I am always amazed to see what our Medical scent in training Service Dogs (SDiT) will do each day. Let’s not forget that our SDiT is only 5 months old and starting its training.

Today, a few things happened. We were seeing patients all day and out of the blue, Finley (SDiT) went to see a young girl. I didn’t know who she was since there were many patients in this clinic with multiple docs. All the Docs have loved the idea of having a Medical Scent service dog in the office. They all want a Finley in their practice, so they are very happy when he is here with us. This young girl was our next patient and she was very scared. Without us teaching him, he was able to comfort her, to the point that she was able to come into the surgical area and get her surgery done under IV anesthesia. Her parents said they didn’t think this would have happened until they saw the effect of the dog on her.

Another patient that we have been following for years. She is terrified and her anxiety is sometimes out of control. This was the first time she saw Finley. He went to see her without our instructions and followed her everywhere until she got to the surgical room where he stayed at the door. She had her surgery and it was a great experience for her. She wished everyone could have this experience.

These are examples of how medical Scent service dogs or SDiT can be extremely useful in our everyday practice. This in-training service dog was able to find that individual and help them without our input.. They were both able to get their surgery with a great outcome without pre-operative medications to calm them down.

This is yet another example of how we all have to think outside the box to help our extremely anxious/depressed/scared patients, which are even more prevalent, so they can receive proper care.