Luke Vs. Mr. Roboto- a dog update

Posted on 05. Oct, 2007 by Jillian in Glycogen Storage Disease, Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1A, hypoglycemia, Medical Service Dogs, research

Our son Ethan just had his fourth birthday, and received a thoughtful and creative gift from his “girlfriend” Karlee. She understands that we are training a dog that will (hopefully) be able to help the boys when they get sick. So, she built him an awesome robot out of tin cans- in case Luke doesn’t work. Ethan loves it!

The boys got sick, again, last week and Dallin (the baby yet to be put on cornstarch) has had crazy blood sugars. His blood glucose dropped down to 60 last week, so while we were treating it we had Luke come over to him. I gave the command “Luke, check” and then let him lick the baby’s feet which is something we normally don’t allow. All the boys had gathered for the drama, but Ethan bolted from the room, and quickly returned with Karlee’s robot. He carefully placed it next to his little brother and commanded “Robot, check! There Mommy, Dallin will be O.K.” Score one for Mr. Roboto.

The other evening Mark, Ethan and I went for a walk around our neighborhood. When we finally made it home, it was time for bed, bedtime snack, Jonny’s cornstarch, and to warm Dallin’s bottle. We put Luke in his crate, Mark and Ethan had started eating, and Luke freaked out. We decided to see what was wrong with him, so we opened the crate. Normally, Luke just sits there and waits for us to attach his leash. This time he bolted downstairs just like the first time he detected a low blood sugar. So, we tested Jonny first since it was time for his cornstarch anyway. He was fine. Then we moved on to Dallin- he needed to eat, but he was still in the upper 70′s. Then we tried Ethan, he was good. A little disheartened, we weren’t going to test Mark. After all, he’d been eating. We decided to anyway, just for good measure. Bingo! he was at 74 and since he’d been eating for a good 10 minutes, he must have been lower than that. Score 3 for Luke (he’s done this twice before).

Today Rebecca came over to help us train Luke. It was great! I can’t believe the stuff she can do with him. He still has a lot of work, but he’s doing a lot better than I was expecting him to by now. She did some set ups with him by placing food on the kitchen floor and then correcting him if he went for it. It only took a few tries before he was smart enough to want her praise more than the food. We also played hide-and-seek with the boys. She gave them a treat to hold and then told Luke to find that child. Needless to say, all the boys (including the four-legged furry one) want to play again.
After we brought the dog in from training outside, he bolted for the living room where Mark and Dallin were. The first reaction is to correct him, but he started acting hyper and spazzy in a really weird way. It’s difficult to explain, but it was different from just a dog that got too excited. I knew Mark hadn’t been eating very well today, and he’d been playing outside in the cold (both of which can drop blood sugar) so I decided to test him even though Luke wasn’t acting as crazy as he usually does when someone is low. Mark was fine, and Dallin still had another 30 min. before he was due for his next bottle. I went upstairs and got Jonny out of bed etc. But 10 minutes later, while Luke had calmed down a bit, he was still acting strangely. So we tested Dallin. Rebecca knelt on the floor with me, and Luke came over and started licking Dallin (which is usually not allowed) and nipping at Rebecca’s ear. Ya, weird dog. My dad joked that Luke must be jealous, but Dallin’s blood sugar turned out to be at 56, which means he was probably around the 75 mark when Luke started acting crazy in the first place. AAAHHH! We immediately gave Dallin dextrose to boost him, as well as his bottle, all the while letting Luke lick him and giving the command “Luke check” with a healthy dose of praise. I of course didn’t remember to give him a treat until after we got Dallin under control, but Luke seemed pretty happy with just the praise- and me finally getting the hint to take care of Dallin.

While he didn’t do a full scale “freak out” like he has when Mark and Ethan were low, I theorize, that is simply because Dallin gets to the 75 mark pretty much every 2 hours, so it isn’t that weird for him. He also knows that we’re more careful with how we let him interact with Dallin.

So… that brings the total score for Luke up to 4 (including the other two times) and Mr. Roboto 1. Well, at least the Robot is a cute decoration, and he doesn’t eat nearly as much as Luke.

Tags: hypoglycemia, Luke, medical serice dog