Seizure Service Dogs

Autism Service Dogs:: Hearing Service Dogs :: Mobility Service Dogs
Multipurpose Service Dogs :: Seizure Service Dogs :: In Home Companion Dogs

Meeting the needs of children with seizures means training a dog that is unique in what they do for each child. Most agencies will not work with children, especially very young children. At 4 Paws we have no age requirement and believe fully in early intervention.

At 4 Paws we have two main categories our training falls into Seizure Assistance Dogs and Seizure Assistance Dogs with facilitated Alert Training. These are discussed below. The seizure Assistance dog provides emotional support, and physical help to a person who has a seizure disorder.

Most of the calls 4 Paws take on a daily basis, in regards to Seizure Assistance Dogs are from the parents of children who have seizures. This has led us to develop a program geared toward the placement of dogs trained to provide a level of emotional support above and beyond what could be achieved with the addition of a family pet. Children with seizures often face many medical appointments and therapy sessions, and hospitalizations. The Seizure Assistance Dog can visit them in their hospital rooms, and accompany them to medical appointments or therapy sessions.

The dog provides a measure of comfort for the child, can provide a distraction during unpleasant medical procedures, such as blood tests, and when the child has therapy, the dog can be used during the therapy session by the therapist to enlist the child's participation. While children are not mature enough to participate in the intensive training process needed for the successful placement of the Seizure Response Dog (which is what the agencies which do not place with children train), the benefits of having a dog as a companion and friend are priceless.

April 2008 Seizure Detecting Canine. WHITE COUNTY -- Amy Weasel's now 4-year-old son Bryant is one of only about 600 people in the U.S. diagnosed with a seizure disorder called Dravet. "He had his first seizure when he was 3-months-old, and from that time he's gotten worse," said Weasel. Article and accompanying video from WSIL TV.

In addition, a child with seizures may be afraid of being alone, sleeping in their own bed, and engaging in activities because they might "have a seizure." In these instances a dog can give the child a little courage while maintaining their independence. No, the child is not doing it alone, they have their four-footed buddy to share in their life win’s but that's okay; the child and their service dog are a team, what they achieve together the child achieved without the help of an adult just as their peers did.

In addition to providing emotional support in the various medical environments, the Seizure Assistance Dog can bring with them the miracles that arise with every service dog provided to children with any disability.

Sometimes the child who has extensive seizures must wear a helmet to protect from falls when playing on the playground or they may have had a seizure while playing with the neighborhood kids or during recess at school. These events could, and often do, lead to isolation as the children who lack understanding of the child’s ‘difference’ from them often avoid the child who experiences seizures.

Even children that do have friends as young children may find themselves left behind by their peers as they get older if the seizures limit their activities or result in cognitive delays.

However, there are few children that don’t like dogs and the miracles that occur when a child with disabilities enters the playground with their service dog is amazing.

The service dog breaks the ice, the children will come to pet the dog and in doing so there is an opportunity to get to know the child and understand their disability rather than avoiding them.

Seizure Assistance Dogs are true service dogs and are allowed to go everywhere the child goes as long as an adult team member is with them (someone trained to handle the dog for the child). These dogs are task trained.

December 2007. Just want to let you know how proud I am of Theo. Bryant had a bad seizure yesterday a.m. He was in his room and Theo was barking like crazy. We went into his room and found him down. We truly appreciate you and Jeremy and all the workers and volunteers for allowing our son to have a more normal life, and more independence. Theo has really paid off. He is so darn smart! Happy Holidays.

All Seizure Service Dogs at 4 Paws are trained in behavior disruption which is a skill started in our Autism Program. With behavior disruption the parents have commands to send the dog in to interact with the child. Seizure medications often cause behavioral issues and this skill is a great means of helping your child work though them.

In addition, some seizure medications cause issues with balance and the dogs are trained, if needed, to help the child during these times by walking beside them with a harness they can hold to help stabilize themselves. During the interview and acceptance phase other tasks that may benefit the child may also be identified and trained.

The seizure Support Assistance Dog we train for kids is not trained to respond to seizure activity in the traditional sense. They are not trained to call on the phone for help when they see the seizure or to keep the partner from getting up after a seizure as young children can’t participate in the training to the degree needed to place a dog like this successfully.

