A Coyote and his dog: Canine companion helps NHL rookie cope with diabetes

At the push of a doorbell, Orion fidgets at the entryway until he can greet visitors with a friendly sniff.

When he spots his favorite toy, an oversized green duck with yellow feet and a busted seam on the stomach, he shifts in anticipation of a game of fetch in the backyard.

And after lapping up the once-dry food swimming in a kitchen-floor water bowl, Orion props his front paws up on the counter to investigate dessert — a box of cookies — with his nose before his owner, Coyotes rookie Max Domi, summons him down.

“He’s a happy boy,” Domi said. “Doesn’t like to sit still, that’s for sure.”

Domi is in the midst of his first season in the National Hockey League, a highly regarded draft pick of the Coyotes who possesses the skill, speed and spirit the team is seeking to boost it back to the competitive ranks after finishing 29th among 30 teams last season.

Domi isn’t making the transition from junior-hockey standout in Canada to a potential star-in-the-making alone; Orion isn’t the average four-legged pet.

The 2-year-old, 70-pound yellow lab is a diabetic-alert dog offering Domi comfort, confidence and companionship.

“He’s my best buddy,” Domi, 20, said.

It was not a decline in health that motivated Domi to embark on this phase of his life alongside Orion. Instead, he is trying to take advantage of as many resources as possible to make his childhood dream a permanent reality.

“This is going to be huge for me, and it’s helped me a lot since he’s been here,” Domi said. “He’s awesome.”

On skates at the age of 2, Domi seemed destined to become a hockey player.

He grew up in Toronto where his dad, Tie, toiled for the Maple Leafs as an enforcer for the majority of his 16-year NHL career. The rink became Max's playground and the pro players his best buddies. In those days, Max wore No.13 — a nod to his friendship with an iconic Maple Leaf, Mats Sundin.

After wrapping up a minor-hockey tournament in Detroit when Domi was 12, he and his mom, Leanne, began the drive back to Toronto. But their progress on the highway stalled whenever Domi noticed a convenience store.

“Hey, Mom,” he said, “pull over. I have to go to the bathroom, and I’m really thirsty.”

Leanne watched her son chug a bottle of water in one gulp and knew something was off. By the eighth stop, Domi was puzzled, too.

They visited their family doctor and described what happened during the car ride. The doctor reached for a glucometer and told Domi he would need to go to the hospital.

He had type 1 diabetes.

“When your kid gets diagnosed with something, it’s life-changing,” Leanne said.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin, a hormone required to transport energy from food into the body’s cells. Only 5 percent of diabetics have this form of the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association, and it appears mostly in children and young adults.

Though there isn’t a cure, type 1 diabetes is manageable.

Domi was at the hospital from 7 in the morning to 6 at night every day for a week after his diagnosis to figure out how to cope — learning to count carbohydrates in food to be able to assess how much insulin his body would require.

A year later, he acquired an insulin pump that stores three days’ worth of insulin, and filters it into his back hip.

As Domi continued to play hockey, Leanne worried about his blood sugar dipping when he went to bed after a game. She read about kids suffering such severe lows in the middle of the night that they didn’t wake up.

Leanne kept a close eye on her son. On the nights Domi went to sleep following games, Leanne would slip into his room at 3 a.m. and prick his finger to check his level.

“I kept thinking, ‘How is this kid ever going to move away from home?’ ” Leanne recalled.

About six years ago, she was doing research on the Internet and stumbled upon the concept of an alert dog for diabetics. After talking to a few different organizations, she settled on Canine Hope for Diabetics, a non-profit based in Riverside County in California that has placed 30 service dogs with diabetics since its inception in 2010.

Leanne contacted Crystal Cockroft, the founder and a trainer, to explain her son's situation. Unfortunately, the organization's extreme hands-on nature with their dogs — even after they’ve found permanent homes — prevented an accommodation for a family living in Canada.

“As a type 1 diabetic trying to be an athlete, it’s not the easiest thing in the world,” Domi said. “I mean it’s definitely not not doable, but to have something like that makes a huge difference and makes everyone around me a lot more comfortable.”

