Epilepsy Dogs

Epilepsy Dogs

Alert dogs for Epilepsy patients provide security to their special needs’ owners.The main role of the dogs for the Epilepsy patients:

1. To alert several minutes before the epileptic seizure
2. To alert during the epileptic seizure and pressing the distress button
3. Prevent the patient from falling before and during an epileptic seizure.
4. To stay with the patient in case of an emergency.
5. To safely walk the patient outside his home and assist navigation after an epileptic seizure (obstacles etc.).

The matching process of an alert dog to an epileptic patient is in the following steps:

Reception Committee (Characterization of the patient – by a multidisciplinary team)
Expose the patient to number of dogs to assess his/her fitness level, limitations and
the relation to the dog.
Select the right dog to the specific patient: breed, sex etc
Beginning of the overall training (behavior, basic training, advanced training)
Patient escort after training complete.

There are 3 main tracks for training an alert dog for Epilepsy patient:

1. Basic training is given to the alert dog at a foster family. During this period, the patient
will meet his dog for joint training.
2. Training alert dog at the patient’ home (when the puppy reaches the age of 7 weeks).
3. full training   After this part of training is complete,
the dog moves to the patient to continue the process.
Training alert dogs for epilepsy patient will consider several criteria:
Health condition, physical condition, age, communication ability and lifestyle of the patient.