Are you aware of the DANGERS behind petting a Service Dog?
Hailey Ashmore is a 16-year-old teenager from Dallas, TX. Hailey has lived with multiple health issues all her life including epilepsy, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, reactive hypoglycemia, severe allergies, gastroparesis, and asthma.
The toughest situation she has to deal with however are the seizures derived from her epilepsy. These seizures represent the highest risk and can be very dangerous.
To prevent injuries, Hailey is fortunate enough to have Flynn by her side. Flynn is a Seizure Alert Dog who has been trained to alert her roughly 10 minutes before she has a seizure, allowing her to find a safe place so she does not hurt herself while seizing.
“To get a service dog you must be disabled to the point where you can no longer function at a normal quality of life without the assistance of service dogs,” said Hailey.
“It takes around two years of intense training and thousands of dollars (if you owner train) to actually be able to call your dog a service dog. A service dog can go anywhere its handler goes, with the exception of a sterile environment such as an operating room or burn unit, a religious building — such as a church, or some federal buildings,” she said. (Emerald Pellot)
While visiting her father at work, another human began petting Flynn. Flynn wears a giant “STOP” sign on his back. Hailey also told the person to stop petting her dog.
Hailey says:
“The only time somebody should ever approach Flynn and I is if I am unconscious and/or having a seizure. Besides that, nobody should try to pet or get near him.”
This may seem like an overreaction to most people, but for a person with a disability, a distracted service dog could mean imminent danger. (Regina Lizik)
This is what happened to Hailey. Please read and tell others. This is something everyone should know:
Hailey and Flynn are inseparable. Wherever Hailey goes, Flynn is right by her side
Flynn has been with Hailey since he was a young pup
Flynn has been trained to detect when a seizure will occur and to alert Hailey
Hailey can then prepare herself by finding a safe place to be so she won’t hurt herself
Flynn is so adorable, it’s hard for people to see him and not want to pet him. The bad thing though is that Flynn can become distracted and fail to alert Hailey of an upcoming attack
Her father’s employee ignored the STOP sign on Flynn’s vest and started petting him. Flynn became distracted and couldn’t alert Hailey with enough anticipation, and this endangered her life
Hailey fell and suffered a strong blow to her head. If the employee had obeyed the warning sign, nothing like this would have ever happened
Thank God there were no serious consequences this time, but Hailey wants everyone to know: “PLEASE: NO PETTING SERVICE DOGS”
“The only time somebody should ever approach Flynn and I is if I am unconscious and/or having a seizure. Besides that, nobody should try to pet or get near him. I wish people could understand that’s what the giant stop sign patch means. If somebody distracts him I can get seriously hurt. If you see a service dog in public please educate your children, your friends, your family, anybody else that they are doing a really important job. Thank you.”
source: littlethings.com, barkpost.com, boredomtherapy.com)
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