A Diabetic Alert Dog was acting op, so a mom called the school to check on her daughter. What the dog sensed is remarkable.
How do you live up to a name like Hero?
Well, for this clever little Lab, it’s all part of the day job.
Hero is a trained diabetic alert dog. He has kept four-year-old Sadie safe ever since he joined her and her family as a puppy.
Sadie was born with Down’s syndrome and, three months later, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Hero is there to let her parents know when Sadie’s blood sugar levels drop too low or get too high, using his strong sense of smell.
He’s able to detect changes to her blood sugar levels through an odour that’s emitted by the body when those chemical changes occur.
When the blood sugar levels are too low, Hero whines and will offer her parents his left paw. When they’re too high, he offers them the right paw.
Which is pretty incredible in itself. But, last December, the family say the closeness of the bond between Sadie and her Hero became even clearer.
On the day in question, Sadie was in her special needs class at Deerfield Elementary School in Cedar Hills, while Hero was at home in Pleasant Grove, over five miles away.
Hero started behaving as he would whenever Sadie’s blood sugar levels are dropping. ‘He’s normally a very quiet dog. Whining is not in his protocol. But he just started whining and he would not stop,’ mum Michelle Brooks told KUTV News.
Michelle wasn’t sure what it could be, given that Sadie was miles away, but decided to call her school just in case.
‘(Sadie’s mom) called me and asked if I could check her numbers and they were fine,’ teacher Ms.Stoneman explained. ‘I tested her and it was fine. Then within half an hour she went down.’
Sadie’s headteacher Caroline Knadler, who also has Type 1 diabetes, couldn’t believe the dog had sensed a problem, despite the two being miles apart.
‘I’ll be honest, it kinda blew my mind,’ she said. ‘How can it be based on smell? It really got me thinking. What is Hero alerting on?’
Hero’s trainer KC Owens agreed it was pretty unbelievable. ‘I can’t explain it,’ she said. ‘I think it’s like mother’s intuition. These dogs have abilities and senses beyond our understanding.’
In a Facebook post, written after the story of Sadie and Hero was shared on US TV, mum Michelle wrote: ‘We were nervous to do the story because we didn’t want to give the impression that all dogs alerts long distance. They don’t. We didn’t want to appear like we were making crazy claims about our dog’s ability.
‘While we can’t and won’t even try to explain how this happens, we feel blessed. Even without the long distance alerts, he is amazing!’
She also responded to comments that Hero was a little more ‘cuddly’ than he should be. ‘I want to assure everyone that he is very healthy and we see his vet often to assure he stays that way,’ she said.‘Bottom line is he’s the perfect dog for Sadie in every way. His size and structure was actually one of the reasons KC matched him to us.’
The clue’s in the name really.