He never forgot about the option and when he was drafted by the Coyotes two years ago, Domi wondered whether Arizona was close enough to be able to work with a dog. The family reached out again to Canine Hope for Diabetics and received a thumbs-up.

Even so, Domi still had to go through an application process that included writing two essays explaining why he needed a service dog and what he and the dog would get out of a potential partnership.

“We don’t want anybody to think it’s a piece of cake,” Cockroft said. “It’s just this fabulous thing, which it is, but we’re very realistic and want to prepare people for that. So this kind of gives us a better idea of where their minds are and what they’re looking for and make sure it’s exactly the right fit — that getting a service dog is the right decision for them.”

The door of Orion's gray crate, the one tucked behind the dinner table in the kitchen, is open, which means he is on the clock.

He approaches Domi in the living room and grabs at the bringsel, which looks like a foam roller, attached to Domi’s hip and waits for Domi to notice.

The bringsel is how Orion communicates to Domi that his blood sugar is off and, sure enough, he’s low – 4.3. A normal range would be between 4.7 and 8.

Domi uses a Canadian glucometer so in U.S. metrics, his range is 85 to 145.

Domi rewards Orion with a peanut-butter treat and a chorus of "good boy" before he swigs a bottle of grape juice to boost his level.

“He’s right 99 percent of the time,” Domi said.

When he’s out in public, Domi wears the bringsel, but at home, it could be sitting on the coffee table or another location that Orion can easily spot. Orion will hunt it down every 15 minutes until Domi’s blood sugar has been corrected.

During the night, Orion sleeps on the floor in Domi’s bedroom — when he doesn’t hop up onto the bed — and will wake Domi when, using his keen sense of smell, he notices a shift out of range.

Since Orion is technically still working when Domi is sleeping, Domi carves out time during the day for Orion to spend in his crate to let him rest.

“He knows for sure I’m nowhere to be found,” Domi said, “and he can finally get his sleep and recover.”

Orion was among three dogs Cockroft began training for Domi without knowing which one would actually end up with him.

She took all three to hockey games in California to familiarize each with large crowds, noise and an overall hectic lifestyle before Orion emerged as the best candidate.

“He’s Max in dog form,” Leanne said.

Domi met Orion for the first time in January when Cockroft brought the dog to London, Ontario, where Domi was playing junior hockey. The two interacted for five days, getting acquainted while Orion accompanied Domi in public and attended a few of his games.

After that, Orion reported back to California to finish his training.

It takes two years for a dog to be ready to be placed with a diabetic.

Year 1 is dedicated to normal obedience lessons, and through his work, Orion earned a slew of titles from the American Kennel Club. During Year 2, he honed his ability to identify low blood sugar.

Saliva gives off a scent and when Domi’s blood sugar is out of his target range, his saliva emits an odor unlike the one produced when the level is normal.

Cockroft used swabs with saliva from a person with low blood sugar to train Orion to recognize the smell, rewarding him when he correctly detected it. Orion started to pick up the high blood sugar scent once he started doing real-time training with a trainer who has diabetes.

“There’s a lot of celebration,” Leanne said. “When he does a low, he gets tons of praise. It’s like a party for him.”

Service dogs for diabetics have gained popularity in the past five years, Cockroft said, and the acquisition can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000.

“Once they are placed and once they do have their person, not only does the diabetes alert work greatly improve their quality of life, but they get so much more from it,” said Cockroft, who has a background in K-9 search and rescue. “They’re companions. They never judge. They’re always there for them.”

In July, Domi and his mother visited Orion in California to learn the commands they would need to use before taking him back to Toronto with them for good.

“It was like boot camp for us,” Leanne said.

Orion arrived in the Valley with Domi for training camp in August but went to stay in California until Domi solidified a roster spot on the team.

He went back there while Domi and the Coyotes were on a recent nine-day road trip on the East Coast, and the plan is for Orion to have a dog-sitter to let him out of his crate and run around for a few hours on days when Domi has practices and home games.

“His happy place is when he’s working,” Domi said.

When they’re grocery shopping at Fry’s, walking around the Scottsdale Quarter or eating at Kale & Clover Mindful Kitchen, Orion wears a vest with a badge that identifies him as a service dog.

