At Laurier, we seem to be characterized by our love of dogs. Walking across campus is a joy because we get to see all the service dogs in training.
In addition to the dogs on campus grounds and common areas, the classroom is a popular place where your friendly canine friends will take a snooze below their trainer’s feet.
But what about when those good, trained dogs end up in their forever homes with the people who require their assistance?
Michelle Borg, puppy raiser for the organization National Service Dogs, explained that service dogs work to make various environments more accessible for people who use them as an aid.
“My role, along with the other 100-plus families who puppy-raise, is to socialize the puppies and teach them basic commands and behaviour to be able to live in a home and work in public places,” Borg said.
“I wanted to be a volunteer because, first of all, I love animals and also because of the opportunity it offers to change someone’s life,” Borg said.
Katie Brandon-Wheeler is a second year Wilfrid Laurier University student who is currently training a future dog guide with the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides.
Brandon-Wheeler explained the obstacles of raising a dog guide. In her opinion, the commitment to a dog guide is extensive but manageable.
“It’s been difficult but rewarding. It’s difficult because you need to realize that you take them to all your classes with you and you take them to lectures and she [Westlyn, Brandon-Wheeler’s dog] has good days and bad days,” she said.
“She goes to training once a month in Breslau at the Lions Foundation. There, we teach her things like to walk beside us, along with special commands. Usually once a month, they also do a home inspection or you go to the mall where it’s a busy environment and they see how she does.”
And these dogs do change people’s lives.
“It’s not so much about need [of service dogs] than quality of life,” Danielle Forbes, executive director of National Service Dogs, said. “Do you want to go through 50 years of life living with that kind of anxiety and fear… or, for the addition of a dog and the additional support, having a fulfilled life? For me, that’s a pretty easy trade off.”
For the Fee family, it seems like a pretty easy trade off as well.
Kenner Fee, a nine-year-old fourth-grader in the Waterloo District Catholic School Board, has autism. To assist him, he has a service dog named Ivy.
The Human Rights Tribunal recently upheld the decision of the school board to bar Ivy from coming to school with Kenner, claiming that the Fee family did not provide sufficient evidence that Ivy’s presence helped Kenner with his education.
His family has been trying to get Ivy into the classroom with Kenner for three and a half years.
“Ivy helps regulate [Kenner’s] anxiety and that can’t be quantified,” Craig Fee, Kenner’s father, said.
The Human Rights Tribunal recently upheld the decision of the school board to bar Ivy from coming to school with Kenner, claiming that the Fee family did not provide sufficient evidence that Ivy’s presence helped Kenner with his education.
“How can you prove that your [mental disability] is severe enough that you require a service dog?” Fee continued.
Fee also explained that Kenner’s doctors, therapists, the Lions Foundation [the organization that provided his dog] and even the staff at the school all agreed that Kenner’s quality of life improves when his service dog is present.
“We were never told, and we still don’t know, what would it have taken for Kenner to qualify to have his service dog in class,” Fee claimed.
To make matters worse, Fee also claims that, at the Human Rights Tribunal, Kenner’s special education resource teacher testified that “he would be open to Kenner and Ivy in the classroom at this point because he feels he has exhausted all possible options.”
For Justin Leckie, a Wilfrid Laurier University student in the music program, his service dog is an asset in his daily life. A service dog was recommended for him by a psychiatrist.
“I was having an assessment done and the psychiatrist suggested it would be really helpful. That’s when we started exploring it. This was about a year ago,” he said.
“With high anxiety, [with the psychiatrist] knowing what she did about service dogs, I guess she thought that they would do the things that I thought they said they would do. The affect they have [on people] fits with my needs,” he continued.
According to Forbes, service dogs can help regulate the anxiety and bolting behaviour of children with autism, as well as help people with PTSD to prevent self-isolation.
Fee also explained that his son has bolting behaviour and is often tethered to his dog. He explained that Kenner’s anxiety levels are dramatically reduced when he has Ivy to help him.
Of course, there will always be the argument that these people who require service dogs could just go somewhere else. But it’s not that simple.
According to Fee, his son does not want to leave his friends, teachers, educational assistant and the general school environment, despite this lack of accommodation.
Kenner likes school. No one should be forced into an uncomfortable situation simply because of a disability.
“Our relationship with the people in the school has been nothing but supportive,” Fee claimed. “It’s the unfortunate scenario where the people above them don’t wish to allow the staff… to use this tool, which is completely free to them — it does not cost a cent.”
Now Kenner is on what is called a modified curriculum. He learns at the grade level in which he can receive a grade of B, rather than being on an accommodated curriculum where he would be doing work at his grade level with accommodations.
Leckie seems to have been luckier with his classroom accommodations.
