Burry says 6% of the service dogs PAWS trains are trained for narcolepsy response. PAWS trains a wide array of medical alert dogs, physical/neurological disability service dogs, and psychiatric/psychological service dogs. ![]() PAWS Training Center trains medical alert dogs for narcolepsy alert, hearing alert, diabetes alert, seizure response, and allergen alert.Īt PAWS Training Centers’ four locations, most patients who request narcolepsy dog services do so via self-referral that starts with an Internet search, says David Burry, PAWS managing director. Chromatography studies conducted so far seem to confirm that patients with narcolepsy give off a specific VOC profile.” The dogs can detect the smallest quantity of substances with very different forms, molecular sizes, and molecules with very small stereoisomeric differences. “Smell is the primal sense that allows most organisms to detect predators, food, mate, and so to perpetuate the species. ![]() “It has been very exciting to see that dogs confirmed our initial observation, helping us to continue searching for the possible profile of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in narcoleptic patients,” says Dominguez-Ortega, who works in the Sleep Disorders Unit at Clinica Ruber Catedra de Medicina del Sueño CTO-CEU at the Universidad San Pablo CEU in Madrid, Spain. The answer seems to be yes, as 11 of 12 narcolepsy patients were detected positive by the dogs while only 3 of 22 controls got the same response. His study did not look at whether dogs can predict cataplexy episodes rather, it looked at whether dogs could tell the difference between healthy controls and narcolepsy patients simply by smelling their sweat. In the paper “ Narcolepsy and Odor: Preliminary Report,” Luis Dominguez-Ortega, MD, PhD, also arrives at the conclusion that narcoleptic patients have a distinct typical odor that trained dogs can detect. “Dogs have 250 million scent receptors in their noses, we have only 5 million.” We do not know what the particular odor smells like due to the difference between human scent perception and dog scent perception,” she says. McNeight says she thinks the dogs are picking up a scent emitted from the narcolepsy patients. ![]() (Speaking of medication, service dogs can also use their internal clocks to remind a patient to take his medication at a specific time, including waking the person up in the middle of the night for a dose.) After the person regains movement control, the dog can provide balance and support in getting off the ground and can fetch medication. These dogs can also be taught to stand over the person as a crime deterrent or to find help (in the form of human assistance or by dialing 911 from a doggie phone). During an attack, the dog can be taught to place himself in front of the patient so the patient can drape their body over the dog, versus falling onto a hard surface. That gives the patient the chance to sit or lie down, get to a safe location, call a friend, and take other precautions to minimize harm. The dogs can provide up to a 5-minute warning of an impending sleep attack, McNeight says. “I put up a notice on my website talking about how I was inspired to see if a dog could really alert a narcoleptic and within a month I had a student who was willing to be my guinea pig.”Ī Service Dog Academy-trained narcolepsy service dog places himself over a student during an attack to prevent her from falling off a chair. Several of my diabetic alert dog students were reporting that their dogs were alerting to not only their blood sugar levels but also things like charley horses and atrial fibrillation,” McNeight says. I reconnected with her on Facebook in 2010, a year after I started doing diabetic alert dog training. “I had a friend in high school who was diagnosed with narcolepsy. Mary McNeight, CPDT-KA, CCS, BGS, Service Dog Academy director of training and behavior, began working with narcolepsy service dogs in 2010. ![]() While the public is more aware of other types of medical alert dogs, such as those that warn diabetics of low blood sugar, narcolepsy service dogs play no less crucial a role to their human counterparts. It is one of several programs throughout the United States that train narcolepsy alert and narcolepsy response canines. In the Morgan Junction neighborhood of West Seattle, Wash, Service Dog Academy breeds hope for narcolepsy patients.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |