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

Sunday, April 15, 2018

High Alert at a Basketball Tournament

Austin had a basketball tournament yesterday and Bo was there working. The tournaments are loud, crowded, busy places with lots of different types of distractions. Bo had early training at basketball games and is rock solid among the cacophony of whistles, buzzers, balls, crowds and cheering.

Yesterday, we watched the game from the balcony and Bo placed on his mat in front of me. When Austin finished his game and met up with us, Bo alerted immediately to a high of 200. Austin had been low going into the game and, not wanting to go low during the game, he ate 50 carbs without bolusing anything. As a result, he went high. With Bo's alert, he checked and corrected before meeting back up with his team.


Squirrels, Birds & Other Distractions

On a walk with Bo this morning, we encountered a squirrel running in front of us, a bird on the ground ahead of us, and a dog barking at us. Bo's response to these three different distractions was the same -- he looked at them and then he looked at me. His response is a trained behavior.

We began teaching this behavior when he was a puppy and continued the training into his adolescents. Today, we reinforce the behavior with food rewards and praise. When we began training him to look to us when he encountered a distraction, we would say his name and when he looked at us, we'd reward him with food. Now, at five-years-old, he doesn't need us to say his name. He simply will see a distraction and look to me or whoever is holding his leash.