this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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I wonder - how exactly does this work?
For all I know, service dogs primarily help blind people or those with severe mental health issues.
The former must make working in a lab near impossible as most things are observed visually and also making an organized spot for a blind researcher must require thorough preparation and heavy assistance for every experiment. The latter might behave unpredictably, which doesn't pair well with a lab environment, and might prompt the dog to rush to support without minding the environment, amplifying the issue.
Also, dog is an animal, and while they can be trained to behave well, they are unlikely to remember all safety rules, especially in a critical situation where they need to focus on aiding the owner.
I might be wrong by all points, since I didn't ever see service dogs in a lab environment, and don't commonly see them around, but I come from a point of genuine interest.
Could be an Alert Dog. I have e a neighbor with one, the Dog's job is "Be a Dog unless daddy is about to go into diabetic shock, then calmly alert until someone does something."
Not all service dogs have super big jobs, some are just like organic blood tests.
Interesting, the more I know!
Might teach my family diabetic's cat some tricks, lol
Cats are theoretically capable of this, but the problem is that they're much harder to train than dogs are.
There seems to be at least one case of it though
Food source servant is dying. There’s probably another food source servant available so meh. In the meantime the food source servant can be eaten while I wait.
There are many people who are very blind but not completely so (e.g. really can't see anything at a distance). They may be able to operate well in a lab environment.
There are people whose mental health issues are rare or can often be prevented with a service animal. Their "breakdowns" are likely not destructive anyway, so no real risk to the lab itself.
Service animals also sometimes help to warn that someone is about to have a seizure, so they can go somewhere safe.
I had a friend whose service animal was trained to get her pill container from her purse or bag and bring it to her if she collapsed or otherwise called for them. Not sure what they were, never really asked or talked about it since she never initiated the topic but it was apparently sufficiently life threatening if she were to lose stability in a manner where she couldn’t take her medicine shortly after. I only really knew because there were some rooms her service animal was not authorized to enter and I would fulfill that role for her in those situations.
so you knew enough to give her medication, but had no idea what it was?
I knew to go retrieve the bottle bag for her, I never asked what was in it and she didn’t offer. It was I little Velcro bag that had long cloth things on either end for her service dog to pick up with his mouth from either side to pull out of her purse or bag so I never saw the actual pill bottle(s). Just a quick, if something goes down I need you to grab this bag for me and shove it into my right hand. I said you got it and that was kind of the end of it. Guess I figured if she wanted to talk about it more she would have initiated a discussion. She always got questions and pestering about her service dog being around as it was already so I kind of felt like being a good friend to her was just being someone that was there for her without all the questions. I haven’t talked to her in years though so maybe not, idk.
Got it, thanks!
I mean they can be taking labs for an unrelated major like engineering. Still have to do a few chem classes for that
Fair, but I thought they may have some alternative route to get their credit
I'm my engineering degree chem 1,2, and 3 were required