 One thing I wanted to ask you about because on Instagram your name is purple Ella and Coco and Before yeah before we got here to chat. I had a look at your YouTube channel And your video about autism assistance dogs Would you like to tell everybody a little bit about what it is like to have a Coco in your life. Yeah, I mean I can talk about dogs all day long So happy to dive into that one. Yeah, so I've had Coco since she was a puppy and Have owner trained her as my assistant dog with the support of an organization that supports with things like Trainers and insurance and stuff to help you do that with in a kind of supported way. Did that make sense? Yeah, so I would say working with Coco is has been life-changing for me in that I'm now able to like attend hospital appointments and go shopping and stuff on my own Where previously I would have had to have made my husband take the day off work and come and do it with me But it isn't without its challenges. So I always like to say that like on the one hand. I've got this amazing support and Relationship with this animal that I absolutely adore and who is the most uncomplicated Relationship that I have in the I'm never worrying. You know, you're autistic. I'm never worrying. Does she like me? Did I say the wrong thing? What does that facial expression mean? You know, she's just like solidly consistently the way she is and she doesn't answer back and she never disagrees with me I loved yeah, yeah, exactly But on the other hand Especially if your owner training an assistance dog and especially if you're quite a black and white thinker They're not perfect not even guide dogs for the blind are perfectly behaved all the time And I think I kind of thought they were before I became an assistance dog handler I kind of thought an assistance dog was just almost like a robot that never had a bad day, right? But they do they have bad days and sometimes the training doesn't work And that can be really frustrating and no matter how I'm feeling I've got to walk her and I've got to care for her You know, which can be a good thing because it kind of keeps you motivated, but can also be a bit of a challenge But for me, I absolutely love working with Coco and I'm also the ambassador One of the ambassadors for dogs for autism who are a charity in the UK who provide fully trained Dogs to autistic people of all ages, which is awesome because actually all the other charities are doing brilliant work But no one's working with autistic adults apart from these guys in the UK. Yeah, I kind of I kind of really care about this Yeah, I think the the looking after and the walking and the the feeding is because I've You know thought about getting an assistance dog because throughout my life. I've had I Mean my my big brother was a dog Lovely lovely mongrel from them from the kennel called Bob Called him Bobby dog great dog. No, and he I think he I think he lived up until he's about 14 or 15 and He was he was definitely like a massive emotional support for me I think that the issue for me comes in that I still haven't sorted out all the executive functioning issues that I have and You know even getting myself to eat and getting myself out to a walk would be difficult One one thing that I that I sort of picked up when you were you were talking about Autism assistance dogs is that you've had a lot of difficulties with accessing venues Places that you know should should be accessible and I think you said in the video that there's you know Denying someone who has an assistance dog into into a venue is you know against the law. It's it's a reasonable adjustment Have you had have you had many experiences like that or is it more of an isolated? Yeah No, unfortunately, it does happen regularly and I kind of thought it was maybe happening regularly to me because I work with a dog It doesn't look like most assistance dogs You see kind of black labs or golden retrievers right whereas cocoa is a small fluffy dog So I thought maybe it's that maybe people aren't used to seeing that but I've been following YouTuber Molly Burke who is blind and she works with the guide dog and she has access problems And I'm like if someone with the most well-known most obviously working dog Is having problems with access we all are right? Yeah So what I've started to do is I have I found it really stressful for the first year or so of working with cocoa having to explain every time Actually, we are covered by the equality law Actually, you do have to let us in and you know dealing with that was like almost more anxiety provoking than not having the dog in some instances Yeah, I think there was one particular memorable instance when I wasn't allowed to do a COVID PCR test with her They just wouldn't let me in and I only would they not let me in but they were quite aggressive in their manner with me So that was quite stressful. So after that particular incidents with a big kind of beefy Yeah, yeah, it was a lot after that I realized that what I could do was and this is kind of anyone that's got a dog Assistance dog. You can do this is I got from Etsy a card that has a QR code I can literally just go just scan this and it takes them to a place where all the law around Assistance dogs is explained and since I've been using that it's gotten a lot easier because I'm just like here's my card Just do and half the time. They don't even scan it. They're just like, oh, right. Okay, then But it saves I think as an autistic person Anything that saves the need to do more communication than I have to is a helpful thing. Yeah, especially with answers. I I have a particular aversion to any security or security staff or bounces because I'm very heavily PDA and I find it really difficult That there's been sometimes that sometimes when I've gone to like the pub with my friends or or something and if And it's I always find I always find myself getting very on-age and very annoyed Around the security stuff Yeah, well, I'm not gonna say that I walked away shouting words that I wouldn't use this podcast Guy in the end that might have been what happened. Oh, they're just so I Could go I could go on about it forever. But yeah, he basically treated me like I was a precious Karen and I think that's I think as a as a white female presenting middle-aged person The Karen kind of meme or however you would describe it has not been helpful for me Because for example like a couple of days ago, I was having to say to someone Why don't you have a blue badge parking space a disabled parking space? I needed one. You don't have one You've got a 20 20 cars park art You've got a 20 car Car park You should have it and the way they treat me was like I was being the Karen and I wasn't saying mate My coffee isn't the right temperature I was saying I have an access need that you're not meeting but I feel like I get that vibe a lot and this security guard was Definitely giving me that I just think you're a precious, you know Karen type You have to you have to deal with those circumstances where people don't let you in because of because of Coco a Lot so I imagine that it's quite like oh here we go again Honestly, I think the biggest problem is not so much that because at least in that situation I know that the law is on my side I've talked about it enough now to know that the law is on my side that I can handle it The biggest problem is people who want to pet her. Yes, I get so every single time I leave the house with my assistant's dog 50% of the people we come across will want to pet her or interact with her And that's really difficult because I've spent a long time training her to ignore people when we're working So if they're trying to do that, that's a really mixed message for her. And so then I'm having to say to people Sometimes like really cute elderly people or people with children, you know, so you feel awful Like actually, can you just ignore her? And I don't know how to say it in a way and because I'm autistic I don't know how I'm struggling to say in a way that doesn't sound mean Yeah, and I find that that's probably the biggest problem more than the kind of access thing So if anyone listening to this podcast takes anything away from what I'm saying It's if you see a service dog or an assistant's dog working. Don't even look at them. Just ignore them I suppose there's a lot of Unexpected and unwanted social interaction when you're just kind of wanting to go out for a day But dog dogs are definitely a magnet to a lot of people Yeah, I mean it can be good. I don't want to leave on an entirely negative It can be a positive it can mean that I have a nice little social interaction with someone with a very scripted easy, you know Topic but in general if you see me about with my dog if you could just ignore us that Brilliant