Who here is into martial arts?

It was so sad. He was actually the sweetest dog, extremely obedient, and very loving.
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Before he showed any sort of aggression (we adopted him right at the age where this type of epilepsy starts to show up...about 2 years old), he would crawl on his belly towards children submissively so they could pet him, and would go belly up for anyone. The seizure activity most likely occurred in a region controlling for emotion and regulation. In humans who have partial complex seizures effecting fear, they often can not recognize faces of even loved ones for minutes after the seizure, and may behave very violently or run away while experiencing extreme fear. Like most dogs with this particular condition, he eventually started having grand mal (convulsive) seizures too, and all seizure activity more often with less emotional and physical control. He eventually had to be euthanized after treatment failed. I'm just really glad we found out what the cause was though, because it was extremely terrifying and unsettling to have a normally loving animal just snap like that at random intervals. My husband and I both had nightmares for a while that our other dog (very loyal cattle dog) turned around and just attacked us. Really just heartbreaking, and I feel so deeply for people who have loved ones suffering from it!
 
One of my best friends does Taekwondo. I haven't seen him since I moved, but I used to go along to lessons with him and check it out. It was pretty fun. He has a learning disability, it was nice that he could do something really well outside of school.
 
Matt: Seizures cover a huge topic, and can be either environmental, genetic, or require an interaction of the two. For instance, convulsive seizures seen in puppies are usually from exposure to toxins or certain illnesses. Seizures (grand mal- convulsive or petite mal- non-convulsive) in old dogs is often from a brain tumor. Seizures at 2-3 years though that happen often enough to be considered epilepsy are generally listed as 'primary epilepsy (which is a broad term that covers what our dog had). He was half cattle dog and half Australian shepherd, and we found out that epilepsy (including the degenerative kind he had) is abnormally high in some Australian shepherd lines. So for him, it was genetic, though the exact cause is not known. In other dogs though, food allergies can set off seizures and epilepsy (generally grand mal), as can vaccines/stress/heat/etc., and that is probably a case of genes interacting with environment.
 
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