Seizure Alerting Dogs

They're man's best friend. Now, new research shows just how far a dog will go to support the human it loves. Dogs may have the ability to alert epileptics to oncoming seizures.

While it's never been officially studied or documented, it's been believed that dogs can alert humans when before the onset of seizures. Many of these are dogs that develop the behavior spontaneously, with no formal training. Now, a medical study in the latest issue of the journal Neurology provides evidence that not only can dogs sniff out an epileptic seizure before it occurs, but that they will also go out of their way to keep their owner safe during the seizure.

Jody Narbin has suffered from epileptic seizures every day of her life since the day she was born. Jody says her 4 year old Dalmatian Rosie protects her when a seizure is about to occur. "She will get me to a safe area. She'll get me to a wall or something to hold onto." says Jody.

The study shows that dogs can detect an oncoming epileptic seizure well before, even hours before it actually happens and alert humans to it. What exactly the dog detects is not certain. Some believe it might be a different smell. More than likely the dog detects subtle behavior differences in a person just before a seizure occurs. The study showed that the dogs would push the epileptic away from a staircase, or sit on an epileptic child to prevent him or her from standing. Dr. Steven Wolf, Director of Pediatric Epilepsy at Beth Israel Hospital in New York, says, "There have been many stories we've heard of dogs barking and waking parents up just before the child has a seizure." Jody states, "When I go into a seizure, she'll start barking."

Unlike Rosie, who was trained specifically to be seizure alerting dog, none of the dogs in the study were previously trained for assistance work. The dogs most likely to become seizure alerting dogs are female and tend to be larger. These include golden retrievers, German shepherds, akitas, collies, rottweilers and poodles. Rosie is a Dalmatian, not necessarily the best breed of seizure alerting dogs, but Jody says she's don't very well. "I think the biggest concern a family has is they feel it's a time bomb when the next seizure is going to happen." says Dr. Wolf. Dana Williams can tell you all about that.

Her 11 year old daughter Dominique has epileptic seizures. "I could see her body stiffening, her head going back and one side of her body twisting and jerking at the same time." says Dana. "It's really scary. I don't know what to expect, I don't know when they're going to happen. That's the scariest thing about it." Dr. Wolf says, "The child has to be treated like a normal child. We can't put these kids in a bubble. If this is going to allow a child to have a little bit more of a leash on life, then I think this is a great way of doing it." "I would love for something to be there to assist her and keep her out of danger." says Dana. For Jody, Rosie has been that safety net. "I don't know what I would do without her." Jody states. If you feel a seizure alerting dog is necessary, just as a Seeing Eye dog is necessary for those who are vision impaired, it's possible get a dog specifically trained like Rosie to be a seizure alerting dog through training agencies. People who get frequent seizures are the most likely to need one. But some doctors say that not every dog will develop seizure alerting ability on their own. So if you're just getting a dog hoping it might become a seizure alerting dog, the most important thing is to make sure you want the dog as a pet in the first place. The dog will most likely become a seizure alerting dog if the owner pays attention to it and loves it.

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