The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Hey everyone I wanted to tell you about my cousins seizure alert dog Cooper. Both of my cousins have a disease called Mitochondrial disease and the way it affects them is that they have seizures. After having a brain surgery to remove a tumor, Cooper starting alerting to Mika and Jaden's(my cousins) seizures. he also alerts to other things. He can alert Jaden when she is going to have a migraine and he alerted me to some cysts i had. He is such an amazing dog.

This next dog is my wonderful Freckles and this is a big reveal for me because usually i try to hide it, but I have OCD, only its not the type most people are used to hearing about like cleaning. I get panic attacks over nothing and will try to hurt myself or pull my hair out. When I got Freckles I noticed at times she would come up and make me play with her ears. Mika and Jaden's mom came over and saw this and said "Katie she is alerting to something" then I realized whenever my OCD would kick in she would distract me so I wouldn't be freaking out or hurting myself. So now I am going through the steps to train her to be a service dog.

These dogs are really amazing and they help so much. My husband always joked that Freckles needs a job to help pay for vet/food bills and she does and she does not get paid enough lol

That is terrific! Actually I did know a dog that saved his owner's life by alerting him that he was in the early stages of a coronary. He was on the phone with his wife and the dog started acting oddly. As he was telling his wife what the dog was doing he said "Gee - I'm really sweating" (on a not too hot day). His wife said I'm sending an ambulance and before he asked for what he had hit the floor. The promptness of services is what saved him.

Perfect example Mika just had a seizure that supposedly she is not supposed to have since her brain surgery and Cooper alerted to it and probably saved her some broken bones

That's great (at least the dog part of it! ). I hope Mika is doing okay. I work with the developmentally disabled and we have lots of seizure clients. Dogs like that are a God's send. One of our clients as an assist dog and I am consyantly amazed how the dog picks up stuff, turns lights on and off, opens and shuts drawers, etc.

Star is a seizure alert dog. All my cockers have been and it is a god send to have them. I do have to say that it throws many people off because they think that a service dog should be a lab or such and Star's beauty makes them doubt sometimes.

She is also a therapy dog by default. In my real job, as opposed to my store, I'm a shrink so she sees my patients/clients with me all the time.

I have goosebumps! Aren't these dogs wonderful!

truley amazing how these pups can help us

Wonderful stories! I often think about Henry's litter brother, he was obviously one of the 3 blenheim boys we considered when we picked Henry out, but as the breeder said Henry was the best for show potential and he kept climing in my lap, we took him. Well, his litter brother turned out with no training to be a seizure alert dog, the family that took him had a little girl who was so bad with fits that she couldn't have her own bedroom and she was 9 years old or something. But when they realised the dog was alerting for seizure, and would even come and wake the parents up if she had a fit at night, she could have her own room for the first time in her life. I often think about that because supposing I'd taken that puppy, he wouldn't have been any use to me, and Henry's ability to win at shows wouldn't have been much use to them. Funny how things work out!

What a great story. What is that saying about "dogs aren't my whole life but they make my life whole"? Think of what that pup dig for that little girl. He helped give her a new normal. What a gift!

What will you do if your dog is having seizures? Is there any first aid for this?

If you go to the vet he might be able to give meds for it, but my cousins also have an older dog and he seizes at time too, he is old so I guess they can't give him meds for it. We just sit with him and ease him through it and are there for him.