Trusting Bo's Nose

Today, I had a lesson in trusting Bo's nose. While I was at the dining room table and Austin was in his room, Bo got off his Kuranda cot to alert to me. His alert was a paw swipe to my leg as I sat at the table. I asked him if we should check his boy and proceeded to check Austin's blood sugar. I checked and Austin was 148. This is not a number we reward Bo for, so I gave Bo the 'all set' command. (We reward for alerts below 100 and above 175.) Twelve minutes later, Bo alerted to me again. I gave him the 'all set' command again but he didn't settle. In fact, he continued alerting with a paw swipe and then escalated his alert by using a low, deep vocalization. He was being persistent, so I told him we would check again. I got Austin's meter and rechecked and his meter read 174. The time between Bo's first alert and this reading was 14 minutes. Clearly, Bo's nose was smelling Austin's blood sugar rise at a rapid rate. This experience served as a reminder to me of how important it is to trust Bo's nose.