Emma The Helpful Lab

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Emma The Helpful Lab

Medical alert service dog. Yellow Lab living in East TN
I love fetch, food, and the bathtub!

31/10/2024

Happy Halloween!!! 🎃

14/10/2024

Today I got told there’s no reason to continue seeing my neurologist! After fighting migraines for most of my life and seizures for the past three years, this was such good news. My migraines and seizures have been much more controlled since my pacemaker was placed. I’m off all of my meds to control seizures and my migraines are controlled with meds I already take for POTS and EDS. Yay for good news today!!

25/09/2024

“Mom and dad took me to the park and there was this weird building. We did lots of walking and I sniffed lots of sniffs! They wouldn’t let me swim in the pond or roll in the mud. It was still a good day.” - Emma probably

12/09/2024

Hospitals are allowed to tell you that you can’t bring your service dogs into sterile areas. This is because dogs carry germs on and in their coats plus most shed. So having a dog in these areas post a safety risk to you and depending on the procedure could pose a risk to the dog. They are legally required to make reasonable accommodations for you in the non-sterile areas though.

When I had my pacemaker placed in June Emma sat with my husband in the waiting room. For some handlers, a sterile procedure may be a reason that they would leave their dog at home instead of having someone look after the dog while they were in the sterile area.

11/09/2024

Did you know that there are places that can deny access to service dogs? That’s right! I’m going to take a couple of posts to cover each of these places, but the first place that can deny access is any place of worship. So churches, synagogues, mosques, temples or any other place of worship can legally tell me that I cannot with Emma and they don’t have to give a reason.

Emma spent a lot of her time during her in training period in a church because the church I belonged to in Florida was my family there. I both worked and attended which put me in the building 6 days a week on average. So this dog isn’t a stranger to the church environment.

As a practicing Christian, I’ve ran into several churches that won’t allow into their building with my dog. I always reach out prior to going to a church and ask permission to bring my service dog with me. It is important that I take Emma with me to church because the standing and sitting in service will almost certainly cause my POTS to be more difficult to manage, so I rely on her alerts there.

Here is a list of responses from pastors when I asked to bring Emma with me to visit their church.
“No”
“Please sit in the back corner and don’t get near anyone. We don’t want you to make someone have an allergic reaction”
“We need a copy of your registration sent to us before you arrive.” There are no registrations for service dogs in the USA.
“We would love to have you, but you can’t serve or be in small group with the dog.”

After a couple of months of searching for a church in the town I lived I finally reached out to the priest at the Episcopal church and he responded with a “yes! Absolutely everyone is welcome here!” My husband and I started attending services there and never looked back. We moved cities and were welcomed at the local Episcopal parish with no stipulations.

This experience really opened my eyes to how other marginalized people have to experience the world. I never knew how much work it took to find somewhere that I could belong.

10/09/2024

In the USA Emma, my service dog, must be allowed to accompany me anywhere the public can go. There are two questions that any business we walk into can ask us.

(1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
(2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform?

It is illegal for them to ask for any registration, because there is no legitimate federal registration here in the states. And they may not ask any questions about my disability.

Have questions? Find the link to the ada.gov service dog site in our bio.

06/09/2024

How did I get paired up with Emma? I actually purchased her from a breeder and owner trained her with the help of a trainer. This is called owner training and is a route that a lot of people go.

There’s pros and cons to all decisions, but the biggest pros for me of owner is that I get to see my dog from puppyhood, and I get to train her for exactly what I need. It is also significantly less expensive than getting a dog from a program. The cons is that there are some gaps in her training since she was my first service dog to train and I was also very sick in the training phase of her rearing. When owner training you do have to take into consideration the question “what is this dog fails and isn’t cut out for service work?”

01/09/2024

Today is the first day of service dog awareness month. I’m so happy to have Emma by my side to keep me safe. What are some things you’ve always wanted to know about service dogs?

06/06/2024

Let’s talk service dogs sleeping on the job. Service dogs sleep when they are at work because dogs will snooze when they are resting and laying for long periods of time. On average dogs can sleep up to 20 hours a day depending on breed. So it’s really unrealistic to expect to stay fully awake during a working time. Service dogs will essentially snooze but still be able to smell. So they aren’t in REM sleep. Emma doesn’t enter a deep sleep until we get home where she knows I’m safe. Emma is capable of waking up and alerting and tasking. She does catch night alerts when needed. If you thinking about pet dogs they usually wake up if you are walking past them through the house, the idea of them waking up for an alert. What questions do you have about dogs snoozing while working.

04/06/2024

My sweet little girl living her best Labrador life!!

25/04/2024

Can you believe it’s this little puppy’s birthday today?! I can’t believe she’s 4. She’s become my right hand man, and is really good at her job! This year we’ve traveled a bit, started dock diving, and started a new job. Happy birthday Emma! You are so loved!

17/04/2024

Am I working or napping??

14/04/2024

Emma got this cute little Bigfoot toy from her this month. She thinks it’s the bee’s (or yeti’s) knees.

13/04/2024

Mom I’m just going to rest my snoot right here. Ok?

22/01/2024

It’s world snow day. Do you have snow where you live?

05/01/2024

Most days you’ll find this girl right next to my wheelchair. She’s my ride or die.

09/12/2023

Smile it’s Saturday!

24/11/2023

Happy Thanksgiving from these turkeys.

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It seems like Emma is always finding something to rest her snoot on. Is this something your dog does? Tell us the most creative spot your dog has rested their snoot!

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