My friend has an almost 4 year old who has severe epilepsy, is mentally retarded, and is basically non-communicative at this point (he has 2 words, and a couple of signs). She was at my house the other day and we were playing with Guinness, and we started talking about labs as service dogs. She has expressed interest in the past with getting a pup to assist her with her ds because she can not always be in the same room with him because she has a set of twins in addition to him (he's mobile, and loves to play in the backyard or his room). Unfortunately, this little boy has several seizures a day and they happen at random times during the day. I think she's mostly looking for a dog that can alert her as to when her ds is having a seizure (not before hand) and can help protect him during the seizure (so he doesn't fall, or attempt to get up if he is on the floor). She has read several articles about such dogs, but is not sure where to find an association in our area (SF Bay Area). Does anyone know of an organization that trains seizure/assistance dogs that work with children? She's held off because someone convinced her that there would be dominance issues because her ds was at eye level with the dog and the dog could attack her ds. I told her to at least try and get in touch with an organization and speak with the training coordinators before writing it off.

has she tried seizure meds? My cousin use to have seixures all the time and they put her on special meds that stoped them. They weaned her off of them and she still hasn't had any seizures. The meds sometimes cause behavior problems but so do the seizures messing up motor function and stuff. The problems go away when the meds do so it's less of a problem then continuous seizures.

has she tried seizure meds? My cousin use to have seixures all the time and they put her on special meds that stoped them. They weaned her off of them and she still hasn't had any seizures. The meds sometimes cause behavior problems but so do the seizures messing up motor function and stuff. The problems go away when the meds do so it's less of a problem then continuous seizures.

He actually had 1/3 of his brain removed, and is on extremely high doses of seizure meds. He has 6 "critical" brain tumors, 22 "not so critical". His tumors are all benign, so short of removing more of his brain for the "not so critical" there is nothing else that can be done for him.

Here's a list of organizations working with service dogs (http://www.google.com/Top/Society/Disabled/Service_Animals/Dogs/). I've fostered for a charity in Canada that trains service dogs including seizure response dogs (Brandy was my first foster, Griz my second). In one case, they trained a miniture dog as a seizure response dog for a baby who had seizures. He slept with the baby and ran to get the parents if anything happened.

Most have waiting lists so the sooner she gets on a list (or two) the better.