Blog #105: TRAINING SEIZURE DOGS

      The Epilepsy Foundation visited trainers and staff of Canine Partners for Life, Cochranville, Pennsylvania. This is what they learned about training these amazing seizure-alert dogs:

• Certified seizure-dog trainers do not require a specific educational degree. However, some states require licensure and others have voluntary certification programs for the dogs. Other states have accredited college and community college programs to train service dogs for various disabilities. 

•  Seizure-dog resources can be found on line: www.epilepsy.com/learn/seizure-first-aid-and-safety/seizure-dogs/perspective-training-seizure-dogs

•  Seizure-dogs are trained to help or to alert for help when their human partner is having a seizure. Some animals can even predict a seizure within minutes or an hour before it occurs and warn their handler. How dogs do this is not precisely known. Do they pick up some signal? Do they detect a smell? Can they be trained to detect an imminent seizure or are they born with that ability? Barking and licking are anecdotal tales of dogs responding to seizure-warnings, but even trainers cannot guarantee the dog will predict every seizure.

•  One facet of training can be to expose the dog to a person who has active epilepsy. That person can judge if the dog reacts in any way prior experiencing an aura or seizure. However, ambulatory EEGs running continuously in a patient with the seizure-dog nearby often show no response in the dog.

•  Dogs are trained to alert, respond and retrieve items in interacting with their human partner. While any dog can potentially be trained to become a seizure-dog, favorite breeds include Labrador and Golden Retrievers and Collies. Dogs start their training with organizations that provide seizure-dogs as puppies where they are assessed for temperament and personality. Serious specialized training begins around 14 months of age. Dogs are trained to: fetch, push buttons, open doors, turn off lights, pay a cashier and carry things. In harness they can help balance and support their handler. The dogs are placed in their partner’s home to build bonds during training and to learn what their partner needs.

•  Another useful website to acquire a seizure dog is: assistancedogsinternational.org.

•  Anyone over 11 years of age and who can communicate at least at a sixth-grade level is eligible to be partnered with a seizure dog because certain levels of maturity/ability are required. The cost of training a dog is around $26,000. Donations subsidize many dogs. The cost to the person with epilepsy ranges from free to $20,000 depending upon ability to pay. 

 

    The impact a seizure dog can have on an individual or family can be life changing. The dog can bring a sense of relief with more safety, independence, confidence and love.

Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “DINGS” is his first novel. It is a mother’s dramatic story that teaches epilepsy, now available in eBook, audiobook and soft cover editions.