Hayven and Scentinel

Hayven Chase, is an exceptional Idaho high school senior from the north Idaho town of Athol. Hayven is up against a challenge. She was diagnosed at eight years old with Type 1 diabetes and when she is fast asleep, she experiences low and high blood sugars. Her service dog Scentinel has been trained to alert her when necessary by smelling these blood sugar swings in her breath stream.

“When I’m in bed he actually jumps on top of me to wake me up because I’m a very hard sleeper.

I actually got to pick his name which I was really excited about, and I chose Sentinel because it’s a guard standing watch and that’s his job, but we did a little play on words, and we actually use the word “scent” in it because he uses his sense of smell to alert me,” said Hayven.

“Good alert, good boy.  Let me look…  good alert. Very good boy.”

“Anytime he alerts me he’s rewarded with a treat. And he really does know that it’s his job, at school he knows that he’s working, he knows that he has a job to do, he’s not really distracted by anything. But when he comes home, and I take the vest off he’s a bit more of dog. He still knows that he has a job to do but he’ll play with his toys and be more of a puppy at home.”

They got Scentinel from Lily Grace Service Dogs in Sandpoint, Idaho. Normally a specially bred and fully trained service dog can cost anywhere between 25 and 35-thousand dollars. The local horse community helped the family raise money, and they were also able to get Scentinel for much less because they took part in a pilot program where they got Scentinel when he was just 12 weeks old, and did much of the training themselves.