00:00Scratch. Kin look. Hello my name's Robert but probably more importantly this is Kin.
00:08Kin is a 10 year old Japanese Akita Inu and she does quite an unusual job for her breed. She's
00:14the only one in the UK that does it. She is a medical alert dog. I have epilepsy and Kin actually
00:21alerts me to the seizures. This is really important for me because I don't get any idea
00:26when the seizures are going to happen and consequently I've broken my nose, broken my
00:31cheekbone, broken my shoulder blade and since I've had Kin who alerts me to the forthcoming seizures
00:39I've not had any more broken bones. Unfortunately no more visits to A&E which is always a blessing.
00:45So a question that's usually asked of us is how does she alert me to the impending seizures? Well
00:52she does it in one of several ways. If say I'm sitting on the sofa like this and she was on the
00:59floor what she would do in the first instance is come to sit directly in front of me and give me
01:04direct eye contact. Now this is quite difficult for a lot of dogs to do because they can perceive
01:09direct eye contact as a threat. So for her to be able to do that to me is quite an achievement in
01:15the first place. If we were outside and she was walking she'll do one of three things to start
01:21off with. She may just stop dead in by the side of me. Now I don't always pay attention to that
01:28because dogs are dogs and they like to stop and sniff things but the second warning that she'll
01:34go on to give if I sort of ignore the first warning is that she'll walk directly in front
01:38of me and block me so I can't go any further. This usually means there's a seizure imminent.
01:45If I am stupid enough to ignore that she will give me a third and final signal and that
01:51is that she'll physically get hold of my hand in her mouth and pull my arm in a downwards movement
01:56and that means I've got seconds before a seizure is about to happen so I just need to lie flat put
02:02myself into a place of safety. So she does give me three very clear warnings it's just up to me as
02:09to whether I choose to go with them. Just recently she's been very lucky to have been awarded a Dog
02:18of the Year award and this is really important to her and to me because I like to promote a positive
02:25image of the Japanese Akita Rinnu and the Akita breeds. Unfortunately when they hit the news
02:31headlines it's not always for very positive reasons so I think this is really important that
02:37everybody can see what a good dog what a good breed they can be in the right hands and just to
02:44have won this award is absolutely brilliant.
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