Amazing Medical Service Dogs

Medical dogs can transform—or even save—lives and sometimes have uncanny abilities, such as predicting seizures hours before they happen. Sigmund Freud believed that canines have “a special sense” that allowed them to judge patients’ mental state accurately, and allowed his chow chow, Jo-Fi, to attend all of his psychoanalysis sessions. Reportedly, Jo-Fi would move closer to patients if they were relaxed while he would lie down on the other side of the room if they were tense. The dog is also said to have pawed at the door to signal the end of therapy sessions.

Each year, more than one million Americans benefit from service and therapy animals, from dogs to potbellied pigs, cats, goats, horses, rabbits, parrots, and even rats, according to the Delta Society, a nonprofit that trains “pet partners” to work in therapy programs at hospitals, nursing homes, schools, or libraries. Dogs can help kids who are dyslexic, painfully shy, or affected by stuttering or ADHD to learn to read more fluently, as I reported in Parade. For kids and adults with medical conditions, simply hugging or stroking a friendly pup can bring relief and even healing. Some medical dogs have truly amazing abilities, as these stories illustrate.

Learn how to choose the right pet for your child.

A “guardian angel” with paws: Six minutes: That’s how long Riley Mers’ parents would have to get her to a hospital if she ate a peanut. Otherwise, she’d go into potentially fatal anaphylactic shock. The 10-year-old from Colorado Springs even has severe allergic reactions to touching or inhaling traces of peanut residue, says her mom, Sherry.  “Her face and throat swell horribly and she has trouble breathing. We’ve had to rush her to the emergency room at least 20 times, and more than once, she’s asked, “Mommy, am I going to die?’  I’d hold her and say no, but it was a huge worry, because peanuts are everywhere.”

Until recently, Riley only attended school occasionally, where she had lessons in a peanut-proofed isolation room, away from the other kids. Nor was she able to go on sleepovers or shop at the mall with friends and family. Now, she can leave her home without fear, thanks to a specially trained peanut-sniffing Portuguese water dog named Rock’O. The dog carries her Epi-Pen and other medications in a special pouch, alerts her at the first whiff of peanuts, and physically blocks Riley from entering areas that contain even a minute trace of the offending legume.

So far, he’s saved her life three times. Recently he stopped her from going in her own backyard, where a squirrel was munching on a peanut shell. “I love Rock’O so much. He’s my guardian angel, and keeps me safe,” says Riley. Best of all was her first-ever trip to a candy store. “Rock’O showed me which ones were safe, and I got gummy butterflies. They were so pretty that I played with them all the way home—and they tasted great, too. I can’t wait to go back and get some more.”

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Sensing seizures—hours before they occur. At freestyle flying disc competitions all over the country, Theresa Brantly’s dog has won medals, ribbons, and a state championship. Ciela Azure, a six-year-old border collie/Aussie mix with blue-gray fur, wows judges with such stunts as an eight-foot high vault off her owner’s back, followed by a backwards flip. On the way down, the dog catches a flying Frisbee Theresa tosses, then lands lightly on the ground, tail wagging, ready to entertain the cheering crowd with other showy acrobatic feats.

But that’s not the champion collie mix’s most amazing talent. One day when Theresa, a veterinary technician, and her husband, Kevin, a veterinarian, were working together at their small animal clinic, they noticed that instead of roaming around the office as usual, the dog refused to leave Theresa’s side. “She kept giving me anxious looks, like she was trying to tell me something. Sure enough, a few hours later, I had a seizure. Somehow she’d sensed it was coming.”

Since then, the dog has predicted other seizures with 100% accuracy—an uncanny ability of some dogs that has been reported in studies. Scientists theorize that the pets may detect subtle changes in their owner’s scent or behavior. “Because she warns me hours ahead, I have time to go to a safe place so I don’t get hurt,” says Theresa, whose seizures strike in clusters for up to three days at a time. “It’s no coincidence that Ciela Azule and I ended up together.  Her name means, ‘My Blue Heaven,’ and she truly is heaven-sent.”

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