One researcher’s fight to open labs to service dogs
Researcher Joey Ramp’s brain injury and nerve damage meant that she needed a service dog in the lab, and roadblocks ended her PhD pursuit
Before former horse trainer Joey Ramp suffered a brain injury and extensive nerve damage to her left side from a polo accident in February 2006, she had never imagined a career in research or in disability rights advocacy. Yet here she is, working to encourage universities and research facilities to develop guidelines for service animals in labs, and shaking up academic science in the process.
Sampson, a white golden retriever, has been Ramp’s partner since 2016. He is her constant companion at home, on hikes, and in the molecular cellular neurobiology lab at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where she works. As her lab assistant, Sampson fully dresses the part – wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) like goggles, a lab coat and even boots.
Ramp began working with Sampson in the summer of 2016, when he was fresh from basic training. She spent about nine months teaching him to be her partner. ‘We had to individualise and personalise him being my service dog, and then also teach him how to wear the PPE and how to behave in a lab,’ Ramp recalls.