Gorgeous Labrador Hero is a trained diabetic alert dog. Since joining her family as a puppy, he has kept four-year-old Sadie Brooks safe.
Sadie was born with Down’s syndrome and, three months later, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
Hero uses his sense of smell to let her parents know when her blood sugar levels are off. He detects the 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 offers the parents his left paw. When they’re too high, he gives them the right.
As if that wasn’t amazing enough, last December, Hero became an even bigger, well, hero.
On the day in question, Hero was relaxing at home, while Sadie was at her special needs class some five miles away from the house.
Out of the blue, Hero started acting the way he would when Sadie’s blood sugar levels dropped.
“He’s normally a very quiet dog. Whining is not in his protocol,” mum Michelle told KUTV News.
“But he just started whining and he would not stop.”
Michelle wasn’t sure what it could be, and despite the fact that Sadie was miles away, she decided to call her school just in case.
Initially, it seemed that everything was fine. Sadie’s teacher checked her blood sugar levels and said they were fine. However, within half an hour, she “went down.”
Sadie’s trainer KC Owens was shocked that Hero may have sensed something was off from afar.
“I think it’s like mother’s intuition,” he said. “These dogs have abilities and senses beyond our understanding.”
In a Facebook post, mum Michelle said that she was worried about sharing the story.
“We were nervous…because we didn’t want to give the impression that all dogs alerts long distance. They don’t,” she wrote. “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!”
Whether he smelled trouble or not, we reckon Hero’s pretty damn great!
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