# Question about service dogs for anyone who might know ...



## marieb (Mar 24, 2008)

I've thought about getting a service dog before but I've never really looked into the applications or called any places. I have Vasovagal syncope and I have been fainting since I was in 4th grade. I would estimate that I actually pass out about 4 times a year. But there are more times when I'm able to stop it by basically either lying or sitting on the ground for awhile. 

In august I had a syncope episode after I twisted my ankle in a hole (triggered by pain) and I landed face first on concrete. I was unconscious and woke up lying in a pool of blood. I managed to hobble into the house, I was definitely in shock, and an ambulance was called. I had 16 stitches in my chin and 5 broken teeth. I had a syncope episode last night (but luckily I was around other people and they caught me) and it has me thinking again if a service dog might be useful. I just don't know if they would give one to me because it's not like I faint everyday. But it's worrisome because I really can't control it and I don't want to injure myself again. 

I went to see Doctors a few years ago and they did a wide range of tests, including for epilepsy and a tilt table test. All the Dr. could tell me was that maybe it would improve with age - but it's not, I actually have more episodes now. Ugh I'm just frustrated. I would appreciate any suggestions, I hope everyone had a great holiday!
This is an article I found about a woman who was given a service dog, http://www.stars-us.org/case-studies/stories/martys-story.html


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## GRZ (Dec 4, 2008)

I'm sorry I don't know the process of getting a service dog but you sure sound like a candidate. Especially if your symptoms are increasing.

What an awful and scary condition to have to live with. All the best to you.


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

Many (not all) service dog groups insist that the service dog be the only dog in the house. Given you have a dog you love...that would be an important first question.

As with any 'commodity' there are groups out there that produce well trained dogs and offer great lifelong support and others that don't -They crank out mediocre dogs for profit. Some are very, very conscientious to place healthy dogs....they spend hours researching pedigrees and pouring over OFA - some don't. Be careful - research ask TONS of questions. www.assistancedogsinternational.org has members that are supposed to meet at least basic training standards, but last I knew there are not health standards for the puppies coming into the programs of accredited members. I believe there are very minimal health standards that have to be met for dogs being placed... for instance if a dog is being placed with a client to pull a wheelchair then there are hip and elbow evaluations....but if the dog is being placed as a seizure alert dog it may not have hip/elbows evaluated...

If you are shy or very private...a service dog puts a big neon sign on your forehead that says "talk to me anywhere anytime"...I know one person that surrendered a SD because she was overwhelmed by all of the attention.


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## marieb (Mar 24, 2008)

GRZ said:


> I'm sorry I don't know the process of getting a service dog but you sure sound like a candidate. Especially if your symptoms are increasing.
> 
> What an awful and scary condition to have to live with. All the best to you.


Thank you very much for the kind thoughts.


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## marieb (Mar 24, 2008)

LibertyME said:


> Many (not all) service dog groups insist that the service dog be the only dog in the house. Given you have a dog you love...that would be an important first question.
> 
> As with any 'commodity' there are groups out there that produce well trained dogs and offer great lifelong support and others that don't -They crank out mediocre dogs for profit. Some are very, very conscientious to place healthy dogs....they spend hours researching pedigrees and pouring over OFA - some don't. Be careful - research ask TONS of questions. www.assistancedogsinternational.org has members that are supposed to meet at least basic training standards, but last I knew there are not health standards for the puppies coming into the programs of accredited members. I believe there are very minimal health standards that have to be met for dogs being placed... for instance if a dog is being placed with a client to pull a wheelchair then there are hip and elbow evaluations....but if the dog is being placed as a seizure alert dog it may not have hip/elbows evaluated...
> 
> If you are shy or very private...a service dog puts a big neon sign on your forehead that says "talk to me anywhere anytime"...I know one person that surrendered a SD because she was overwhelmed by all of the attention.


Thanks so much for all the info! Yes that was one of the questions that I was thinking about, because Maddie is very important to me and I would never do that if I was only required to have the service dog. Hmm that's really interesting that some groups aren't really as reputable as others ... I will definitely do some research and be careful. I think I'm going to make another Dr. appt to see if they have any new suggestions. Yeah that is another thing I would have to consider too, I am a bit shy and I don't know if I would want attention all the time. But I feel like it would also be somewhat of a relief if a dog could alert me to when I needed to sit down. I will definitely have to think about all of it, I sent an email to the place that was in the article above asking them about if I would qualify for a dog.


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## MyCodyBoy (Sep 27, 2008)

what about having Maddie trained as your service dog. Is that an option?


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## marieb (Mar 24, 2008)

MyCodyBoy said:


> what about having Maddie trained as your service dog. Is that an option?


I thought about that too, she is very smart. But I believe that the dogs who can sense the changes in heart rate (or the seizure dogs) are skilled with the ability to sense the changes but I think that not every dog can. I think that a lot of the places start training them when they're young puppies too. Thanks for the suggestion though!


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## Heidi36oh (Feb 27, 2007)

I was gonna ask the same, why not train Maddie.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

I know what the episodes are like. I'm one of the lucky ones. I only passed out once. I now know when it's coming and can get myself down on the ground before passing out. It's amazing how fast I recover. 

