Today, I’ve been getting stories of 2 T1Ds who will be getting their diabetes alert dogs, REAL SOON. Feels like we are all having a baby … but that baby is a life-saving diabetes alert dog who is also VERY cute!!!
Alex was diagnosed at 2 years and 1 month old. We got a DEXCOM almost immediately but quickly realized we couldn’t rely on the technology all the time. There’s the 2 hour warm ups, the lost signals in the night and when he gets too far away from us at the park, etc.
A good friend gave me a book about a younger girl and a service dog, I loved it and immediately knew we had to try and get one for Alex! We need that extra security. When you are a parent, you will do anything to protect your child and keep them safe. Alex still doesn’t tell us when his sugar is high or low.
Last fall we started a Facebook page asking for help, started fundraising, and in 7 weeks we raised over $15,000 ! It was amazing. Churches, fire departments, private donations, a local art studio, all helped us raise a lot of money in short amount of time. Alex got put on Diabetic Alert Dogs of America’s wait list last November.
Finally this July, we got the phone call saying it was his turn to have a dog assigned to him. A silver male lab named Brody. The organization knew it was important to us to have a calm dog that would be great with children because right now, the plan is for the service dog to go to school with Alex.
Brody will be scent trained to alert us if Alex goes below 80 or above 200. We actually send them samples of Alex’s saliva when he’s low & high to help train Brody. We are incredibly grateful for our small town community in West Virginia for helping us get Brody and we are so excited for him to be in our home. Brody is training in Nevada and will be flown in with his trainer sometime in January/February 2021. We get updates on how Brody is doing weekly from the trainer along with new pictures and videos.
Follow Brody’s journey on Alex’s Facebook page, “Alert Dog for Alert”. The whole process has been a blessing and something fun in the not so fun world of diabetes.
Do you have a Diabetes Alert Dog … OR Cat or Bird? Please share your story with us! Send me an email at joanne@TheSavvyDiabetic.com, send a bunch of great photos and some of your stories. I’ll feature you on my Friday T1Ds and their pets feature.
Watch this great video on another DAD … what an amazing journey!!!
You go Brody !!! I love Weimaraner’s.