A woman has issued a warning against interfering with assistance dogs, following an incident where her dog was repeatedly hit by a child, leading to her nearly fainting. Ella Walker, 19, relies on her multi-purpose assistance dog, a two year old golden retriever named Ralph, for support in her daily life. Living with chronic illnesses such as ME and a fainting condition known as Dysautonomia, Ella benefits from Ralph's special training which includes tasks like finding her a seat, fetching items for her, and alerting her if she is about to faint.
Ella emphasises the importance of Ralph not being distracted while working, to ensure he doesn't miss any cues and can warn her when she needs to sit down. However, she alleges that a girl of upper primary school age attempted to feed Ralph chocolate before hitting him, while her parent was preoccupied with their phone. Read more: Menace Birmingham rapper's dark past This incident resulted in Ralph becoming frightened, leaving Ella disoriented and Ralph unable to perform his usual crucial assistance tasks.
Ella, who is a student and part-time assistance dog trainer from Petersfield, Hampshire, said: "The incident led me going into medical episode and really impacted my dog." "I urge people to be more considerate of assistance dogs in future." Ralph was close to completing his two-and-a-half-year training programme to become a fully qualified assistance dog.
But Ella says the incident, which occurred on 17 September, disrupted his tra.