of a relief while we are practicing, and actually specifically offers a community-access program for service animal training. We will be ready for this fall!

[Chris]

It is amazing to read your story and all the effort you have put into training. I suspect you will be very successful with your doggo. My son attended a high school with two diabetes dogs in attendance. Neither were his. They were amazing dogs and their ability to alert for highs and lows was awesome. We know one of the families quite well and I think the only negative was as their dog got older they decided their sleep was more important than their alerting job. But the dogs had an amazing hit rate when awake. One, even in their old age (>10 y/o Golden Retriever) alerted on a neighbor at a party and it turns out the dog got the person to go to the doctor where they were officially diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Fun times, and dogs are amazing! Especially dia dogs.