Video: High Alert from Bo

I was sitting at the dining room table this evening and Bo came to alert to me. He alerted with a paw swipe. I asked, 'What is he?' This is what I ask after he alerts. He is trained to alert with a paw swipe and bow if he smells a low and to alert with a paw swipe followed by another paw swipe if he smells a high.  When I asked 'What is he?' he gave another paw swipe. We checked Austin and he was 189, which is within Bo's high threshold for rewards. Bo got rewarded for this high alert and Austin got a correction bolus before bed.

One behavior Bo will give when he is alerting is the look that you see in this video when his head is resting on my leg. This is a tell tail sign that he smells an out of range blood sugar. He gives this look and head rest when he is waiting for us to respond to an alert. Over the course of our two year journey raising and training Bo, I've learned that having a successful DAD has a lot to do with paying attention to your dog's behavior patterns and understanding what behaviors are precursors to (or associations with) alerts.

For example, I can anticipate an alert from Bo when he does any of the following:

• Breaks his place to come over to me;
• Leaves (or drops) a food-filled Kong before it's empty and comes to find me;
• Jumps off the bed and comes running out to me when he had been resting quietly;
• Jumps off Austin's bed at night and whines at the bedroom door gate.

High Alert After Arriving Home from Being Gone

Austin wasn't home when I got home from work this evening. While he was gone, I did scent training with Bo inside and outside. I also ran him and used the lunge whip with him. When Austin got home, I brought Bo inside. After Bo greeted Austin and his grandmother, I observed Bo sniffing Austin. Bo's nose was tilting up toward Austin's head but touching his leg. Right after he sniffed Austin, Bo came over to me and alerted with a paw swipe. Austin then told me he had just eaten dinner out with his grandmother and that he was probably high. I checked Austin and he was 241. I rewarded Bo for his alert. Thirty five minutes later, Bo alerted high again. Austin was downstairs and Bo was upstairs with me this time. I checked Austin and his blood sugar was 181.

Alert to Austin in Bed

Bo alerted to Austin in bed last night a little before 11 pm. Austin woke to Bo pawing him and checked himself to find he was 200. We gave a correction for the high and rewarded Bo for his alert. An hour and a half earlier, Bo had alerted to me and Austin was 183. At the time, the meter would not allow a correction.