After anxiously awaiting his arrival for more than a year and raising $18,000 through benefits and charity drives, 18-year-old Spencer Gorczewski met his personal diabetic alert dog, Razor, for the first time Tuesday afternoon at Aberdeen Regional Airport.
“What’s up, buddy,” Gorczewski said, kneeling down and immediately petting Razor, after he made his way down the hallway and into the baggage claim area. The dog had just stepped off his flight from Indianapolis to Aberdeen.
“I suppose he doesn’t have a suitcase,” joked Barb Gorczewski, Spencer’s mother, as the red and white Border Collie with bright green eyes and friendly demeanor explored his new owner and family.
Spencer Gorczewski was diagnosed with diabetes six years ago and has been struggling with the disease.
“He has a very small window of where his blood sugar can be at or he gets really sick,” said Barb Gorczewski, explaining that Spencer Gorczewski’s blood sugar must remain between 100 and 110.
“It’s been a long wait,” she said. “There’s just no better Christmas than this.”
Janalee Gallagher, with Alert Service Dogs of Indianapolis, accompanied Razor to South Dakota and will stay until Friday to help him transition into a new handler and zone in his sensors to Spencer Gorczewski’s blood sugar. Gallagher has trained Razor since he was 8 weeks old, after she picked him up in Oklahoma and flew him back to Indianapolis to begin training. After almost a year and half, Razor will start his life with Spencer Gorczewski.
“When we get a contract for a dog, we collect a scent sample from the future owner, and it’s basically like training a scent dog just like you would for a narcotics or search-and-rescue dogs,” she said.
When Razor senses lows or highs, he will give Spencer Gorczewski a bark alert. Razor has the ability to detect those changes about 30 minutes before Spencer Gorczewski realizes it.
“He’s pretty animated about his bark alerts; he loves it,” Gallagher said. “He’ll keep barking until the problem is fixed and his blood sugar is back to where it should be. It’s like a fire alarm, it doesn’t quit going off until the problem is resolved and all the smoke is gone.”
Spencer Gorczewski, who will start taking classes in mechanics next fall at Lake Area Tech in Watertown, was thankful and excited to have Razor with him.
“He knows my smell, but he doesn’t know exactly who I am,” Spencer Gorczewski said.
“It definitely feels overwhelming, and it will take some time getting used to going into restaurants and stores with a dog, but I’m excited,” he said. “He really is going to be like a man’s best friend to me.”
Razor also has been trained to sense the scents even in public and in crowded spaces.
“He’s been all over the place” Gallagher said. “Movies, parades, graduations. We had a client once who got a bark alert while she was standing in a crowded elevator. Which other people may have thought strange, but it works.”
Spencer Gorczewski wears an insulin pump that delivers insulin every hour. He could possibly need a pancreas transplant in the future.
“Hopefully, that never has to happen. For right now, we hope Razor is the cure,” Barb Gorczewski said.
~Via Aberdeen News
Tags: blood sugar dog, diabetic alert, diabetic alert dog, dog senses, service dog
