How to Train Your Dog to Alert for Seizures

How to Train Your Dog to Alert for Seizures
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Time icon6-48 Months
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Introduction

Every parent dreads not being able to help when their child is in grave danger. For moms and dads of kids with epilepsy, this fear is something that they have to live with day in and day out. Even letting their son or daughter play in the backyard can stir up feelings of anxiety.

A seizure assistance dogs can take the worry out of everyday life if your family is affected by epilepsy. Our canine friends are much more than just cute, furry faces. You can buy a pre-trained pooch (for a fairly hefty sum) or you can embark on teaching a dog how to properly react to a seizure.

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Defining Tasks

A dog's nose is so much better at smelling than a human's. They can actually tell when a seizure is about to happen by the scent of the chemicals released inside the victim. Once a pup has seen a seizure take place, they can be trained to soften the fall of the person, or to go alert another human by barking.

Many canines will respond or alert to a seizure without any training at all, however properly teaching a dog what to do greatly increases how effective they will be for the task. Buying a dog who is already trained can cost up to $20,000, giving you some more motivation to try some teaching yourself. The process can take anywhere from 6 months up to 2 years, and works best if your pooch is exposed to someone who has at least three episodes a month.

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Getting Started

To help kickstart your training process, there are some things you're going to need. These include:

  • The Right Dog: Certain breeds do better at this kind of thing than others. Beyond that, each dog's individual personality also impacts on whether they would make a good service dog or not.
  • Professional Help: Whether you work with an organization or you hire a trainer with experience dealing with epilepsy assistance, you're going to want to work with someone who knows what they're doing. The way that your dog responds could really be life or death for the person involved.
  • Treats: As with any type of conditioning, treats will be your new best friend. Try to find a large bag of small treats for the most effective use.

Remember, teaching your dog to alert while someone is having a seizure is not a small feat. It's going to take a lot of time and determination for this training to be complete.

Below are some methods that will help you on your way to shaping an amazing service animal.

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The Stay Close Method

Most Recommended

4 Votes

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Most Recommended

4 Votes

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Stay Close method for How to Train Your Dog to Alert for Seizures
1

Grab the treats

Make sure you have the bag of treats with you at all times that your dog is near the seizure patient.

2

Reward clinginess

Toss over some treats and praise your good pup whenever he gets up close to this person.

3

Do this a lot

Constantly encourage your doggo to be by the victim's side so that he starts to pick up in all of their little subtleties.

4

Ensure he sees a seizure

Always have the dog around, so that he can witness a real seizure.

5

Repeat!

After the first seizure, continue to praise him for all contact. Once he has been through several seizures with the person, he should recognize what's about to happen and alert you in some way.

The Positive Reinforcement Method

Effective

5 Votes

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Effective

5 Votes

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Positive Reinforcement method for How to Train Your Dog to Alert for Seizures
1

Have the dog around

Once again, you need to make sure that your pooch sees as many seizures as possible during training.

2

Make the seizure "fun"

It sounds backwards, but if you want your dog to be as alert as possible to a seizure, you need to help them anticipate the event.

3

Use treats and praise

As soon as your pup shows that they know a seizure is coming, try to make it a big deal and give them tons of praise.

4

Keep doing this

For the training to be effective, you're likely going to have to work at it for months on end.

5

Maximize exposure

The more seizures that your dog experiences and that you have a chance to reward, the more deeply ingrained the reaction will be.

The Watch Her Method

Least Recommended

2 Votes

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2 Votes

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Watch Her method for How to Train Your Dog to Alert for Seizures
1

Let your dog see a seizure

Have your pupper be there during an entire seizure. The closer the better (while still keeping her safe).

2

Do it again

Try to keep your dog close to the person prone to seizures so that she witnesses a few more.

3

Watch her

After she's seen enough to understand what follows those initial warning signs, watch her closely at the beginning of the next seizure.

4

Learn her signal

At first, it might be something as little as a nudge, but most likely she will exhibit some behavior when she suspects a seizure is imminent.

5

Work to make it obvious

Once you know her warning sign, reward the behavior and work to make it more noticeable. You could teach her to speak each time she shows her signal, until she learns to bark at the beginning of the episode.

