Trainee life-saver Doris will have her day helping someone with epilepsy

Meet Doris – who is currently honing her skills to save someone’s life.

Meet Doris – who is currently honing her skills to save someone’s life.

The two-year-old yellow Labrador is training with the Sheffield-based Support Dogs charity, which trains and provides assistance dogs to help autistic children and adults with epilepsy or a physical disability to live safer, more independent lives.

Doris has been earmarked for the charity’s innovative seizure alert programme, which trains dogs to give a 100 per cent reliable alert to an epileptic seizure.

Around 1,000 people with epilepsy die each year and research suggests that most of these deaths are sudden and unexpected. The warning provided by a seizure alert dog means that a client can remove themselves from any danger and have a seizure in a safe environment.

With the confidence that they will be alerted in advance of any seizure, Support Dogs clients can live more independently. Day-to-day tasks, including going to the shops, cooking, ironing and having a bath, which would previously have been hazardous, are now manageable on their own and in safety.

Support Dogs is the only organisation in the UK to provide and train seizure alert dogs.

Katie Payne, an instructor with the charity, described the traits which make Doris perfect for the role.

She said: “She’s very attentive and quite loyal to one particular person at a given time, whether that would be her puppy co-ordinator, her trainer, or to me now, as her instructor.

“She needs to focus on one important person, so we feel that when she moves to the client, she will be able to focus on them, which is obviously what epilepsy Seizure Alert dogs need to be able to do.

“They need to focus on the person 24/7 to look out for any changes in the body that might indicate a seizure is coming.

“She’s also very driven – she loves to work and she loves to be doing things. She’s switched on all the time.”

Katie added that Doris is also very good at taskwork, such as loading the washing machine, picking up and fetching items, which she says is a “little bonus” for an epilepsy SA dog.

“She’s also very good at staring, which is perfect for SA. I don’t particularly like her doing it to me, but it’s good for SA dogs. She can lay there and watch you all day, which is perfect for waiting to alert for a seizure.”

Seizure alert dogs can alert their clients to an oncoming seizure in a variety of ways, including nudging them, holding out a paw, giving a bark or a stare.

Katie described her favourite things about Doris: “I love her enthusiasm for life. She’s always happy and always raring to go and very rarely complains about anything. She absolutely loves coming to the centre and getting into her work mode.

“She’s also very sweet-natured. She loves to be with that person she’s got a bond with, and she can get quite cuddly with them. She’s just a very sweet girl. She will work for the most simple treat – she absolutely loves her food.”

To find out more about the work of Support Dogs, please visit www.supportdogs.org.uk or call 0114 2617800.