Hello everyone,

Just wondered if anybody knows much about dogs to help people with epilepsy? Has anyone worked out how they can tell a seizure will happen? Also what is the selection/training process for these dogs? I don't have epilepsy but I know a couple of people who do.

Thanks.

I believe it is support dogs who train for this - details are on their website.

My Labrador learned to predict my GSD's seizures. The vet suggested it and when Lacey had seizures we would praise and reward Vanessa and in time - she alerted us when teh seizures started and later on was able to give us several minutes warning which was very very useful indeed.

Dogs are trained for a minimum of 170 hours. Initial training includes general socialisation in a variety of situations and environments, also working with the dog in the home. Advanced training includes intensive residential training at the Charity's Training Centre in Sheffield. Specific seizure alert® work is followed by a final assessment. The dogs are then given Seizure Alert® status.
To be considered, an individual must:
Have a confirmed diagnosis of epilepsy;
Have at least 4 major seizures per month;
Have no changes to drug therapy or treatment during the training period.
The dogs mean that those with uncontrolled epilepsy who get no warning of an imminenet seizure can be alerted and get safe. The dogs give epileptics a chance to have the confidence and independance to go out and about.
I have a labrador who is my own, had her since she was 7 wks old and she is 9 yrs old. I am really lucky as I have epilepsy and she will warn me. I was diagnosed with epilepsy after a fall 3 yrs ago and your confidence hits rock bottom and with no warning signs life can be very dangerous. With my dog I can go out and about and my confidence is starting to get better.
Whenever I have another litter I will be donating a dog to be trained and hopefully qualify as a seizure dog so that someone else with epilepsy can have the freedom they need by having a great dog by their side.

They are trained so that everytime the owner has a fit they are given the best reward for that dog. Be it a toy, or food. The dog therefore associates the fit with the huge reward. The dog then as in clicker training starts to see why they are getting the treat and therefore pick up on the small indicators that a fit will occur. The dogs are trained then to put a novel behaviour to the owner as soon as they see the indicator happen. At first the indicator may be a second before the fit happens. Once the dog is giving the behaviour at that point the dog start to anticipate earlier and earlier. The dogs can give up to 1hr, before the fit occurs, notice in the form of a specific behaviour so that the epileptic can get to somewhere safe to have the fit.

The dogs have to be very people orientated as it is required for them to really notice the tiny indicators that a person gives before their fit - it could be as small as a slight movement of their thumb that they do every time say 15 mins before and the dog then associates this behaviour with the big treat.

I am not sure how much sense that makes. I am not very good at explaining in righting but if you don't understand please ask.

I don't know anything about requirements of getting a sezure dog.

Hope this helps

I'm insulin dependant diabetic, when one of my girls had a litter last year I was sleeping on the settee, children asleep upstairs in bed, my OH in work.  My dogs started barking their heads off at 2.30am, worried my neighbour so much he called the police as he knows I wouldn't let them bark especially at night.  The police managed to wake our children, who found me having a hypo on the settee.  Now had they not barked I don't think I would be here now as my OH didn't finish work till 7am.

My dogs were 2 rooms away, so I don't know if they picked up on a scent or what, but they were all totally spoilt next day, dogs are just amazing creatures and I wouldn't be without them.

my dogs only see my nephew a couple of times a year  they live opposite end of the country from me and he has seziures can be quite violent ones, now my red and white collie every time he seems him follows him all over the place from chris being little, well we started to see a pattern of when chris was having a seziure billy would just lay down beside him and put his head across chris and just lie there not moving until he was comming out of it but we started to notice that billy was rounding him up now billy maybe a collie but he has no herding instincts what soever at all nothing, but we noticed that about 15 maybe 20 mins before chris has a seziure billy would go around him and nudge him and not let him walk far lean up against him and try and stop him walking to where ever he was going, and then a seziure would start shortly after it took us quite a few visits to realise what was happening, chris came to stop with me for about 4 days his mum and dad had a funeral to attend to, and he could have up to 14 seziures a day little ones big ones they where worried sick about leaving him, but i assured them that billy would let me know when he was having one and we would lie on the sofa  together and for those 4 days he never let me down and chris knew what billy was doing and would go to the sofa and lie with billy till it passed chris has not had a seziure now for 3 years and he still loves billy to bits and the feeling is mutual, when he comes to our house they both disepear  into the garden or the shed or upstairs to play, and billy has never in the last 3 years gone back to herding him.
the thing that gets me none of the other dogs ever bothered with chris or showed any interest in him at all
carolann

Just goes to show how amazing dogs are!  I wish we could see more stories like this in the press rather than the ones that are dominating the papers just now! 

give all those special dogs a big hug!

Does that mean that you get support dogs for diabetics too? I'd heard of a cat that woke up its owner when his blood sugar went down by licking his face (the man was asleep and obviously wasn't too far gone that he couldn't wake up). Are there any other illnesses dogs can be used to help with (apart from guide dogs and hearing dogs)?

Isn't it wonderful! I still remember when I went to pick Henry I was torn between him and another one, but Henry picked me out by sitting in my lap! Now the other one went to a lady with a child who had never in 9 years or something been able to sleep alone because she had so many seizures - and apparently this Cavalier became sensitive to it and started warning them when the child was about to have one. So now I understand she is able to sleep in her own room and do so much more. Just think if we'd had each other's dogs - a seizure sensitive dog would be no use to me thank goodness, and my show winning boy would I think be unlikely to be of any use in that way to them!