Good dogs! How Bingo and Doug helped this Sask. teen earn the diploma no one thought he would
Dog guides helped Stephen Walcer cope with symptoms of autism
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 autismand 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."
Sensory overload
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 wouldshut down after coming home.
His mother, Laurie Ewen, said those days were just as difficult for the family as they tried tohelp 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 homeschoolingwhen a neighbour with a service animalsaw 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 placedat a cost of $35,000, free to people who qualify.
Ewen said the moment the two met for the first time at the airport is "imprinted" in her heart.
"Just the two of them, the first time they saw each other, it was just instant love," she recalled. "Stephen went down onto the ground, gave Bingo a big hug and Bingo just gave him tons of kisses and they were inseparable from that point forward."
Bingo retired earlier this year, and Doug took over to provide Walcer companionship.
Bingo can also sense when Walceris overstimulated and willhop on his lap and exert deep pressure on him.
Other times, Dougwill just sleep at his feet in class, releasing a gentle snore at times and breaking students into giggles.
"I think I've become way more outgoing because I'm able to handle all these social situations and just meet new people," Walcer said.
Doug will be by his side when he crosses the stage to receive his diploma, and movesinto the next chapter of life at the University of Saskatchewan, where Walcer plans to study engineering.
That moment will be bittersweet for Ewen.
"It's my baby. He's getting ready to fly the coop. So that's kind of the bitter part of it," she said. "But the sweet part is he made it. [Graduating is]something we weren't sure was going to happen and he did it."
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