Ben is not your typical family pet.  He's been trained to assist Colise Johnson and perhaps one day save her life.  Colise says having epilepsy and cerebral palsy is kind of like having a non-stop roller coaster ride cause you never know what's going to happen. But she says her dog Ben slows the ride down so it's manageable. 

    Colise is attending a training camp at Canine Assistants in Alpharetta, Georgia.  The group provides 80 service dogs a year, free of charge, to people with a variety of medical conditions...including epilepsy. 
   
    When a dog leaves the traing camp, the dog will have had training in how to respond should their person have a seizure.  Even though Jennifer Arnold helps train the dogs, she says no one really knows what alerts the animals.  They tend to get very restless, distressed if they were lying down they tend to get up and start whining.  

    Colise's dog is still a puppy, but they've already made a connection.  She says with her dog Ben she gets more independence, and doesn't have to rely on humans all the time.