欧美AV

Assistance dogs are highly trained to carry out tasks and provide alerts to support a disabled person or a person with a long-term health condition. This includes guide dogs for visually impaired people, medical alert dogs which anticipate a potential medical episode or autism assistance dogs which helps with anxiety and manging sensory issues.

Having the dog alongside them in the workplace makes a big difference to the scientist. Colleagues generally love the dog and respect its boundaries. The dog doesn鈥檛 go into the lab with the scientist; when its owner is in the lab, it stays in the office upstairs under the desk. Colleagues are very supportive and would help to bring the dog out of the office if there were an emergency. An advantage of working in a postgraduate lab, as opposed to an undergraduate lab, is that the scientist has more flexibility with how they use their time, and this also means they can accommodate the dog鈥檚 need to go outside for regular breaks. Before the dog first came into the department, colleagues were briefed on having a dog in the office and a risk assessment was done, to satisfy the university estates services.

This was the first time that the university had accommodated an assistance dog in the workplace and led to the introduction of a new policy about this. The scientist had to advocate strongly for the dog, and the process took 3 months. However, because there is now a policy in place, it should be easier for similar requests to be accommodated in future. This is a significant change, due to the personal advocacy of one scientist.

Everyone understood. I think the supervisor had a word with everyone before we came in, but everyone in the office are just very understanding, which I thought would have been another hurdle. But everyone took it in their stride, and everyone loves [the dog] and they respect his boundaries.