Learning to Play with a Seizure Dog

(Pic:) - Seizure Alert Dogs for Life travel team trainer, Josh, with service dog Reba and his pet dog Max in the back yard of his home in Lake Placid, NY.

Note: This article is fiction.

German Shepherd Markie Mark lives to run.

In a perfect world, Markie Mark would have been adopted by last year’s winner of the Boston Marathon.

But no. Markie Mark is one girl’s seizure dog.

There is a mom (she works every day), a dad (he coach's everyday after work) and two other brothers.

Everyone including Markie Mark comes home from work or school exhausted. No one has the time to take Markie Mark for a walk. So out into the backyard he goes.

The children and their friends happen to like being in the backyard, too. They play there. Sometimes they run around.

When they run, Markie Mark runs.

After them.

Service dog trainers will often tell me that their dogs have a “high prey drive” because their dogs chase anything that moves.

Prey drive, according to Dr. Nicholas Dodman, is the motivation to chase and catch small creatures.

To some degree, all dogs have a level of prey drive because their ancestors needed to hunt in order to survive. Dogs that have been bred for herding, like Markie Mark, our German Shepherd, have a high prey drive.

Markie Mark has been known to consider tennis balls, frisbee, and a groundhog as potential prey, or at least, worthy of a good chase. Dogs that are born with a high prey drive are biologically driven to do this.

It is the responsibility of service dog handlers to take precautions with their driven dog.

In Markie Mark's case, his trainers did the following:

1. Put up a fence - not an invisible fence but an honest-to-goodness seamless wood eight foot stockade fence around the entire backyard.

2. Supervise Markie Mark with the neighborhood children in the yard.

3. Teach the children – and their friends – to stand still and not look at Markie Mark if he chases them. That means no screaming, no running, no flailing arms or legs. Always tell Markie Mark "Nein."

4. Only the parents and her handler are allowed to walk Markie Mark on leash, under absolute control at all times.

5. Use clear and consistent Schutzhund obedience training for Markie Mark.

6. Channel that compelling chase instinct into fetch or seizure response drilling!

Rachel Baum contributed to this article.