I find as I got older, I got worse. The first time, when I did pass out, the doctor was finishing my son's stitches. I got him to the office after the telephone call, putting pressure on the wound, and driving all the way to the office. We then sat in the waiting room. I didn't pass out until it was all over...Ugh! 

I nearly passed out when my stereotactic needle biopsy was over, the painless shot of cortisone I got in the shoulder, and a biopsy on my leg. However, and this is amazing, I was fine during and after a very painful shot of cortisone through the side of my foot!

I know when it's coming now. As long as I get my head down I'm okay. I came close to passing out when I fell down the stairs a few months ago. The room turned black and I saw nothing. I was on the phone with someone and told them I had to lay down. Once down, I was able to say, "Now what were we taking about?" My dermatologist had me try something during the biopsy when he saw me going white and I told him I was feeling stomach sick. It worked! 

My nephew passes out like you do all the time. I'm glad I can recognize when I'm going. Having diabetes may have helped me to recognize the changes. I don't know.

I have 3.5 hours of testing tomorrow. I'll be testing my dermatologist's suggestion if need be!


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## marieb (Mar 24, 2008)

I always think it's so interesting to meet other people who have it! My roommate in college senior year had it too and she was the first person I have ever met with it. I could really relate to her and we would swap episode experiences lol. 

You're lucky you've only passed out once. I can tell when they're coming but sometimes I pass out anyways. I'm sorry to hear that it's gotten worse! It's so embarrassing and I wish that I had better control over myself if that makes any sense. The first time I passed out was in the 4th grade during a performance at my school - I passed out and luckily a teacher caught me before I hit my head. In August it was definitely the the scariest because there wasn't anyone around and I got hurt. 



Kimm said:


> I know what the episodes are like. I'm one of the lucky ones. I only passed out once. I now know when it's coming and can get myself down on the ground before passing out. It's amazing how fast I recover.
> 
> I find as I got older, I got worse. The first time, when I did pass out, the doctor was finishing my son's stitches. I got him to the office after the telephone call, putting pressure on the wound, and driving all the way to the office. We then sat in the waiting room. I didn't pass out until it was all over...Ugh!
> 
> ...


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## SoGolden (Jul 17, 2008)

*Service Dog questions*

We have a Social Group where you can ask for info about Service dogs:
http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/group.php?groupid=13


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## bizzy (Mar 30, 2007)

my understanding of the seziure alert dogs is that they are trained for service work to stay with the person or alert somone if on episode happends but alerting to it before hand is not something that is trained. It just happends. Since they don't exactly know what they are reacting to and the trainer can't really "fake" the biological changes to "teach" the dog to alert to them. Good luck and pay attention to maddie she may actually give you some kind of alert.


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

Contact Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) as a starting point.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

I hope you can find some relief from the fear. I find "fear" can set me off. The next time you feel it coming on if you can't get down fast enough on your own, squeeze every muscle in your body. This is what my dermatologist told me to do. I didn't have to lie down at all. It worked! When I think about why I didn't have an episode during the painful shot, it all makes sense. I was making the sound of a low groan and was hanging onto the arms of the chair for dear life. I was also so tense because the pain was so bad. Thank Gawd my leg was being held down. So, my reaction did the work for me.

My nephew passes out. He sees blood, needles, or is involved in a stressful situation and he's out like a light. We had an interesting experience during a wedding one time. He GF needed CPR, he passed out, and his wife had an asthma attacked. Pat was helping me when his GF went down so when he passed out I knew why. As involved as I was for these events, I didn't have a problem.

My issue started when I was in my 20's. My Mom wouldn't go to the doctor to have her stitches taken out so I took them out for her. I felt a little stomach sick, but was fine. Then we had the incident with my son. Got that same feeling, the nurse said, "Are you okay?" Doc said, "No, she's not. Get her a chair!" I reached over, got the chair and passed out!" Had I gotten to the floor sooner, I would have been okay. 

You can get injured and I hope you can find a way to stay safe.


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## Juliabrat (Mar 21, 2012)

*Ncs*

I also have NCS but it is the malignant type. I experience convulsive syncope. The neurologist ruled out epilepsy. They are not pseudosciences. The hypoxia is just so great that I have what looks like grand mal seizures.

I have had this condition since I was 8 yrs old, but it has been increasingly becoming worse with longer recovery time of fatigue afterwards. I searched all over for 34 years with this condition for some form of assistance with doctors simply advising me to "eat more salt, drink more water". Thanks... Well, I took matters into my own paws and started to train my own dog, Yuki, for work as my service dog. I have witnessed countless times where she would warn me to even eat when my blood sugar got too low. I have migraines so I am teaching her now to pick things up for me since doing so causes my head to explode. She remains by my side when I go down. She relaxes me and prevents some episodes reaching that 'point of no return'. Lastly, she carries in her harness my emergency information on my condition since I do not recovery quickly and am typically disoriented for 2-3 mins afterwards and cant even speak.

I sincerely wish you luck and encourage you to take a look further into training your own service dog. It is a huge amount of work, dont get me wrong, but the rewards are so phenomenal you will thank yourself later.

Julia


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## mixer (Oct 24, 2016)

*Eligibility for service dogs*

Did you ever find out about getting a service dog? I'm interested and dont know where to start.


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