Strangers will stop to compliment his cuteness, but they’re not allowed to pet him.

“He works for love,” said Domi, who anticipates having a service dog for the rest of his life. “So if he’s getting attention from anyone else, then it’s going to take his attention off me and he doesn’t do his job nearly as good.”

But Domi is eager to share the impact Orion has had on his life and the belief that a diagnosis like type 1 diabetes shouldn’t squash dreams.

Domi appears on TV commercials in Canada, a face of Bayer’s diabetes-care campaign. With every video share online, Bayer makes a $1 donation to diabetes research. Even actor Mark Wahlberg, – family friend of the Domis, posted the link on social media.

Domi was recognized by his former junior league for his leadership and work in the community, particularly his efforts to bring awareness to diabetes, with the Ontario Hockey League’s Mickey Renaud Captain’s Trophy.

“He’s an inspiration to everyone around him,” Leanne said.

During the last few months of his junior career in London, Domi would chat with children and families affected by diabetes after home games.

Domi would sign insulin pumps, answer questions — even ones not related to diabetes, like “What’s your favorite dinosaur?” — and, most of all, provide encouragement.

Not long after he was diagnosed, Domi had a similar encounter with Bobby Clarke, a type 1 diabetic who played 15 years in the NHL and captained two Stanley Cup winners with the Philadelphia Flyers. Clarke is the one who inspired Domi to change his jersey number from 13 to Clarke’s 16.

Domi’s already been asked by some Coyotes personnel if he’d be open to being a resource for local diabetics in the Valley, and his answer was, “I’ll do absolutely anything.”

He'll be a guest speaker at the American Diabetes Association's School Walk for Diabetes kickoff event Monday at Western Sky Middle School in Goodyear.

“It’s not just about being diabetic,” Leanne said. “It’s about going after what you want and not letting things stop you because that message can apply to all of us, not just diabetics.”

For Domi, that ambition is being in the NHL and in only three weeks of action, he’s thrived — ranking among the leading scorers for rookies.

Years of practice, unwavering commitment and probably some natural talent have elevated him to that level.

But the steps he takes off the ice to ensure his health is OK, like the addition of Orion, can only help keep him there.

“You try to have as many tools in your toolbox as possible,” Domi said. “If this is going to make me even healthier, why not? Obviously, the lifestyle I’m trying to live is not easy and not comparable to other diabetics, so I’m trying to do as much as I possibly can to make that not a factor.”

A day in the life of Domi

Domiis not only adjusting to life in the National Hockey League.

He’s also adapting to living with a diabetic-alert dog who will notify Domi when his blood-sugar level is out of his normal range.

For Domi, a stable zone is from 4.7 to 8. His glucometer measures in the Canadian and international standard, which is expressed in millimoles per liter. In the U.S., levels are read in milligrams per deciliter. Domi’s range in U.S. metrics is 85 to 145.

Watching a scary movie, having an adrenaline spike before an important game and even exercising can fluctuate his blood-sugar level.

If he drinks a Gatorade without giving himself insulin, his level could jump to 15 from 8 in only 15 minutes.

Conversely, two or three hard shifts on the ice could drop him from 8 to 3.

In the short term, low blood sugar is more dangerous and could cause a lack of consciousness. But over time, extremely high levels can have even more adverse effects on organ function.

On a game day, Domi might check his blood up to 20 times, while the average diabetic might test his or her blood six times per day.

He rotates the finger he pricks, drops the blood on a strip and inserts it into a glucometer to receive a reading in five seconds.

Upon arriving at the rink in the afternoon for a game, Domi will check his level. He’ll do so again after a team meeting, before the pregame warm-up, after the warm-up and subsequently at the 10-minute mark and conclusion of each period. He’ll run another test two hours after the game and before he goes to bed.

Domi has a sip of Gatorade on the bench after every shift.

If his blood sugar is starting to get low, he’ll take Gatorade Energy Chews or eat a protein bar.

At intermission, he’ll eat a banana or a slice of bread with peanut butter and jelly if he’s still out of range.

Reach the reporter at sarah.mclellan@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8276. Follow her at twitter.com/azc_mclellan.