Dog works at school
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
For students at Sacred Heart Academy, seeing a dog wandering the halls is an everyday thing. The dog, Dublin, is there to work and not for the reason many might think of.
Dublin is from Dog Guides Canada and he belongs to 11-year-old Mason Davis.
When Mason was almost three he was diagnosed with profound Autism.
“We were at the Children’s hospital in Calgary and another mom had mentioned it to me, and they were fairly new back then,” said Roxanne Davis, Mason’s mom. The family she had spoken to were with the program Dogs with Jobs.
“We looked them up and we decided it would be a good idea for Mason because he was such a flight risk and you had to always be hanging onto him. We just kind of thought that perhaps a dog guide would give him a greater sense of independence and it has done that for us.”
The family started with Zeus, who came from the National Service Dogs program. “I’m not exactly sure what we would have done without Zeus. Zeus has been a huge companion for him. We weren’t able to go to restaurants before we got him or even Calaway Park or the zoo or anything like that. It was just overwhelming for him,” said Roxanne.
Mason has gone through a number of surgeries and having Zeus there has been a big help to the family. Mason doesn’t like to be cuddled or touched a lot while recovering, but always likes to have Zeus there with him.
“It’s hard as a parent to watch your child recover from surgery and to know that they’re comforted as much as possible and that for me has been really helpful.”
The Davis’s recently had to replace Zeus, who has worked for them for seven years. In February the family went through Dog Guides to get Dublin.
“We got Zeus through National Service Dogs, and the trainer who trained him moved on to Dog Guides, we just moved on with the trainer,” said Davis.
The trainer was Chris Fowler. Chris and Heather Fowler started the National Service Dogs program in 1996.