The Times 30/3/02

Demand for dogs that aid epileptics

Dogs which can warn epileptics when a fit is coming have risen in popularity in America, and Florida is now set to change its laws to allow the dogs into restaurants.

Scientists are still not clear exactly how some dogs detect seizures, but think they may be responding to changes in the brain activity or body odour of people about to have one.

Canine Assistance, a charity in Georgia which trains the dogs, said that it expected to place ten golden and labrador retrievers with local epileptic owners this year, after placing only seventeen in the past seven years. The agency has a waiting list for 60 dogs.

Connie Standley, who suffers from epilepsy, said that her dog, Alex, can anticipate seizures 80 per cent of the time. She described how Alex, an 80lb black Bouvier des Flandres, will warn her by tugging at her clothes, barking and even jumping on her until she gets the message.

Ms Standley said that Alex usually picks up the seizure about 30 minutes before it happens. He then tries to protect her until it passes. Like other emergency dogs for the blind, he is trained to retrieve medicines, carry a phone to his owner and keep her still during a seizure. Alex's brother, Nathaniel, can also sense seizures.

Some doctors question whether dogs really can anticipate epileptic attacks. "I kind of have mixed feelings," Chuck Carmen, executive of the Epilepsy Association of Central Florida told the New York Times.

"I'm concerned that an average person hears seizure dogs and thinks they can go to the pound and get one that will sense their seizures. It will step out in the traffic to keep you out of harm's way; it will keep you from falling down the stairs; but it will not predict a seizure."

But a research study of dogs and owners by the University of Florida concluded that some dogs do indeed detect seizures. However, the study found no proof that dogs could be trained to detect seizures, suggesting that it could be an innate ability.