Perhaps your dog knows how to roll over, play dead, or maybe even shake a paw or two. But it’s safe to say this service dog named Sampson has mastered the greatest trick of them all: learning how to wear full PPE and become an adorable lab assistant.
As PEOPLE reported, this handsome golden retriever from Illinois has been trained to don the protective equipment so that he is able to help his owner, a disabled neuroscientist, in her laboratory.
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In 2006, Sampson’s owner Joey Ramp was in a horse riding accident that left her with traumatic head injuries.
She broke 23 bones, damaged her prefrontal cortex, and suffered permanent nerve damage to the left side of her body. Those extensive injuries meant she required the assistance of a service dog to help her with daily activities.
That’s where Sampson comes in.
After her accident, Ramp returned to school and now holds two BA degrees in neuroscience. She is also working towards her Ph.D.
While she spends her days inside a lab, Ramp’s beloved service dog Sampson is always by her side, ready to lend a helping hand when she needs it.
“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,” she told PEOPLE , adding that the dog is also trained to recognize and respond to her signs of PTSD.
Ramp is an advocate for disability rights, particularly as they pertain to individuals with service dogs seeking access to labs.
“I couldn’t possibly navigate academics or a neuroscience program without [Sampson’s] assistance,” she said, as per PEOPLE . “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.”
In addition to advocating for these rights, Ramp also created guidelines in order to make it possible for service dogs to be allowed in labs. This includes training the animals to wear the same PPE as their humans, as well as keeping them in sight of their owner at all times.
Thanks to her own advocacy and guidelines, Ramp can now work safely and comfortably inside her lab with Sampson by her side.
The golden retriever is the first dog ever to be granted access to a chemistry laboratory at The University of Illinois. Ramp makes sure to post plenty of photos and tweets of Sampson in his goggles and lab coat to Twitter where he’s gained quite the following of admirers.
When not at work, Ramp says the pup is just “a normal dog” who enjoys playing with his owner and getting nice and muddy outside. But when playtime is over, Sampson knows he has a job to do to help his owner not only with her work in the lab, but also in her pursuits to help universities all around the world adopt her guidelines, and introduce more dogs into their own facilities.
h/t: PEOPLE
