‘Paws’ for worship

Erb Street Mennonite welcomes and socializes future guide dogs fostered by church families

September 6, 2016 | Web First
Leona Dueck Penner | Special to Canadian Mennonite
Waterloo, Ont.

Erb Street Mennonite Church not only welcomes all people who enter its doors, as its vision statement indicates, but it also extends that same welcome to “future guide dogs.” These animals are being fostered and given basic training during puppyhood by two church families, before entering intensive training with the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides program. After that training they will serve as companions for people with various disabilities.

Cecilia Erb, a grade 7 student at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener, and Andrew Scheifele, senior safety officer at the University of Waterloo, offer glimpses into what fostering involves, and what it is like to love and care for these dogs from puppyhood to almost a year old. Then they will say farewell to the dogs, who will go for further training. Erb’s family has done this twice, first with Vonn, who left a year ago, and again with Wunder, to whom they said goodbye a few Sundays ago. Scheifele’s family are presently fostering their first dog, Judo.

‘A ball of love, loyalty and help’

From Erb’s perspective, the future guide dog fostering program is all about “helping disabled people by giving them a trained dog that is a ball of love, loyalty and help, all wrapped up in fur!” And despite the sadness of farewells, she feels good about having contributed to this by fostering Vonn and Wunder, especially after seeing Vonn again at his training graduation, where she met his hearing-impaired handler.

“He was so happy to see us but also very happy to be with his new companion,” she says. “That made it much easier to let go. We all left happy and proud. Also, we got to see him at Christmas, and we’ll be seeing Wunder at Christmas this year too!”

Both dogs have experienced church. Indeed, Wunder came to Erb Street the day after he arrived in the Erb household, which includes Cecilia’s parents David Erb and Leanne Baer and her brother Oliver. “So he's always been pretty comfortable [at Erb Street] and attended 10 or 15 times,” Erb explains. “Mostly when he was a puppy, because when he got older he began to misbehave. . . . The kids at church loved him! He has a gentle nature, and doesn't get riled up too easily. The adults have been great, too. They’ll come up and ask how he’s doing and ask before touching him, which is really helpful for his handler.”

Erb figures that there isn't actually that much involved in fostering puppies, aside from caring for and socializing them by taking them to public places such as malls, restaurants, grocery stores, libraries and churches.

“Mostly we taught them the basics: ‘Sit, stay, down, heel, leave it,’” she says. “Our main job was to love them as they went through the puppy stage‎, since they’ll have lots of very intense training later.” In Wunder’s case, training will prepare the dog to assist a person with autism.

“The hardest thing about fostering dogs is that I always had it in the back of my mind that I better not get too attached, because they’d have to leave soon,” Erb says. “It’s really, really difficult for me to let them go. Having done this twice, my family is now looking into keeping dogs.”

As for what she’s learned from these experiences, Erb says, “Nothing lasts forever, so you'd better love it while you have it!”

‘A way of giving back to the community’

Scheifele, his wife, Anna Marie Cipriani, and daughter, Kalena, began fostering freshly weaned Judo five months ago, after their interest in fostering was piqued by Kalena’s friend who dog-sits for families in another program. “[We decided] it’s a way of giving back to the community, and having some fun doing so,” he says.

“Fostering a guide dog means exposing him/her to all aspects of your life,” he explains. “Judo goes to work with me, rides the bus, shops, ‘eats out,’ and, of course, goes to church with us—either to Erb Street, which has been wonderfully welcoming of Judo, or to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, where my wife and daughter participate in the choir. He’s only joined in ‘singing’ with them once! Otherwise, he seems to enjoy the music in both churches.”

“Whether at church, work or in the community, Judo opens doors with people that would otherwise not open,” he says. “On campus, people know his name but not mine.” People are very good at acknowledging his vest and understand what it means. “As his primary handler, I’ve had a lot of pleasure working with Judo and look at him as a temporary gift to us that we get to polish and give to someone else.”

As for fostering again, Scheifele admits, “You go into the process knowing that it’s a short-term assignment, but you can’t help becoming attached. . . . So until we go through the experience of letting Judo go, we aren't ready to decide.”

Like Erb, he believes that it’s important to “enjoy what life presents you while you have it.”

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