万花筒 2009-02-08&02-09 狗狗嗅出糖尿病（在线收听）

Coby, the lab, nudges and pushes and bugs Bill Palmer until he gets his attention. That's how he warns that his blood sugar is dangerously low.

"He is able to smell when my blood sugar is low. And what we are training him with here is a sock that I wore while my blood sugar was low and mailed to Ann, his trainer."

Coby is a diabetes service dog. His warning gives Bill time to eat and raise his blood sugar before he has a seizure or goes into a diabetic coma.

"I woke up one morning to find him in a cold sweat with his limbs already jerking. And the only thing that I could do at that point was dribble honey into his mouth and that brought him out of it."

They hope Coby will help them avoid more crises like that. It takes three months of intensive work to train a dog like Coby. He's one of ten diabetes dogs trained by Betheden Kennels in Amarillo. More are in training.

"We train yellow labs, obviously, golden retrievers, German shepherds. We've trained one standard poodle. We train labradoodles."

"Good morning". "Good morning.."

Coby goes to work with Bill. Here Bill introduces him to each student in the class he teaches at Houston Community College.

"As you can see, Coby is a young dog and he's still in training. This is his first day of class. In fact Bill has only had it for two days. But eventually, he will lay still by Bill's desk without a trainer."

A little correction here and there from the trainer who accompanies him, but Coby is already a part of Bill's life and may someday end up saving his life.

Christi Myers, 13 Healthcheck