Training for Seizure alert

This has to be one of the biggest questions I get.  I could be walking through the store with River, somebody reads her jacket, and then the questions start.  "How did you train your dog to alert for seizures?"  It's a big question and I can never explain it in just a few minutes.  Training comes in steps and so this makes the answer difficult to give while standing in the bread aisle of the store.  I will try to explain how we trained River for this amazing work...

In our home seizures can occur quite often so River got quite a bit of practise before starting to alert on her own.  The first thing we taught River to do was bark.  Yes, you read that correctly... we taught her to bark on command.  We then taught her the "quiet" command.  When she barked on command she was given a pat on the head and verbal praise.  When one of my daughters started a seizure, River was taught to bark and bark like crazy and was given a really special food treat while the seizure was happening.  She'd bark as Brian or I tended to the seizing child and we'd toss these special treats to her. Once things were under control we'd give the "quiet" command, followed by the rest of the bag of treats. (yes, she deserved them)

So, River learned that when Asia was seizing she'd get treats for barking.  It's quite simple actually..River could see the seizure happening, could hear the sounds a child makes while it is happening, but she could also smell a seizure.  Studies have suggested that a person gives off a pheromone before a seizure starts.  When River was only 6 months old she alerted for the first time on her own.  She started her barking pattern without a command.  At first it confused us as to why she was doing this without us asking.  At first we thought she had taken a step back in her training since she was only 6 months old.

What River had learned was to anticipate those special treats.  She knew the commands, the sounds, and the sight of a seizure...but no seizure had started yet.  She knew though, that before the "bark" command she would smell those pheromones and so she started to bark at the scent.  River was alerting for a seizure BEFORE it even happened.  Asia seized 10 minutes after she started barking.  So, to train a dog for seizure work you are actually training them to anticipate a situation.  River is such a gift and has alerted for hundreds and hundreds of seizures.  I honestly believe that if we didn't have her, we wouldn't have Asia here either.  Asia still has seizures but we are able to manage  them so much better now.  We give oral Pyridoxine when River "tells us to" and this reduces the severity of the seizure or even prevents it totally.