Marie's Diabetic Alert Dog

Friday, October 12, 2018

I sent this email to

Diabetic Alert Dogs of America

today:

Hi Christy!

D.A.D.A. made sure I not only had the perfect dog that fits into my life but also the perfect dog to save my life! Today, Musketeer alerted when my level was a 128 and I told him I was fine, check back in 15 minutes. Usually, he checks back at EXACTLY 15 minutes!!!! But today, he checked back (placed his paw on my leg) after only 11 minutes. I told my husband I'll go ahead and test, just to see what direction my levels were going. After only 11 minutes, my blood sugar level had gone down to 78. My husband was commenting on my slurred speech and slowness of thinking by the time we had the puppy party a moment later. Musketeer does such an amazing job at his job! And he LOVES doing his job SO MUCH! Our children could be having a major play session with tennis balls and tug ropes and everything in the other room and Musketeer could be having the time of his life, but he will STOP playing with the children (teenagers) and come to see me if my levels aren't where they should be! Helping me is the BEST GAME EVER for him! Tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary of having Musketeer home with us! He has saved me from serious lows/needing an ambulance a dozen times or more, not to mention the zillions of times he's alerted to high levels or mild lows!

My old internal medicine doctor had told me a D.A.D. would only be a waste of money. My current internal medicine doctor told me she wouldn't take care of my diabetes without me having Musketeer to assist her!

I am so blessed to have Musketeer at my side. My husband is more confident about leaving the house for a bit longer period of time. And the entire family LOVES having Musketeer Puppy as a very VERY important member of our family!!!

Thank you AGAIN!

Monday, October 8, 2018

Minnesota Renaissance Faire

2018

Musketeer got "baptized" by some very yummy forest berry mead. Sorry for the spillage upon thy head, Musketeer.

Even with LOTS of people around and LOTS of smells coming from all of the food booths, Musketeer kept his focus on me!

All dressed up for the official Ren Faire Photo:

HIP HIP HUZZAY

for the

MUSKETEER PUPPY!

Monday, September 3, 2018

HAPPY LABRADAY!

(Our daughter made that up!)

I wrote this back in November and thought it was worth posting again. THANK YOU for reading!

1. Don't distract (no petting, no talking to, no kissy sounds, just smile at the handler). There are TONS of distractions when we're out and about, and a SD's one job is to take care of his handler, so he needs to focus without added distractions.
2. Talk to the handler, not the dog. (See reason above, AND, the dog won't answer you!).
3. Don't ask the dog's name or gender. I'm not going to tell you his name when out in public because I don't want you, or anyone, to call him when I'm about to have a medical emergency and he miss alerting because of your distraction. And gender... do you honestly need to know? I realize you're interested and I appreciate that, but just letting him work is best.
4. No, he doesn't wear his vest at home. We know he's a service dog so the vest isn't needed to tell us.
5. YES, he gets lots of time to PLAY many times every day, and he plays with all of his family members!
6. Please do not give SDs treats or any type of food. That is the sole job of the handler (we are the ones "paying" him to work for us) AND he might have food allergies (Musketeer is allergic to chicken, for example).
7. Service dogs assist those with disabilities. You may not be able to tell what type of disability the individual has, but realize that the person has some medical challenges and at times, just being out in public is all they can manage, so please don't be offended if they don't answer your questions about their service dog. They have most likely been asked those same questions several times already in just that one outing and haven't had the ability to answer anyone. HOWEVER, asking, "Would you mind if I ask you about your service dog?" is a WONDERFUL AMAZING PERFECT question to ask a SD handler! And if we're able, we would LOVE to talk to you about our team mate! Just realize that sometimes we're running late for an appointment, or we've just been alerted by our SD that a medical issue is about to happen, or we're wiped out and just need to get home.
THANK YOU for reading, and if you'd like to ask questions, Dog Blog COMMENTS is the perfect place to do that, so I'm opening the floor to questions here!