Jason turned 9 on Sunday. It was all about Lego this year. We made a mad dash to the cinemas to catch the 10.20 am Lego movie, shopped for Lego afterwards, and made sure his party also included a Lego movie themed cake. Bailey did a great job helping control his levels too. He alerted to a high on waking, caught a low before lunch and another high in the afternoon. As I watched him enjoy his day, I felt immensely proud to be his mum. He hasn't had an easy run of things, with the years since his diagnosis not as carefree as they should be. He's had to grow up sooner and experience more pain and worry than many kids do. But despite all this, or maybe because of it, he is wise beyond his years and has a big heart. He is without a doubt the bravest boy I know...here's to happy 9!
I've just finished an very interesting read called The Genius of Dogs by scientists Dr Brian Hare & Vanesa Woods. It covers topics such as how dogs evolved their unique intelligence and many other intriguing topics including many discoveries about a dog's mind. This book prompted me to join Dognition, a newly developed canine-assessment tool. If you ever wanted to know how your dog thinks and views the world then this is for you. This 'citizen science project' also provides a broad-based data so that these and other researchers can gain a more in-depth understanding of dogs, which in turn, can aid all our dogs.
These fun science-based games cover five different categories. It was recommended that you play one category with your dog each day so that you would come to the completion of your assessment in five days. The first of these measured Empathy. The data found that Bailey had an independent streak but was still very bonded to me. Interesting! Bailey can maintain eye contact for a very long time with me and it has been found that owners who's dogs stared at them for longer, had significant increases in Oxytocin, also known as the "hug hormone". This relates to feelings of bonding, pleasure and affection. This means that when Bailey is staring at me for extended periods of time, he may just be hugging me with his eyes! The second category explored Communication. I had certain expectations from him in this category as his job relies strongly on him communicating to me every day. As expected, his performance, based on the exercises completed, was highly collaborative. Can he read me like a book and know where I'm going before I do? Absolutely! Bailey pays close attention to my gestures and what I'm trying to communicate. His behaviour in these exercises demonstrated why the dog and human relationship is so special. The third category covered the Cunning dimension. I had no idea how he'd go in this exercise! Well, Bailey landed in the middle of trustworthy and wily. In other words, the way he acts around me is most likely how he is when alone. This is nice to know. The forth category was Memory. I knew that dogs have good memories and I know that Bailey's is excellent as observed throughout his training. In one game, Bailey watched me put a treat under one cup but then point to the other cup but he preferred to rely on the information in his working memory rather than what I pointed to. Even though I gave him misleading information, he remembered where the treat was and chose to ignore me. This shows that he's an independent thinker and the report said to be aware of other situations when Bailey may not listen to you if he thinks I'm wrong. This was very interesting as there have been many times when he's detected dramatic changes taking place with Jason's BGL's that haven't yet registered on the meter and has insistently alerted me to the fact until I listen to him. This is exactly what I want him to be and precisely what his training wanted to create...a thinking dog! We also had several interruptions throughout these games but he remained focused and it was found that he had an amazing working memory which is the type of memory that allows him to keep information in his mind for at least a few minutes and mentally manipulate it. Working-memory is crucial for any kind of problem-solving. Being a Diabetic Alert Dog requires Bailey to solve problems and there have been times (like waking me from sleep to alert me to Jason's low BGL's) when he has done just that. So this category made me wonder...how much has the training that Bailey's done increased the capacity of his memory? And the last category covered Reasoning. It was found that Bailey likes to see all the pieces of the puzzle before solving the puzzle. In other words he sees me as his best bet when solving problems. He views me as a co-operative partner and I think this is most likely due to the training we have done together and because we work as a team. So the verdict was....Bailey is a Renaissance Dog, which means he is good at a little bit of everything. Overall he showed accomplished social skills and solid independent problem solving. Bailey is a generalist. While others focus on the proverbial