Journey to Jedi

Our Journey to Jedi

This is the beginning, the very beginning of our journey to get a service dog for our 7 year old daughter Sienna.  Sienna has Pyridoxine Dependency (a rare seizure disorder), Autism, OCD, Pica, Celiac Disease, and an anxiety disorder.  Sienna is one of 6 kids in our family.  She is the 2nd youngest.

 

Our story is unique because we are training our own seizure/autism response dog.  We've done it before for our oldest daughter, Asia, who is now 15 and suffers from Pyridoxine Dependency as well.  Asia's dog, named River is still working and is amazing.  She is able to detect seizures almost 24 hours before they happen.  She can also detect migraines.  Now, you can train a dog to do seizure response work but alerting before the seizure is not something you can train them for  You either get lucky or you don't.  We got lucky with River. We were blessed to find a dog who can actually alert before the seizure hits.  Nobody know for sure how the dog can do this, but it is possible that the dog senses a pheromone that the body gives off as part of an aura. 

We are going to start training a puppy for Sienna very soon.  Our hope is that this dog will be able to help not only with the seizures but also the autism that makes things hard for Sienna each and every day.  The dog will be trained to help calm Sienna when she is having a melt-down, prevent bolting (which she does out of fear), help with social skills, and even more.  The seizure response work will include many skills including alerting that a seizure is actually in progress, comfort during and after the seizure.  Hopefully, like her distant cousin (River) she/he will be able to detect seizures before they happen. 

We have found a wonderful breeder who is willing to work with us and our new addition with be either a Black or Yellow lab.  The litter of puppies is due very soon and we are keeping our fingers crossed that one of the pups in the one for us.  

The name...oh yes, we have chosen the name "Jedi" for this new little one.  Jedi will be doing Jedi Training so he/she can use the force. Only Star Wars fans will get that one. :O)  Our house is full of Star Wars Fans and the name Jedi really works for our family.  So, this blog will be about our journey.  Obtaining, Training, and working with this special dog.  Thanks for joining us.

Samantha