dog helps 8-year-old navigate world after losing eyesight to cancer

by: olivia hnatyshyndawn pickering vividly remembers exactly what the doctor told her in november 2019, when her son, ollie acosta-pickering, was first diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a form of cancer.“the most important success factor is to hold on to hope.”but little did her family know that the “hope” on the horizon would be a labrador retriever.in the months after the diagnosis, ollie lost his sight because of the disease. a short time later, he received a stem cell transplant from his older sister, abby.feeling overwhelmed navigating cancer treatments and ollie’s blindness, dawn looked for resources to help her son and was pointed towards the canadian national institute for the blind (cnib) and, more specifically, its guide dog program.“when we heard about the program, it really did actually give him hope,” dawn said. “it’s really hard when you have a seven-year-old, who’s that sick, to try and keep them motivated to want to go through all the pain and all the treatments.” ollie knew he had to get better to take care of a dog, though, and that was the motivation he needed.the organization matched ollie with a two-year-old lab coincidentally named hope. on march 5, 2021, hope was brought into their lives permanently.“we believe hope was meant for us,” dawn said.for ollie, there was an instant connection.“i really wanted a dog for a long time,” he said.“i got this beautiful, great girl, who responds to my every need and who’s making me more confident when i walk.”hope graduated from the cnib guide dog program wednesday along with 29 other dogs and officially became a “buddy dog.” buddy dogs are well-trained lifelong companions, but are not registered service animals.hope was originally trained as a guide dog, but showed slight sensitivity to the required harness, so she was switched to the buddy program. according to diane bergeron, president of cnib guide dogs, buddy dogs offer support to owners in many other ways as they hold almost all the skills of certified guide dogs.“we match the dog with a child or youth with sight loss, and it’s so that they can learn the responsibility of caring for a dog,” bergeron said. ollie also hopes to also own a seeing-eye dog when he’s older.“it helps to build the child’s confidence because now they have to walk the dog every day, and so they have to learn to use their cane more because the dog’s not guiding. it’s just walking,” bergeron said.“so, it gets them out and walking and it really helps with socialization.”for ollie, hope provides support, care, and protection. hope sleeps beside ollie, too, providing comfort from bad dreams as he adjusts to his circumstances.“she helps me mentally,” ollie said.“she always comes over to try to make me feel better.”dawn said hope fit in well with the entire family and provided a much-needed stress relief for all of them, as well as an opportunity to get outside everyday for exercise. she said she found comfort in how well hope was trained and how she had been able to help ollie with his independence.“she has all these amazing instincts to try and protect him, which as a mother obviously makes me feel pretty fantastic,” dawn said.the whole family feels appreciative that they were able to get hope so quickly, which has not been that easy during the covid-19 pandemic.bergeron said all guide dog programs in canada are facing an increase in demand, including cnib. the organization has seen demand for guide dogs rise 300 per cent during the pandemic, and, due to the ongoing border closure, organizations like cnib that don’t breed their own dogs face difficulties in reaching out to u.s. partners.“it’s important to indicate that covid has affected the entire world. but, for people with sight loss, not having access to a guide dog creates full isolation,” bergeron said.however, the cnib guide dog program has continued to offer services throughout the pandemic, including help with training and covering the cost of veterinary bills for families. ollie and his family said they are grateful for the work of cnib and are excited about the annual pup crawl, a virtual five-kilometre movement event designed to raise funds for the guide dogs program that started wednesday.“we believe hope was meant for us. we believe that, at the end of the day, you know, everything works out the way that it’s supposed to,” dawn said.“but we also believe that those other families deserve to get dogs, too.”