tree, Bailey can see the entire forest! Visit www.Dognition.co.uk/TheGeniusofDogs to find out more. I've been trying to catch a live alert for a few weeks now but it has proved too difficult, so I used a training game to try and capture how Bailey alerts on video. It has been quite a while since we've played any training games as Bailey's alerting is rock solid now. Bailey seldom misses an alert but if he does, I will cue an alert on the spot to keep him on his paws. The alert here is quite different to how he would provide a live spontaneous alert as he is much more controlled for those, but nevertheless, shows how he alerts and signals to a low BGL. This training game is also a fantastic way to judge how reliable your DAD is outside of training sessions. After removing Bailey from the room, I hid a low scent tube under Jason's waistband and casually let Bailey back into the room. What you see here is Bailey detecting the scent on Jason and then becoming very excited over it. He then proceeds to alert Jason to this by bumping Jason repeatedly on the tummy and legs. Bailey's alerting naturally prompted Jason to verbally cue the signal by motioning both hands in the air and saying "What's up?". I had not intended Jason to do this and Bailey will offer the signal regardless of being verbally prompted but our procedures are so ingrained that Jason automatically offered the cue. Bailey lies his head quietly beside the hidden scent source before pawing my leg to signal a low. What I find interesting in doing this exercise, isn't the alert and signal or even the fact that he offered an alert but how he reacts to the scent he has located. When I stop filming, Bailey is offered a reward for his alert as we would do for his spontaneous alerts. * I have just recently started a face book page www.facebook.com/onenoseydog to share additional stories and posts about Bailey & Jason. So if you're a regular visitor of my blog, you may be interested in my page. Any questions or comments are most welcome! School holidays are now finished with Jason and Claire heading back this week to begin Term 2. For the first couple of weeks Bailey alerted frequently due to Jason's erratic BGL's due to illness, as well as the need to reduce his night time insulin. He was waking up low and I was finding Bailey pawing the side of the bed to let me know.
Earlier in the week, Bailey started to alert me after Jason had left for school. He has been known to do this occasionally before and when he does, Bailey's alerts will coincide with Jason's BGL's going low at school. So as I sat there working on my laptop, I wondered whether I should ring the school and ask them to check him but decided not too. I couldn't do anything to verify Jason's BGL's, hence I couldn't reward Bailey either. So as I ignored his repeated pawing of my leg, he started to close the lid on my laptop as I tried to work. This happened about half a dozen times as he tried desperately to get my attention, so I got his kong out and filled it with some of his treats thinking he needed something to beat the boredom. He wagged his tail happily when I presented this to him and it kept him occupied for some time. Then I received an email around lunchtime to say that Jason had a hypo. Now I knew that Bailey was giving me a low alert. Now I'm fairly sure Bailey doesn't possess ESP abilities so this was obviously a delayed alert. He had picked up on Jason's BGL's trending downwards before he left for school and for whatever reason, had not alerted me at the time. This could be for any number of reasons but mornings in our household are always chaotic. Jason had woken a bit high and Bailey had alerted to that and I had given him his morning insulin as usual and left him for a little bit before giving him his breakfast. I will do this if his BGL's are high so that he can come down within his normal range so to avoid him going even higher from his meal. But sometimes his BGL's can drop rapidly, and this was obviously what had happened this morning. Bailey is very good at picking up drops in Jason's BGL's before they happen and has given a few of these alerts lately. It is becoming more and more obvious just how accurate his alerting is as he will give a high alert for anything over 8. Jason's normal blood sugar levels should sit between 4 and 8. If we test Jason and his BGL's are 8.2 or somewhere in the 8's, we often won't correct with insulin because it's only slightly over his target and still acceptable to us. The exception however, will be before a meal, when insulin is needed to cover the carbs he'll eat. Sometimes I wonder what is an acceptable level to Bailey as he gets very close to 8 all the time. Then the other day he followed me over when I was testing Jason's BGL's and the meter read 7.7. Bailey just looked up at me and wailed his tail! In future, if he ever alerts me in the same circumstances again, I will ring the school and get them to check Jason, no matter how silly it feels at the time! |