The story of a boy living with Type 1 and his family's journey to raise and train a diabetic alert dog.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Night Alert

Bo alerted in the middle of the night this weekend. I was surprised and excited about this alert. Most nights Bo sleeps in Austin's room with a baby gate at the door to keep him from wandering around the house. We began gating him in Austin's room  at night when he was a young pup. This was to build the bond between boy and pup. Recently we have allowed him to sleep in our room on his Kuranda cot or on the bed.  Saturday was one such night.

As usual I got up to check Austin at 2 am. But not like usual,  I didn't wake Bo to join me in the check.  When I got back, he woke and stirred but fell back asleep. One hour later, he left our room and went to the kitchen to get water. When he returned he stood on my side of the bed and whined. I knew he was trying to tell me something but I wasn't sure if he had to go outside or if he was alerting.) I got out of bed and he paw swiped my leg. The two of us went to the kitchen to get Austin's meter. When we got to Austin's room, he paw swiped me two more times as I was checking Austin's blood sugar. Sure enough Austin was high with a blood sugar of 213.


Austin told me after Bo got water and before he went to my room, he had gone into his room and stood at the side of his bed. Austin invited him to jump up into bed with him but Bo did not join him. Instead, he left Austin's room and came to the edge of my bed and whined. This night alert is a milestone in our journey and one we are very excited about. It doesn't mean we will stop waking in the middle of the night to check Austin but it does mean we may be gaining some night help.

4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Frank,

      Thank you for sharing your experience with training on night alerts. Your advice has helped us. :)

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  2. Replies
    1. As you might imagine we so LOVE our Integrity Farm bred pup!
      Thanks!

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