28-05-2025
Can dogs help to predict epileptic seizures?
Analysis: New research combining a dog's natural instincts with technology might help people with epilepsy by predicting seizures
Dogs have long held a special place in Irish life, not just as loyal companions, but as trusted protectors of our homes, families and livestock. Their protective instinct is one of the earliest reasons humans formed bonds with them. Their importance goes back centuries featuring in tales of Fionn MacCumhaill and his dogs Bran and Sceólang. They were noble, wise, and fiercely loyal hounds, often sensing danger before it arrived and intervening to save lives.
Today, while most dogs are no longer fending off wolves, their protective instincts remain strong. Some even find a vocation as service dogs extending their role to emotional and physical protection, guiding the visually impaired, alerting people to medical emergencies and providing support to those with PTSD or anxiety.
This deep-rooted role of dogs as protectors has inspired new research, looking at how a dog's natural instincts, combined with technology might help people with epilepsy by predicting seizures and enabling faster intervention.
Why predicting seizures matters
More than 45,000 people in Ireland live with epilepsy, about one person in every hundred. Each year, Ireland records over 130 epilepsy-related deaths, some linked to a condition called sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). For some, medication effectively controls seizures. For others, seizures can happen without warning, disrupting daily life and posing serious safety risks. While some people experience early warning signs in the form of a type of seizure, commonly called auras, others receive no advance notice. For those who do sense them, auras offer valuable time to seek safety or alert others.
But what if someone, or something, could detect a seizure even earlier and more reliably? That question is at the heart of the PAWSENSE (Paws Assisting with Sensors for Epilepsy Needs and Safety) research project. This project, led by the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics at Dublin City University, explores whether seizure-alert assistance dogs, equipped with wearable technology, can help detect and alert to seizures before they happen.
The science behind the sniff
The concept rests on a growing body of research suggesting that dogs can detect seizures before they occur by picking up on subtle changes in human scent. These changes involve volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are released through our breath, skin, sweat, and other bodily fluids. Everyone's VOC profile is unique, and research indicates it may change prior to a seizure.
Studies from Florida International University and Canine Assistants have shown that specially trained dogs can detect these changes up to an hour in advance of a seizure. Research by Dr. Neil Powell and a team at Queen's University Belfast found that even untrained pet dogs exhibit unusual behaviour, such as nudging, barking or pawing, when their owner is about to have a seizure.
What dogs can do with smell is extraordinary. While humans have around five million scent receptors in their noses, dogs can have up to 300 million, depending on the breed. Dogs can layer scents, the way humans might hear individual instruments in an orchestra. This allows them to pick up a specific odour, like a pre-seizure VOC, even in a crowded, noisy, or chaotic environment.
Dog collar motion sensors
While previous efforts focused solely on training dogs to detect and alert to seizures, this research adds a vital second layer with a sensor-equipped dog collar. When the dog detects the scent associated with an oncoming seizure, it responds with a specific trained alert behaviour, such as spinning. This alerts to the person that a seizure is imminent.
From Insider Science, how dogs sniff out seizures
The dog wears a collar with motion sensors that track the alerting spin behaviour. When the collar detects this movement, it can automatically send an alert to a family member, friend or other designated contact, along with the GPS location of the person who is about to have a seizure. This advance notice gives the individual time to get to safety and allows others to step in and provide support.
Safeguarding dogs in research
The idea of dogs playing a role in medical detection is not new. They have been studied in contexts ranging from cancer detection to hypoglycaemia alerts. However, epilepsy poses distinct challenges as seizures often happen silently and without warning, which demands both fast and reliable alert systems.
Training the dogs and carefully matching them to individuals is critical. Although seizure alert dogs are not currently available through Dogs for the Disabled, they are managing the matching, training and ongoing support for the dogs as part of this research. Dogs have spent thousands of years watching over us and it important that the same is done for them.
What science is beginning to measure, dogs have long been able to sense
'Not a silver bullet'
Wearable technology has made significant strides in detecting certain types of seizures, but its ability to reliably predict seizures is still limited. Combining technology with dogs' scent detection capabilities may offer a more adaptive and reliable solution, but PAWSENSE is not a silver bullet. It is a multidisciplinary effort addressing a complex issue with nuance and care. If successful, this model could be adapted internationally, or even applied to other conditions where behavioural or scent cues signal health events.
Crucially, the project acknowledges the emotional toll epilepsy takes. A dependable alert system might not stop seizures from happening, but it can still make a big difference. Just knowing that a warning will come, and that help is on the way, may ease anxiety and bring peace of mind, helping people feel safer and more confident in their daily lives. The question remains however, can such a system become broadly accessible through public healthcare, or will it remain a niche, privately supported tool?
What science is beginning to measure, dogs have long been able to sense. This research provides a glimpse into how we might learn from nature to shape the healthcare tools of tomorrow.
