Wish the Superdog
Wish is a Curly-Coated Retriever a Vulnerable Breed with only 50 born last year (2024) the highest in the past 10 years is 83. Labradors for comparrison have over 10,000 a year.
Wish is a superdog and is the only dog known to both me and my neurologist to be trained to mitigate Absence Seizures. I wanted to do a page about her because she is such a clever girl
All About Wish
Wish was born in October 2023. She looks like a sheep and was born in Wales and she likes to headbutt things so to me she is a little Lamb.
I waited for 6 years for Wish. Curlies are very smart dogs, can be hard to train at times but so rewarding to have. They were used since the 1700s as Gundogs.
As a child I always wanted to show a dog and with Wish that became a reality. In 2024 we Qualified for Crufts together and I couldn't have done it without her Superdog powers!
So, what exactly does she do? What are her Superdog powers?
Wish - The Superdog
Wish is legally an Assistance Dog. She is highly trained to mitigate my disabilities. You can get a whole manner of them from Psychiatric to Mobility to Guiding to Hearing and even Alerting to Seizures, PoTS, etc.
Wish is trained for my absence seizures. Due to how many I have a day, training her to alert would be unethical but I've been hit by vans and cars due to my absence seizures and one day I noticed a guide dog carefully guide its owner away from the road. A lightbulb went off in my head - Could I train a dog to keep me safe. Due to how short Absences are and the fact they are almost unnoticeable a human can't help... But what about a dog?
Well, she does exactly that. During an absence seizure I cannot speak. I have trained her, myself, that if I say the word "cross" or to walk on the road "road" she will go. If I go to cross or drift towards the road without saying anything at all she stops me and we were interviewed on BBC Radio because she saved me from being hit by a lorry.
Her guide work has also been helpful to avoid me tripping over things in absence seizures like trolleys in supermarkets. She gently steers me away.
