Abbey Karnes took to TikTok to showcase how helpful her service dog can be in times of need. Karnes, who is diabetic, explained in the video that her blood sugar got a little low so she asked Darby to retrieve a juice. Being the pro she is, Darby quickly did as requested — just as she’d been trained.
Once Darby brought Karnes a juice, the high of achievement must’ve kicked in because she then returned to the kitchen to grab another juice. Karnes offered much praise so Darby went through the motions again.
“Darby is trying to get some extra credit [cry-laughing face emoji] #servicedog #diabeticalertdog #alertdogdarby #lowbloodsugar #t1d,” Karnes captioned the video.
Though Darby was trained to do this very thing, it’s unclear if she brought more juice in hopes Karnes’ blood sugar would stabilize, or if she wanted something more. Karnes had a theory.
“She wanted to see if she could get more treats by giving me more juices,” Karnes commented in the video in response to a viewer.
In the end, Darby retrieved five juice bottles. Karnes told her she was OK — that she didn’t need anymore — and finally, Darby seemed to believe her. The loyal companion stayed right by Karnes’ side thereafter. So far, the video has amassed over 1 million views and thousands of comments.
Service dogs can be trained to do a wide variety of tasks. They’re not only trained to be sensitive to seizures, vision and hearing, but they remind owners to take medication, assist with panic attacks, open doors, sense allergens, pull wheelchairs, and yes — sense spikes and drops in blood sugar.
According to Project ROVER’s Survey of Assistance Dog Providers, nearly half of those who train service dogs stated that 80% or more of the dogs completed service dog training to become someone’s helpful companion like Darby.
After witnessing Darby at work, commenters weighed in on the adorable video.
“Darby be like: No mother, you don’t understand. More juice,” hampman116 said.
“Darby like ma’am I’m the professional here. more juice,” night_blitz wrote.
“Somehow she both understood and misunderstood the assignment,” asexualmemes commented.
“Hello? Customer Service? My dog is stuck on repeat,” someteafortwo said.
“legends say that Darby is still adding juices to the pile where her human was crushed under the weight of 1000 juices,” cruiseshipchouji added.
In another of Karnes’ videos Darby sensed Karnes’ high blood sugar and walked into the room to alert [Karnes]. In another clip with nearly 1 million views, Darby rushed past another dog to get her owner a juice ASAP. And finally, in another video, Karnes put together a string of times Darby saved her life, just as she was trained.
