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Dogs go viral with almost 10m views saving diabetic owner when blood sugar goes dangerously low

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Two dogs who adorably "boop" their diabetic owner when her blood sugar goes low have gone viral thanks to a video showing their impressive skills.

Korey the Labrador has been working as Samantha Stocking's diabetes alert dog for two years, and they recently welcomed Ella the golden doodle, who Samantha is currently training for another client.

Samantha, who lives in Illinois was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 25 years ago, meaning her body does not produce insulin and she can't control her own blood glucose levels.

If her blood sugar levels fall too low, she risks falling into a coma and becoming seriously ill.

While some diabetics get symptoms when this happens, Samantha struggles with hypo-unawareness, meaning she has no idea she is unwell until it is too late.

Alongside using technology like a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to check her blood sugars, Samantha decided to get a dog that could be trained to alert her as soon as her levels fell.

"Korey can detect high and low blood sugars via smell," Samantha said.

"There are specific chemicals and hormones released that dogs pick up on. When my blood sugar is low, Korey boops me with his nose.

"If it goes high, he spins in a circle.

"Korey is also able to turn on lights, bring me juice and medicine, and will bark for help if I am unconscious. He also wakes me up at night to let me know if something is wrong."

Korey came into her life when he was just two months old and Samantha then worked with a dog trainer to teach him his skills.

She loved it so much, it inspired her to start a new career.

Samantha said: "I thought that getting a diabetic alert dog, in combination with my CGM, would be a great help in managing diabetes.

"While in Germany I worked with a service dog trainer who taught me everything I know.

"A lot of the work is self-training and then meeting with the trainer a couple of times a month to review and add in more training steps.

"Due to COVID, I did the vast majority of the training myself. I became so inspired working with Korey that I obtained my own dog training certification and now do this professionally."

In November 2021, she welcomed Ella who she is training up, with Korey's help.

She said: "Ella belongs to a family in Alabama. I am training her to be an alert dog for a little girl named Lainey.

"So far, Ella is doing amazing! She is a quick learner and such a sweet and funny dog."

Samantha shares her work with Korey and Ella on TikTok and one recent video of them both "booping" her leg to alert her recently went viral and had over 9.7 million views.

One person said: "I’ve always wondered how dogs are able to sense this kind of stuff. Amazing!!"

Another added: "I have T1D and I didn’t even know there were doggies that help with this. It would be very comforting to have one."

A third said: "Dogs are amazing!!"

A fourth wrote: "Awww how adorable are those little life-savers."

Samantha explained: "Korey wears shoes because he has a fear of slippery floors. At around seven or eight months old, he had an accident and slipped.

"He pulled a muscle in his back leg and while the injury was nothing bad, he developed a fear of slippery floors.

"We tried several different approaches to make him comfortable, but the one that worked best was shoes.

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