Man’s best friend continues to inspire and amaze. As if their companionship and capacity for unconditional love weren’t enough to endear them to us, their intelligence and loyalty can come into play in literally saving our lives.
Last month, Tonic brought a story of some remarkable retrievers whose sense of smell provides their diabetes-inflicted keepers with an alert signal letting them know if their blood sugar has strayed off course. And from the UK’s The Telegraph comes word of another crop of remarkable pooches, trained to predict the imminent arrival of an epileptic seizure before one occurs. This warning gives the individual adequate notice and enough time to find a safe place to sit or lie, minimizing the risk of fall-related injury.
As The Telegraph points out, it’s not certain precisely how these dogs that are trained to provide this highly specialized and invaluable service can do what they do. These seizure alert dogs have a finely-tuned sense of smell that can pick up a biochemical change that precedes a seizure; have an ability to pick up cues in gesture or expression; and detect very subtle shifts in the central nervous system’s electrical field that foretell an imminent seizure.
Interestingly, the dogs that make the best candidates for being trained for this duty might otherwise be difficult to find permanent homes for. The Telegraph features 3-year old Eddie the terrier mix whose rambunctiousness was too much for his previous owners to handle, prompting them to surrender him to a local Sheffield shelter.
But according to Katie Burns, the Sheffield Support Dogs trainer who works with these animals until they’re ready to be matched with a person in need, this heightened level of energy and vigilance positions them to make ideal candidates for seizure alert training.
Photo by outlier dogs via Flickr.