What Are Seizure Alert Dogs?
They're companions. They're an alarm system. They're helpers, protectors, and service providers. They may even be able to sense in advance when someone they're close to is going to have an epileptic seizure. So-called seizure dogs can be all these things - and more. The dogs are trained to give their owners a significant signal many minutes prior to a seizure. Seizure Alert Dogs need to be trained with the person with epilepsy as they have to respond to that individual's specific type of seizure activity.
Seizure Response/ Alert Dogs are trained one or more of several appropriate response skills. These include: Vocal Alert, Physical Contact Alert, Activation of an Emergency Medical Dept., Vocal or Physical Alert of Others. Stabilization skills, and backpacking are also quite common jobs for these working dogs.
The main function is for the dog to react to a seizure event very early in its onset, that the human counterpart may have warning of impending seizure events. No-one knows how the dogs can tell, but many scientists believe that the dogs sense or smell a change in body chemistry in the person before the seizure occurs. When given accurate warning that a seizure will occur, a person can get to safety (a place where they can't hurt themselves during the seizure) and be more prepared when it comes. Seizure Alert Dogs are especially helpful for people who have drop seizures, which occur without warning and often cause injury.
In a report in the European Journal of Epilepsy Seizure stated that dogs were trained to detect their owners seizures. Sometime the trained dogs were able to give warnings as much as 15 to 45 minutes before the actual seizure occurred. The accuracy of the trained dogs has been reported to be 80%. A seizure dog can not only protect an epileptic from possible injury, but it has been noted that they also seem to be able to help children deal with their daily struggle of living with epilepsy.
It should be noted that there are different types of seizure dogs. Some dogs are trained as seizure-alert dogs, which will assist before a seizure occurs. Other dogs are trained as seizure-response or assist dogs. It is the seizure-response dog that can be trained to retrieve medicines, carry phones to their owners and keep the affected person immobile during a seizure. Not all seizure-response dogs will alert the person prior to the seizure.
How Can I Apply
To Have A Seizure Alert Dog?
There are many organizations and sites you can look into that will not only help into applying for a seizure alert dog, but will train you. It is necessary for an individual to have regular seizures and have no changes to drug therapy during the training period.
Where Can I Apply
To Have A Seizure Alert Dog?
The sites listed below are non profit organizations helping to improve the lives of those with disabilities (such as epilepsy).
Seizure/Assistant Dog Groups
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