Seizure Service Dogs
What is a seizure dog?
A seizure dog is a dog that is trained to respond to a person having a seizure or that has been trained (or has learned), to respond to or warn of an impending seizure in someone who has epilepsy or other seizure causing illnesses.
What does a seizure dog do?
A response dog might be trained to alert when a child has a seizure so that the family members know what is happening, or might lie next to someone having a seizure to keep them from harm, or might even been trained to activate some kind of pre-programmed device such as a pedal that rings an alarm.
A seizure alert dog can alert it's handler before the onset of a seizure. These dogs can be taught specific alerts to do when they detect an oncoming seizure. Barking is NOT an acceptable alert for a service dog.
Can any dog do this?
As long as a dog has the correct temperament and suitability to become a service dog, they can probably be trained to respond in a certain way during or after someone has a seizure. We do not look for specific breeds to do this job, we look for correct temperament and ability to do the job. The dogs we use are usually Labrador Retrievers because we work with specific breeders that have worked with us and know the temperament and other attributes we are looking for. Not all dogs are capable of becoming service dogs. The task of choosing which dogs can do this and other types of service dog work, should be left up to a professional trainer that knows how to test a dog correctly.
How do I know which kind of dog I need?
Most people need a response dog. Getting a dog with the special skill of recognizing seizures in advance is a more taxing and sometimes unattainable goal. This skill cannot always be taught during your training time here. We will not purposely induce a seizure to train the dog to do seizure alert work. This type of dog is not always possible in every case.
