By all accounts, Hayden Kamakaala looks like a happy and healthy 12-year-old boy who loves sports.

One of the few things likely to set him apart from his classmates at

is that he's always accompanied by Scout, a rambunctious black Lab, or Ace, a sweet-natured yellow Lab.

The dogs can detect when Hayden, who has Type 1 diabetes, is experiencing dangerously high or low blood sugar levels. He's allowed to bring them to school because they are trained to perform a very specific task to help him, meeting the new

guidelines that took effect March 15.

When Scout detects dangerous levels in Hayden, he'll jump on the boy -- multiple times if necessary -- until Hayden stops to take a breath and check his glucose levels. Ace, who had a different trainer, emits a low growl.

Hayden doesn't seem to mind his charges: "Having a dog that works for you is one of the best things ever!" he says.

Type 1 diabetes, or juvenile-onset diabetes, occurs when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells.

These cells are the ones that make the insulin hormone, which converts sugar (glucose), starches and other food into energy. Type 1 diabetes typically strikes children and young adults, although disease onset can occur at any age.

The national diabetes rate jumped by 149 percent between 1980 and 2009, according to the

. According to 2010 data from the CDC, 8.3 percent of the U.S. population -- or 25.8 million people -- have the disease.

Hayden was diagnosed right after he turned 7. The Kamakaalas struggled for the next four years to find a way to ensure his blood sugar levels are safe.

It was like being on a rollercoaster, says Hayden's mom, Peri Kamakaala.

"We'd treat the lows and chase the highs," she says. "It just felt like that's all we were doing."

She decided there had to be a better way. When she wasn't feeding Hayden at 3 a.m., she was online doing research.

"I was a parent with a mission to find help for my child," Peri Kamakaala says.

Her Google research finally brought her to Kristin Tarnowski, founder and director of training for

.

Tarnowski, a teacher at

in Forest Grove, is also a certified dog trainer who volunteered with

for 10 years. When a little girl at her school developed type 1 diabetes and a dog was dropped from the Guide Dogs program, Tarnowski decided she would figure out how to train that dog to help.

She teamed up with Darlene LaRose Cain, a former national chair for the

, and Dogs Assisting Diabetics was born in summer of 2009.

The nonprofit organization is in the process of training five puppies, donated by breeders who heard about the organization. Just about any dog can be trained to be a diabetic alert dog, Tarnowski says, although she's partial to Labradors for their adaptable personality.

To train the dogs, she places a swab of Hayden's sweat, taken when his glucose levels were high or low, in a plastic vial. She presses a small button on a clicker to associate the dog with the vial's scent right when the dog walks past it. When it reacts to it, she rewards it with treats and affection.

"Scent work becomes a really fun game for the dog," she says.

Training takes between six months to a year, depending on how familiar the dogs are with the public access component of service work. The scent work alone takes about four to six months.

No one knows exactly what it is in sweat or saliva that the dogs detect, although researchers at Pacific University are currently trying to determine the chemical.

"The amazing thing is, the scent seems to be the same for every person," Tarnowski says. "It's a metabolic chemical change in the body."

And it works.

"It's a real phenomenon; it is scientifically proven," says Dr. Andrew Ahmann, an endocrinologist, diabetes specialist and director of the

at Oregon Health & Science University.

Ahmann says diabetic-detecting dogs should never replace blood sugar testing meters, which provide more exact glucose levels. (Hayden checks his meter about 20 times a day).

Still, he says, "If they could prevent one low blood sugar where somebody would pass out or have a seizure, that's worth a lot."

The dogs are particularly beneficial at night when a person is sleeping, Ahmann says.

The Kamakaalas have equipped Hayden's room with a paw-shaped wireless doorbell, connected to a white noisemaker in his parent's room. When Hayden's glucose levels dip or plummet, the dogs press the button.

Dogs Assisting Diabetics is a nonprofit organization that relies strictly on donations. They provide all the dogs free of charge, aside from a $150 application fee. The work is truly a labor of love for Tarnowski and her colleagues, who work on a volunteer basis. As a result, the Forest Grove-based organization can only place dogs within a 60-mile radius.

To help offset the need – one in five people will be diagnosed with diabetes – the group offers occasional workshops to help people train their own dogs.

The Kamakaala family is so passionate about the organization that Peri Kamakaala has joined the board. They've also taken in a third dog, Stella, as well.

"A parent's worst nightmare is watching your kid go through a grand mal seizure," Furl Kamakaala says. "You want to make sure you never go through that again."

Hopefully – thanks to Scout and Ace – they'll never have to.

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