Meet Britain's top dog - a Japanese Akita Inu who can detect her owner's seizures 10 minutes before they happen.
Ten-year-old assistance dog Kin has beaten her canine competitors to be crowned British Dog of the Year - after her owner Robert Stuhldreer, 64, entered her into the competition in the hope she would be recognised for her talents.
Kin is able to warn Robert, who suffers from epilepsy, when a seizure is coming - and can sometimes detect them up to 10 minutes in advance.
Ten-year-old assistance dog Kin has beaten her canine competitors to be crowned British Dog of the Year - after her owner Robert Stuhldreer, 64, entered her into the competition in the hope she would be recognised for her talents.
Kin is able to warn Robert, who suffers from epilepsy, when a seizure is coming - and can sometimes detect them up to 10 minutes in advance.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
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.