The Closed Bedroom Door

It happens night after night. Well okay, there are some nights when it doesn't happen but most nights Austin's bedroom door ends up closed. Austin claims he always opens it before he turns in for the night, so how it ends up closed is an ongoing debate in our house. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that Bo sleeps with Austin but alerts to us in the middle of the night.

If the door is shut Bo can't get out of Austin's room to come to our room and alert. So, being the persistent alerter that we've trained him to be, he improvises. He will whine and tap his feet behind Austin's closed bedroom door. The noise he makes doesn't wake Austin but it does wake us. (He learned the whining and tapping when we used to put a gate at Austin's door at night to keep him (Bo) from leaving his room.)

Recently, we've been tweaking Austin's overnight basal rates in tiny increments.  We haven't gotten his overnight number where we want it to be, so Bo's been doing a lot of night work -- sometimes alerting multiple times in one night. Last night, he alerted to a high of 170. The night before, Austin had a pod issue and he had a persistent high. Bo caught the high in the 200s and re-alerted again as Austin's blood sugar soured into the 300s.

Not all trained Diabetic Alert Dogs work at night, we are fortunate that Bo is a strong night alerter. I attribute his strength in this area to a few things. The first is the amount of time and energy I invested in scent training at night. Night after night, I'd wake up with him at 2 am and train. Plus, I always used the highest value food reward and his favorite toy and games in night training. It was exhausting work but it paid off. Second, Bo gets a nap early in the evening before heading to bed with Austin. The nap allows him to sleep lighter than without one. In fact, on days when he doesn't get an early evening nap he is more apt to miss an alert in the middle of the night. Third, night alerts provide a nice snack for Bo.

Given, he works for all his food. He doesn't have a food dish. He is a healthy weight and gets the calories he needs but he isn't overfed -- a snack in the middle of the night is an incentive to get up and let us know when he smells a low or high.

Have a question about night alerts? Leave your question in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.

Night Alerts

He does some of his best work for us while we are tucked in bed sleeping. Thusday night he woke me with an alert before 2 am. Austin had been 189 before bed but he had also spent hours on the golf course. The activity caught up with him and he went low. Bo caught the 60 before our scheduled check. Anyone who questions the ability of a trained DAD, only needs to spend a few nights with us to understand the ability of a DAD's nose.

Night Low

Bo tucked back in bed with his boy. 

Night upon night Bo works for us letting us know if Austin is high or low. This morning he alerted at 1:20 am and Austin was 65. One juice box and 15 mins later, his blood sugar was still 65. I gave him another juice box and within 12 minutes Bo re-alerted. Austin was 78. Austin got a carb snack and Bo got cheese and a game of 'get cha.'

Low Alert and High Alert in the Middle of the Night

We were battling high blood sugar early last night and by midnight all our efforts to correct the high had caught up. Bo alerted me at 12:04 am. Austin had a friend sleeping over, so he was sleeping downstairs on the sofa bed instead of in his room. Bo was with the boys downstairs, so when he woke at midnight he came upstairs to alert to me in my bedroom. I checked Austin and he was 70. I treated the low with 15 g of juice, decreased Austin's basal rate, rewarded Bo, cued him to get back in bed with Austin and then went back to bed myself.

At 1:33 am I woke to Bo alerting again. This time Austin was 173. I had reduced Austin's basal rate too much but thanks to Bo I was able to take care of it before it got really high.

Last night was just another one of the many times Bo has helped us keep Austin safe through the night. I love our pup.

Football Practice + Trampoline Park + Pizza + Cake = A Crap Shoot

Austin rewarding Bo for a low alert.

Austin had a football walk through early in the evening yesterday. Afterwards he and some buddies went to a friend's house for pizza before heading to an indoor trampoline park for a birthday. I knew maintaining Austin's target blood sugar of 120 was going to be extra challenging given the activity and food that was planned for the evening. I hoped the activity would kick in when the pizza high kicked in -- balancing one another.

When Austin left the house for football his blood sugar was 123. By the time he got to his friend's house at 7:15 pm and was ready to eat pizza, his blood sugar was 117. He was off to a good start for the evening. At 8:00 pm he suspended his basal for one hour -- the duration of his time at the trampoline park. When he got back to his friend's house at 9 pm and was ready to eat cake, his blood sugar was 96. He bolused 50 g for the cake, which caused him to drop to 68 at 11 pm. Bo was sleeping and missed this low. We treated the 68, reduced his basal, gave him a peanut butter toast, set our 2 am alarm and went to bed.

I don't know if I turned off the alarm and fell asleep or if it never went off -- but I missed it. I woke at 2:15 am to Bo alerting me. Austin was 85. Thanks to Bo's alert, I was able to treat Austin's low before it became dangerous and reduce his basal rate. As a result, he woke at 6:45 am nearly on target with a blood sugar of 122. By 7:30 am it was 105 and at 9:30 am it was 121.

It's always a crap shoot for us when it comes to balancing the effects of physical activity on blood sugar when coupled with high carb and fat foods like pizza, which causes high blood sugar hours after consumption. Overall things worked out well this time. Bo missed the low at 68 but we were all awake to catch it. He caught the low of 85 at 2 am when we missed the alarm.

Managing Type 1 with a DAD is truly is a team effort. We are not perfect, nor is Bo but together we do a good job keeping the boy's blood sugar in safe ranges. It's hard to imagine taking care of T1 without Bo's help.

Night Alerts

We are fortunate in that Bo alerts in the middle of the night. We've found our success in allowing Bo to get a couple of hours of sleep in our bed early in the evening, when Austin is still awake, and then placing boy and pup together when Austin goes to bed. At 3:13 am this morning, Bo hopped out of Austin's bed and came to mine to alert. Austin was 84 -- an ideal number to be alerted at for a low. Bo is not perfect by any means but he is one heck of a night alerter and for this I'm incredibly grateful!

Night Alert at Strange House and to an Unfamiliar Family Member

Bo gave an encouraging and exciting alert last night while he was on an overnight at Austin's Gramma's house. The alert came at 3:15 am. Bo was sleeping in bed with Austin and Gramma. He jumped off the bed and went to the side of the bed where Gramma was sleeping. He alerted by paw swiping the side of the bed. Gramma woke to Bo pawing the bed and recognized the alert. She checked Austin and he was 220.
Three factors came into play which made this alert especially encouraging and exciting.
1. The alert was in the middle of the night.
2. The alert was at a strange house.
3. The alert was to an unfamiliar family member.