“For every situation what they give is different but they ultimately offer the skills, protection and care that the client needs to live in a world that does not offer the accessibility that they require.”
Eponine is Leckie’s service dog and she assists with his everyday life as a student navigating through university. Anxiety can strike at any time for Leckie and Eponine helps with the everyday challenges he faces.
“Just to see [Eponine] makes me calmer; to see her and to touch her makes me feel calmer than I am,” Leckie said.
“She already is doing it without being trained. She comes up to me and she’ll put her head on my lap or get right up on my lap. She’ll try and come up to me like a hug or something like that. She kind of knows if you’re feeling anxious,” Leckie said.
Borg agrees that Service dogs are important when it comes to the individual living their best life. They help with everyday challenges and help the individual tackle those challenges with the support they need.
“I think service dogs are important because they give the people they work with a chance to live to their absolute full potential,” Borg said.
“For every situation what they give is different but they ultimately offer the skills, protection and care that the client needs to live in a world that does not offer the accessibility that they require.”
With regards to Leckie and his experience, Eponine has given him the confidence to be more outgoing.
Doug Chivas, a professional service dog trainer for Canine Support Services says that service dogs in general help with confidence building.
“I’ve worked with older individuals with Asperger’s and what happens is [that] the dog helps with communication and then confidence building which opens doors [for the individual],” he explained.
“They’re very comforting … they make you feel more confident.”
“They make you have more confidence about yourself personally, which make you more confident outwardly as well and they make you feel more stable [which will help] stabilize your mood,” Leckie continued.
Leckie also said that Laurier has been supportive in the sense that no one has ever stopped Eponine from coming into a classroom or from being on campus.
“They have been very supportive in terms of her being here and being in the school. They have been very accommodating,” Leckie said.
Despite the acceptance that Leckie gets on campus, his own journey is not without struggle. Due to the age Leckie was diagnosed he is not able to receive funding to train Eponine, so that is something he must take on himself.
He has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for training, but the continued support from the Laurier community has not gone unnoticed.
Unfortunately, this is not the reality for the Fee family and other families who have experienced this.
The scariest part is that Fee is already seeing situations like Kenner’s on the rise. He claims that another Catholic school board in the Halton Region is now also taking steps to remove a service dog from their classrooms — and that’s just the beginning.
“The other kids with autism or PTSD … can now be questioned,” Fee said.
However, there is still some hope for children like Kenner.
Fee explained that the MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, Michael Harris, is collecting paper copies of a petition to close the loophole that currently allows school boards to override the decisions of children’s medical teams with regards to service dogs.
“Vador, my second, is seven months old and is already mastering his basic skills. He’s learning to be comfortable in places such as movie theatres, on public transit and in restaurants. He already is so calm and grounded that he puts people at ease.”
Once enough names are received with Ontario addresses, he will bring this issue up at legislation.
Kenner’s lack of accommodation is not the only challenge that is faced by the disabled community.
Forbes also stressed her concerns with assumptions raised about the people on the other end of a service dog’s leash.
“A lot of times, adults that are out with the dogs who have invisible disabilities, [whether] it’s PTSD, or seizure disorder or diabetes, people will think the dog isn’t actually a working service dog. [The public] will assume that person is a trainer, not the actual user,” Forbes said.
“And if the dog is in a jacket, you should assume that the dog is working for the person at the end of the leash. Those are probably the biggest misconceptions for people to realize: that there are invisible disabilities that make the dog a significant part of somebody’s journey.”
Brandon-Wheeler explains that she has had some struggles with students on campus trying to pet Westlyn while she was working.
“A lot of people at Laurier know that these are service dogs or dog guides and to not pet them, but I find a lot of first years don’t know. The biggest thing that I want everyone to know is that we’re not being rude when we tell you [that] you can’t pet them; she’s working and she’s in training.”
Regardless, the cycle of training dogs to help those people continues.
Borg has raised a now-graduated service dog named Huxley. She is currently raising a seven-month-old service dog named Vador.
Both of the dogs are part of the National Service Dogs organization and have special stories to tell.
“Huxley, my first, is a certified PTSD service dog. She is now working with her forever family and helps them feel safe and secure. She is incredibly attentive and is able to recognize her client’s triggers and helps her tackle the challenges of living with PTSD,” Borg said.
“Vador, my second, is seven months old and is already mastering his basic skills. He’s learning to be comfortable in places such as movie theatres, on public transit and in restaurants. He already is so calm and grounded that he puts people at ease.”
Hopefully Vador and his comrades can help people, both within the classroom and outside of it, to feel more confident and welcome in the world around them.
At the time of print, Waterloo District Catholic School Board had not responded to The Cord’s request for comment.
