Scientist’s service dog wears full PPE in the lab

By Brelaun Douglas via SWNS

This golden retriever has been trained as a laboratory assistant for his owner - and he even has to wear canine PPE while on the job.

Service dog Sampson is required to wear PPE for safety reasons as he helps disabled neuroscientist Joey Ramp conduct her crucial lab work every day.

Ramp, 56, suffered traumatic head injuries following a serious riding accident in 2006, so she returned to education to gain a better understanding of the human brain.

Sampson, dressed in goggles, booties, and a lab coat, is the first-ever canine to be granted access to a chemistry laboratory at The University of Illinois.

“If I drop something in the lab he'll come to my side and I can use him as a brace to kneel down and pick up what I need,” said Ramp, of Champagne, Illinois, who is also a disability advocate.

Sampson is also on hand to spot signs of Ramp's PTSD as a result of the catastrophic head injuries she suffered after her riding accident.

Ramp, a former horse trainer, damaged her prefrontal cortex and suffered permanent nerve damage to the left side of her body after the traumatic fall.

She was left with 23 broken bones including two vertebrae, her cheekbone, jaw, collar bone, and a fractured eye socket.

Ramp now holds two BA degrees in neuroscience and is working towards her Ph.D. with Sampson's help around the lab.

She added: “I couldn't possibly navigate academics or a neuroscience program without his assistance.

“There's more focus on the dog than the service they are providing and they were barring an entire population of students from entering lab work and ultimately the STEM field."

This became the drive for Ramp to start advocating for service dogs to be allowed into laboratories and creating guidelines to make it happen.

Guidelines include dogs having to wear the same lab PPE that humans wear and being in the direct line of sight of their handler at all times.

They must also have a rubber-backed matt and be trained to lie on it for up to four hours, out of the way of lab traffic, and learn to retrieve things on command instead of automatically.

Ramp and Sampson now work with universities globally to help them adopt the guidelines and introduce more service dogs into labs.

“It takes the mystery out of what a service dog does and how you can accommodate them in a lab,” she said.

“It also gives handlers an idea of what training their dog requires, because learning to wear goggles takes time.”

Ramp includes the PPE routine in Sampson's everyday life to keep him acclimated to his work attire.

“If we’re not in the lab for a while I'll put the goggles on and we’ll go out and play frisbee and he’ll run around,” she said.

Outside of work, Sampson is a regular golden retriever, who loves to roll in mud and play fetch.

“He's just a normal dog when we’re home and he's playing,” Ramp added.

While Ramp knows Sampson looks cute in his PPE, she wants people to remember that he has an important job to do, and wants the public to start getting used to service dogs in labs.

“I really want people to start understanding that service dogs have a very high level of training,” she said.

“They provide independence and keep their handler healthy, happy, and able to go about life in ways they wouldn't be able to do without their service dog.

“People with disabilities do want to study science and to look at people with disabilities and service dog handlers with a view of making things more accessible to them is really important and it’s time.”