July 24, 2004
Having A Seizure Alert Dog
I mentioned before that I have a black lab/border collie mix that is my seizure alert dog. Her name is Little Girl and I have had her for about 14 years. She was abused when we initially got her and was pretty much afraid of everything and everybody, except for my son. Eventually though, she bonded with me too.
Here is a bit about alert dogs. They cannot be trained to alert and they have to bond with the handler, as the person they are alerting for is called. The best dogs for this task are border collies, labrador retrievers, and other non-hyper dogs. They are classed by the Americans With Disabilities Act as service animals and must be allowed anywhere any other service animal is allowed to go. Once I was given a hard time about taking her into a park where dogs were not allowed, by a ranger, until I showed him a copy of the ADA stating that she was allowed to be with me and also a letter from my doctor and a prescription written by him showing that I am required to have her with me at all times. That is another thing about having epilepsy. People tend to think there is nothing wrong with me and I get told time and time again, "But you look so normal". Oh well just another detail to cope with.
Back to Little Girl. She didn't start alerting right away. It wasn't 'til about 5 years ago that she started to alert. She will run in circles and make a kind of yapping noise, running to a person and back to me until she finds someone to follow her. If there is no one home, I will regain consciousness with her at my side and she will not leave me until I am up and moving. Then she will make sure I am laying down and resting. Little Girl lays at my side or at my feet just to be sure I am OK. When someone gets home, she runs to them and tugs at their pant leg, bringing them to where I am at. I am pretty lucky to have a dog like her. Every person with Epilepsy should have a seizure alert dog.
Posted by Rose S. on July 24, 2004 9:43 AM
where do you get a seizure alert dog from???
Posted by: nicki at August 21, 2007 10:12 AM