| Dogs For Epileptics |  |
This was just so interesting that I had to share! A friend of mine has an epileptic son (and a new dog)and would probably want to know this.
Canadian researchers writing in the journal Neurology in June reported that 18 of 122 dogs belonging to epileptic children were able to sense, minutes ahead of time, when a child was about to have a seizure, and about 30 others showed unique reactions to a seizure event (including in some cases trying to protect the child from danger). Also in June, researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute reported that Rico, a border collie they have studied for several years, can distinguish by name more than 200 objects and can even figure out the names of unfamiliar objects associated with familiar ones (attributed, as in the epilepsy cases, to the dog's high sensitivity to sight, sound and motion). [Detroit Free Press, 6-22- 04] [Reuters, 6-10-04]
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I will be hiding this particular news item from Jacob (and the rest of the nest) as I am sure it will lead to discussion at my house about adding more dogs - you know, if one dog is good, five are better. If the odds are that only about one out of six dogs could sense the seizure, we might have to start a shelter, or buy a bigger duck farm just to house the dogs!! Though on a more serious note, it would be a Godsend to have a companion dog that would be able to protect Jake if he were somewhere like the creek when a seizure happened. I will have to check the study and see if the results are breed-related. I am not sure Rosie the Basenji- is up to the task of predicting siezure activity - but she can sure detect dinner cooking!
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