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

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Checking On a Schedule

Checking on a schedule means not relying solely on Bo to alert us to a high or low blood sugar. We check on a schedule because while Bo alerts reliably and consistently, we recognize he is a living being and like all living creatures he is not perfect.

Today, Bo didn't alert when Austin was playing basketball. When Austin came out of the locker room, Austin checked-in with Bo. A check-in involves Austin saying hello to Bo, petting him and getting close to his face. I watched boy and pup during the check-in and didn't observe any pre-cursors to an alert.

After Austin finished his check-in, Bo didn't give an alert. Despite Bo's non alert, Austin checked his blood sugar because we always have him check after he engages in physical activity. Austin's blood sugar was 108, a safe number that's not in Bo's reward range threshold. Once again the pup proved his nose knows.

We could easily fall into a pattern of relying on Bo's alerts to tell us when to check Austin but we don't. Bo's alerts help us catch lows and highs between schedule checks; they don't serve to replace those checks. However, it always feels good when we check after a non-alert and the number on the meter validates Bo's nose. We are fortunate; we've got a pup that knows his job and likes working.

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