During the training and placement process the 4 Paws trainer will instruct the parents in ways they can behave and work with the dog to try and elicit a responsive behavior from the dog, however, there is no guarantee that this would ever occur.

Some of our parents have reported that their child has fewer seizures since the dog entered their home. This is believed to be the result of a reduction in the stress level the child has through the comfort they find in their new companions. Other parents have reported that the dog becomes stressed, wines, or barks when their child has seizures; not something we trained the dog to do, but a response the dog makes on their own.

Unfortunately, there is no way to predict which dogs would be more likely to develop this behavior; some dogs are just emotionally upset by the seizure or have picked up on the parents emotions during previous seizures and are responding to that.

Seizure Assistance Dogs With Facilitated Alert Training

Some people refer to dogs assisting during seizures as seizure alert dogs. In other words, they are saying that the dog actually sense when a seizure is about to occur and warn the person of the oncoming seizure. It is believed that the dogs are able to smell chemical changes in the body several minutes before the seizure occurs. Often the dog will develop a behavioral pattern that the owner recognizes, as alerting to a seizure is going to occur. The person can then put themselves in a safe position before the seizure starts.

Some seizures cause the person to loose consciousness immediately and if they are standing up they will fall to the ground; once alerted the person can lie down so that they are not injured during the seizure. Many believe that this behavior can not be trained and to a degree at this time they are correct. It is difficult to work with the scent from the seizure as the challenge is harvesting it.

In addition, not all dogs seem to have the ability to alert seizures. Some dogs do it with no training at all and some can be around daily seizures and never develop any behavior in response to it at all. It is hard to determine which dogs might respond and which may not.

Two-year-old Bryant with his 4 Paws Seizure Assistance Dog, Theo

Seizure alerting behavior is a naturally occurring behavior in some dogs. One way to explain how this works, is to discuss housebreaking. When a new puppy is brought home, you can't say to the puppy, "When you have to go outside, run in a circle three times so that I will know you need to go." What we do, is to watch the puppy closely, after a period of time the person will learn to "read" the dogs nonverbal behavior indicating the need to go outside. For instance, the owner begins to notice that every time the puppy runs in circles, they then proceed to "Go potty."

Eventually, the owner will let the puppy outside immediately after observing this behavior and no further accidents occur in the home. This is the same principle as understanding how dogs alert to seizures. If the dog is able to make the connection between the chemical changes he senses and the occurrence of seizures, he may begin to act in a certain way when these changes begin. For example they may come and stare at the owner, or they may begin barking and/or even nipping at their owner. Eventually the person realizes that every time their dog barks madly and nips at them they have a seizure and they will begin to prepare themselves for the seizure before it actually begins.

The one thing scientists have been able to come to an agreement on is that the dog smells a chemical body change on the person just prior to and during a seizure. We have developed a program here at 4 Paws to work with some children who have very frequent, obvious seizures. We have seen some great success with this training and have noticed that more dogs begin to alert the seizures with the training than without.

Without going into training details we are able to do the training if the child has frequent seizures. For us frequent means 3-4 a month on a regular basis. We work with the dog here to facilitate a natural response after the dog is placed. While it still does not guarantee the response it greatly increases it if used in conjunction with a skill trained as a part of the behavior disruption in which the dog is trained to interact with the child in a specific manner on parent command.

Two-year-old Aiden with his 4 Paws Seizure Support Dog, Cody. Cody is a great support to Aiden before, during, and after a seizure, says Aiden's mother. Before a seizure Cody's behavior is often anxious, he'll pace around Aiden or nearby adults. During a seizure Cody smells Aiden's head and then will lie next to him. Cody continues to lay with Aiden until he stops seizing and while Aiden sleeps post seizure. 4 Paws has done a wonderful job placing Cody with our family and we could not be happier. Thank You!

Note: There are many service dog programs which work with teens and adults in the placement of Seizure Assistance Dogs but very few which work with children and we are the only agency we know of which has no age requirement at all. We feel early intervention is important and that very young children who have seizures and/or are medically frail will benefit greatly from the use of a service dog. Because of this we do not accept applications from adults or older teens which are able to handle the dogs independently and have no other issues except for their seizures. (We will work with these age groups if there is also a disability which affects their ability to function independently and as such are not without supervision at all times. For example someone who also has moderate Autism and as such could never go out to a store without a typically functioning adult supervising and assisting them.)

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