Written by Amy Caldwell

Veterinary reviewed by:

Published: 10/11/2017, edited: 01/08/2021

Training Questions

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Training Questions and Answers

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Rookie

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pitbull

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Eleven Months

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How can I train my pitbull to be a service dog for seizures

Oct. 31, 2023

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Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer

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1128 Dog owners recommended

Hello, Some seizures cause chemical changes in the body before the seizure is evident, and some don't cause chemical changes until the seizure is evident. What a dog can be trained to do partially depends on whether something happens in your body before the seizure is evident, allowing pup to smell or notice oncoming changes ahead of time. If the seizure changes your chemistry before its evident, many dogs can be taught to alert before a seizure has begun. If your chemistry doesn't change until after the seizure is evident, then the dog can only be taught to alert other people that one is actively happening to you or provide that person with support during one. Training a dog to alert before one is evident when the person's body chemistry changes, is often done by taking saliva samples right after a seizure and teaching pup to perform an alert like barking whenever they smell a saliva sample taken after a seizure opposed to the normal daily saliva samples pup is taught not to alert to. If your body chemistry doesn't change ahead of time, or if you want to train pup to also alert when one is actively happening - like to get help, then you can either teach pup to alert with a saliva scent sample or by acting out a seizure. Pup is taught an alert on cue, like Barking when you say speak, or nudging when you say "touch". Then you act out the seizure while saying "Speak", and practice it until pup will bark before you say Speak, when you just pretend to have the seizure, so the acting itself becomes the cue. You will also want to practice this on leash and teach pup how close they should or shouldn't get to the person. For scent detection, pup is taught an alert on cue like Speak, then pup is given that command when they sniff the seizure saliva sample, rewarding pup with a treat whenever they do it correctly, practicing until pup will Speak automatically when they sniff the sample before you say Speak. There is a lot of practice then that takes place, helping pup be able to do it reliably and only when the sample or situation mimics a seizure, and not at other times. This includes planting the sample on the person, like in a pocket, practicing at random times and in various locations, and generally changing the distraction level and variables until pup is reliable no matter what's going on. To become a service dog who could be with you in public also, pup would also need to practice their manners, socialization and general obedience to a high enough level that they would be allowed public access too. A dog can only pass the public access portion if they are reliable in obedience, calm, do not cause dangers or disturbances while with you, so public access training can actually take longer than the task portion of service dog training and is best started as soon as possible. A canine Good citizen class and intermediate obedience class can be good places to start on those skills. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Nov. 29, 2023

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Sparrow

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Collie

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One Year

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Hello, So I have grand mal seizures, petite mal seizures and focal onset aware seizure. All of which are controlled by medication. But in about two years I will be going to college and living independently on my own. Although my seizures are fairly well controlled (I have maybe 1 or 2 a year) I'm partially concerned that I may have a breakthrough seizure when no one is around to help me. Should I train my dog to become a service dog?

July 25, 2023

Sparrow's Owner

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Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer

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1128 Dog owners recommended

Hello, It can be very beneficial to have a service dog to help you; however, a service dog is a large time and energy commitment. In order to have your dog be truly helpful, the dog would need to accompany you most places since you don't know when a seizure would happen. If this was me I would base my decision on my own willingness and ability to train my dog or pay someone else too, how I felt about managing a dog in public constantly (it will come with a lot of both positive and negative attention, which can be stressful), and the individual dog and whether they are a good candidate temperamentally, scenting ability wise, adaptability/calmness/confidence wise, and handler focus/how interested in working with you and focused on you they are without being possessive. If your dog is the type of dog you could take anywhere and they would be fine around pretty much anyone including other animals, if they are interested in you and like working with you and listen, and if they seem to have a good nose, it could be worth taking them through the public access training and task training needed. If traits that are inherit like temperament and confidence aren't present, I wouldn't attempt the training with this particular dog. Also, since your seizures are thankfully infrequent, that also means you won't have scent samples to train pup with, making their alerts less reliable for a while. You would instead need to act out your seizures, which can be done with many seizures where your body language changes distinctly. You would need to know from others what you tend to do while having a seizure, whether it expresses in similar consistent ways each time (like staring into space, convulsing, twitching, ect...), and whether it's a detectible enough change in your body language for you to be able to act out in a way that your dog will notice the difference in your normal body language and you acting that out. I would answer the above questions and weight those answers against your need for a service dog to help you decide if it would be worth it in your specific case. I would also consider what you would want to specifically teach the dog that could directly help you - some dogs can alert before a seizure happens, but that's only with specific people's brain chemistry and whether their body chemistry changes in smell before symptoms are evident right before a seizure, and not with all seizure cases. Other dogs are taught to go get help or provide pressure during the seizure, or possibly to even calm a person down when the dog detects anxiety or fear to prevent the onset of a seizure if the seizure is trauma or stress induced for that person. Consider what tasks you would want to teach your dog to benefit you specifically. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Aug. 3, 2023


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