'A girl repeatedly hit my assistance dog while her mum was engrossed in her phone'

A chronically-ill woman claims a school girl repeatedly hit her assistance dog while the child’s mother was engrossed in her mobile phone.

Ella Walker, 19, said her multi-purpose assistance dog Ralph, a two year old golden retriever, was so distracted by the incident he failed to warn her that she was about to faint. Ella suffers from chronic illnesses including ME and a fainting condition called Dysautonomia.

Ralph has been specially trained to help her with tasks like finding her a seat, retrieving items for her and warning her if she is at risk of fainting. But Ella said he was unable to perform these tasks as an upper primary school aged girl approached them and tried to feed Ralph chocolate before hitting him while her parent was distracted on her phone.

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"I was a little bit like 'hmm this is a bit strange'," said Ella, from Petersfield, Hampshire. “The mother occasionally looked up and laughed.”

The incident, on 17 September, caused Ralph to miss a critical medical alert, Ella said, leading her to experience a medical episode where she became very light headed in the town centre unexpectedly.

"Normally he can tell through the smell of my breath that an episode is coming," she said. “My heart rate suddenly shoots up, and he can alert me, allowing me to get to a safe place and lie down."

Fortunately, Ella could feel it coming and managed to go to a quieter place to lie down until the wave of light-headedness eventually went away. But she fears she may have come to harm if she had been in a busier environment.

Ella, a student and part-time assistance dog trainer, said: "The incident led me into a medical episode and really impacted my