This clever dog alerts his diabetic mom about her blood sugar levels

By Brelaun Douglas via SWNS

This good boy is trained to alert his diabetic owner to dangerous blood sugar levels by head-butting her on the leg.

Samantha Stocking, 28, has had Type 1 diabetes since she was four-years-old and found it more difficult to deal with the condition as she got older.

But now she has a guardian in the form of two-year-old service dog Korey to help detect when her blood sugar was either too low or high.

Kindergarten teacher Samantha, from the Bay Area, California, who currently lives in Germany, said: “He’s got really good and alerts me the most during night.

“He’s fantastic at waking me up. He’ll stare at me and he’ll start licking my face and then he’ll show me if it’s high or low.

“The older I get the harder it gets for me to manage and I was having really bad lows, especially during the night when I’m sleeping.

“We had some nights where my boyfriend had to shake me awake and pour sugar in my throat.”

Samantha adopted Korey when he was two-months-old and has been training him ever since.

She added: “When it’s low he’ll boop me and when it’s high he’ll twist in a circle."

Samantha trains Korey using a t-shirt that she’s worn when her blood sugar was low and hides it under her top.

Once Korey catches the scent, he’ll come up to Samantha and boop her leg to let her know her blood sugar is low, before going to fetch her a bottle of juice.

She also does scent training for high alerts, but with a shirt she wore when she was having a high.

Once Korey catches the scent he will come up to her and spin in circles to alert her and he receives treats for his diligence, with cheese being his favorite.

“He’s pretty good at letting me know most of the time before it’s going to one extreme or the other, which is helping to make it much better,” Samantha said.

Though Korey is a master at his job now, Samantha said it has to be reinforced consistently with training.

“It’s consistently practicing it every day,” she said.

“The start of training is always easier, but as time goes on we have to stay on top of things so that he is alert.”

Samantha has recently started an organization to help other people with diabetes, called Korey the Kanine.

“My passion is dogs and I’ve always wanted to help people with diabetes, but I didn’t know how,” she said.

“Now that I have Korey all the pieces are falling into place.”