Good dogs! How Bingo and Doug helped this Sask. teen earn the diploma no one thought he would
CBC
As teenagers stream out the door of Vanier Collegiate in Moose Jaw, one stands out from the rest.
His best friend and constant companion isn't a fellow graduating senior, but a loyal, conscientious black Labrador dog guide named Doug.
Doug and his predecessor, Bingo, helped Stephen Walcer, 18, deal with the frustrations of autism and fulfil his dream of graduating from high school.
"They've just been a friend for me for the past seven years — just always there and I could rely on them during hard times," he said of the two dog guides.
Getting his diploma wasn't even something he thought would be possible — until he got his first dog guide.
"My parents were told that they weren't sure if I would make it to high school and if I [did], it would be heavily modified," he said. "I'm just excited that I'm finally going to university."
In his early elementary school days, Walcer found the sensory overload at school overwhelming.
"One second could feel like it took an hour, and then 10 minutes could take half a second and everything just was out of whack and it just felt weird," he said, noting he would shut down after coming home.
His mother, Laurie Ewen, said those days were just as difficult for the family as they tried to help him when he would come home and unleash his pent-up frustration.
"If he got frustrated with us, he might dump a water bottle in his bed, which was done a few times, or he would have tantrum-like symptoms and be screaming and lashing out," she said, remembering his temper boiling over into trying to harm himself or others, or damage things in the house.
She anguished over seeing him isolated and struggling and was considering homeschooling when a neighbour with a service animal saw how Walcer responded to him.
"Whenever we went and visited him, I would always calm down and I just lay on the floor petting him forever and it just helped out a lot," Walcer said.
Through that neighbour, the family would connect with Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides, which supplied Walcer with his first dog guide, Bingo, when he was 10.
The foundation supplies these dogs, trained and placed at a cost of $35,000, free to people who qualify.
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