Service dog helps local family
The signs were subtle that their son Kyle had autism for Prince George parents Heather Marceniuk and Norm Garfield.
Diagnosed in May 2019, Kyle was struggling to identify emotions in social settings, which led to difficulties in his interactions with other people. Those crossed signals created anxiety and Kyle would react by bolting from the scene when he became overwhelmed and his sudden urge to run away put his own safety in danger. After two years of questioning Kyle’s peculiar character traits, Heather and Norm knew something wasn’t right with their oldest son and they sought help.
“We had no idea what we were facing and we had to do a lot of research on our own,” said Heather.
Rather than endure a two-year wait list to have him assessed locally, they went to a private clinic in Kelowna, which diagnosed his autism. Kyle’s ability to recognize emotions will likely never come naturally to him and his parents and behaviour specialists in therapy sessions have been training him how to pick up on social cues. The big breakthrough for nine-yearold Kyle came late last year when a service dog named Rufus came to the rescue.
An anonymous donor provided a donation to the BC and Alberta Guide Dogs, a not-for-profit group based in Delta, to pay for the training of a service dog for a kid with autism who lives in Prince George. That dog is Rufus, a three-year-old black Labrador retriever, and in November he became a life-changing addition to the family.
“They don’t normally provide dogs to higher-functioning people but Kyle was struggling with anxiety,” said Heather.
Rufus knows what signs to watch for and what to do if or when Kyle has another panic attack.
“These dogs are trained, not only for the anxiety portion and just a calming effect, but when Rufus is wearing his vest there’s a waist tether that Kyle can wear if we’re in a very busy situation or if he’s having a tough day and we’re not sure how things are going to go,” said Heather.
“If Rufus feels Kyle trying to bolt, he’s trained to sit and anchor, so that gives me a chance to try and control the situation and keep him out of danger. It’s amazing. I have to say, since we’ve had Rufus we haven’t had one bolting situation. Kyle has come leaps and bounds since we received Rufus. The relationship of him and Kyle has changed our lives immensely.”
Kyle possesses exceptional mental abilities and his proficiency with numbers goes beyond his years. He’s an avid sports enthusiast who regularly blows his dad away with his knowledge of statistics. He loves watching hockey games on TV and checks Norm’s phone to find out how other teams in the league are doing and whether they’re creeping up in the standings on his favourite team, the Edmonton Oilers.
He has a close relationship with his seven-year-old brother Jakob, an anthem singer at Spruce Kings games, and their constant companion Rufus has played a big role in helping teach Kyle how to modify his own behaviour.
“He makes me happy,” said Kyle. The family is seeking permission from the school district to have Rufus in school with Kyle when he returns for Grade 5 classes in September at Heather Park Elementary.
“He gets Kyle, he’s also trained for deep-pressure therapy,” said Heather.
“So If Kyle is having a time where he’s not able to regulate himself, we’ve had to train Kyle to use Rufus and he’s trained to lay on top of his legs or snuggle with him in bed and you can physically see the anxiety lessen within a minute.
“(Kyle) is the kindest soul I know and wants happiness for everyone in his life, he just doesn’t understand what that looks like.
“Since having Rufus, he has been brave enough to start verbalizing his thoughts and feelings to us and others. He has taught us patience, strength and acceptance and he makes us want to be better people. In a nutshell, he’s a gift to our lives and we are so proud of him.”
Kyle wanted to do something to pay back the generosity of the donor who provided Rufus and began a fundraising project for BCAGD, selling fire-starter kits his grandmother taught him how to make. Consisting of a paper cupcake liner which holds dryer lint and dried pinecones covered in candle wax, the kit burns for 20 minutes and can be used to set ablaze even with the wettest wood, and they’ve been selling rapidly. His original goal of raising $500 by the end of summer was annihilated in one day when he collected $1,800. Now, with $2,082 in the kitty, Kyle‘s summer goal is to raise $3,000 by the end of Labour Day weekend and he continues to collect money through e-transfers to Garfield4@ outlook.com.
“It’s amazing how kind and generous people are, the people in our lives have seen the amazing difference since we received Rufus,” said Heather.
It costs about $30,000 to produce a trained dog, including breeding costs and 16 weeks of training. That also covers the cost of a lifelong after-care program which involves annual public access test of the animals and their owners to recertify and ensure they are still able to be handled properly in public.
BC and Alberta Guide Dogs provides guide dogs for blind or visually-impaired people and also trains service dogs usually Labrador retrievers or sometimes golden retrievers – for veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD or an operational stress injury. Since 1996, the organization has been providing guide dogs certified from the BC justice Institute and in 2008 began connecting autistic children aged three to 10 with service dogs.
Rufus is the first autistic service dog the group has ever provided in northern B.C., but he certainly won’t be the last, according to the BCAGD CEO Bill Thornton.
“We received some funding from a member of your community who felt that in all things with service dogs and guide dogs that all parts of northern parts of B.C. are underserviced, which is a true statement, but not for lack of trying on our part,” said Thornton. “We approached (Northern Autism Awareness) and asked them to put out a message to say we had some funding and would like to support a family in P.G. We got some responses and this was first of that and there will be more to follow.”
The charitable group has had a difficult time maintaining its fundraising efforts during the pandemic and Thornton applauds Kyle’s efforts to give back for what he has received. Ideally, he said his organization is ultimately trying to provide free of charge 10 autistic service dogs, 10 guide dogs for the visually impaired and 20 PTSD service dogs annually and he said Kyle’s project will help make that happen.
“It’s a great family and what they’re doing for us is amazing,” said Thornton. “When the families put back to support us like that it’s a wonderful thing.”