Our family graduated from Heaven Scent Paws at the end of February, 2008.  Actually, Tori and her dog, Charlie did most of the work.  We were not sure what to expect when we were planning our trip to Missouri, however, we were impressed with all we had read about Heaven Scent Paws as an organization and anticipated that it would be hard work, but worth every minute of it.

Since we have returned home with Charlie, we have continued to follow the guidelines given to us to promote the best outcome for alerting.  We found that at first, Charlie didn’t seem to have any interest in alerting.  My husband (Bret) and I consulted with Michele at HSP and received specific instructions with the expectation that alerting would start within 3 to 5 days.  Sure enough, on the third day, we were at a birthday party and Tori was upstairs playing with her friends.  Charlie was in a down stay by Bret.  All of a sudden, Charlie broke his down stay and began to whine at Bret.  We called Tori down and asked her if she felt “low”, she said “no”, we checked her and she was 85.  We decided that we would check her again in 10 minutes.  In the meantime, Charlie would not stop whining and making a quick bark sound.  In 6 minutes, Tori walked back into the room looking very pale, saying she was “low”.  We checked her again and she had dropped to 68.  Once Tori was treated for her low, Charlie was calm and obedient. 

Charlie continued to alert about 50% of the time and then all of sudden – he stopped alerting.  Needless to say, we were concerned.  After a week went by, I called Michele and told her the situation.  Michele advised us to take Charlie to the vet, after she asked me to look in his ears.  She said he probably had a yeast infection that was affecting his ability to alert.  It turned out that Charlie had yeast and bacteria in both of his ears.  We treated his infection and about 4 days, Charlie was back on track.  In the last couple of days, Charlie has let us know when Tori’s blood sugar was in the low to mid 70’s.  Today, Tori had a friend over and had just eaten.  They were in the room playing while Charlie was sleeping.  Charlie got up and started whining and barking at Tori.  Tori just kept on playing and ignored him.  He proceeded to go to Tori’s friend and did the same behavior.  Tori’s friend had the insight to ask Tori if she was feeling low, Tori said “no”.  Charlie then found Bret in the other room and started whining and barking at Bret.  Bret checked Tori and she was 70.

We are starting our third month with Charlie in our home.  We continue to be steadfast with all of our requirements.  We are pleased with the outcome and it is truly amazing to see Charlie in “action”.  He does extremely well in public.  We have had absolutely no issues with his behavior while he is working.  Many times when we are at a restaurant, the wait staff has no idea that there is a dog under the table until we are leaving.  We all love Charlie for many reasons; he alerts to Tori’s lows and he is absolutely adorable.