Seizure Assistance/Alert Dogs

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September 11, 2008.
Pappy (Paprika), 4 Paws Seizure Alert Dog, is doing well, smelling out Jonah's seizures and alerting us.

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How does 4 Paws for Ability meet the needs of children with seizures? It means training a dog that is unique in what it does 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. 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 regard to Seizure Assistance Dogs, are from the parents of children who have seizures.

This 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.

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 that do not place with children train), the benefits of having a dog as a companion and friend are priceless.

The Seizure Service Dog can do the following:

• Provide a measure of comfort for the child
• Provide a distraction during unpleasant medical procedures, such as blood tests
• Be used during a therapy session to enlist the child's participation

In addition, children with seizures may be afraid of being alone, sleeping in their own beds, and engaging in activities because they might have a seizure. In these instances, dogs can give the children a little courage while helping them maintain their independence.

No, the children are not doing this alone, they have their four-footed buddy to share in their lives, but that's okay. The child and the service dog are a team: the child thus achieves something without the help of an adult.

In addition to providing emotional support in the various medical environments, the Seizure Assistance Dogs 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 while playing with the neighborhood kids, or during school recess.

These events could, and often do, lead to isolation. The children who lack understanding of the child's "difference" from them often avoid the child who experiences seizures. Even young children that do have friends 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 who don't like dogs, and the miracles that occur when children with disabilities enter the playgrounds with their service dogs is amazing. The service dog breaks the ice. Children will come to pet the dog, and in doing so there is an opportunity to get to know the child and understand her disability rather than avoiding her.

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.

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 Dogs 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. 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 responsive behavior from the dog, however, there is no guarantee that this will ever occur.

Some of our parents have reported that their children have fewer seizures since their dogs entered their homes. This is believed to be the result of a reduction in the stress level the children have through the comfort they find in their new companions. Other parents have reported that the dog becomes stressed, whines, or barks when their child has seizures. This is not something we trained the dog to do, but a response the dog makes on its 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 (Seizure Alert Dogs)

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 lose consciousness immediately, and-if they are standing up- they will fall to the ground. Once alerted, the person can lie down so that he is not injured during the seizure. Many believe that this behavior cannot be trained and to a degree at this time, they are correct. It is difficult to work with the scent from the seizure.

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 difficult to determine which dogs might respond and which may not.

Seizure alerting behavior is a naturally occurring behavior in some dogs. One way to explain how this works, is to discuss housebreaking. When you bring a new puppy home, you can't say to the puppy, "When you have to go outside, run in a circle three times so 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 dog's 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 owners. Eventually people who seize realize that every time their dog barks madly and nips at them they will have a seizure and they will begin to prepare themselves for the seizure before it actually starts.

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 three to four 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.

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 who are able to handle the dogs independently and have no other issues except for their seizures.

However, we will work with these age groups if there is also a disability that affects their ability to function independently and as such need supervision at all times.

For example, we will accept someone who also has moderate Autism and could never go out to a store without a typically functioning adult supervising and assisting him.

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