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Therapy dogs help kids read at library

CLIFTON PARK (Oct. 7) — See Dick read. See Jane read. See Spot listen. Listen, Spot, listen. Listen to Dick and Jane read.

OK, the children aren’t named Dick and Jane, and the dog’s name is Kasey. But she does listen to children read every month or so at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.

Kasey the therapy dog and her owner, Denise Barbs, help children with their reading at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.

Kasey, a trained therapy dog, is the star attraction of “Wagging Their Tails for Tales,” a library program for children in grades 1-4.

“She loves it,” owner Denise Barb said about Kasey, a 9-year-old black lab. “The kids walk in there, and she wants to greet them. After they are done reading, I have the kids made her do a little trick.”

The kids love it, too, that the dogs are such happy listeners.

“The great thing about it is dogs didn’t judge you,” Barb said. “They just lay there and listen.”

The library’s program is just one of several around the nation that uses dogs and cats to help children become more excited about reading.

“We have seen students who normally are the last to volunteer to read out loud be so excited to read to the dog that they could hardly wait for their turn,” said Karen Armsey, program administrator of the Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee program at the University of Tennessee’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “We have also had students who go home and make a family member sit down with them so that they could practice reading so that they would be better readers to the H.A.B.I.T. team.”

Reading to a dog not only gets children to open up, it can help them improve their reading skills.

“When we were doing our book, we found out that reading to a therapy dog raises children’s reading one whole grade level,” said Chris Hamer, coauthor of “Parenting with Pets, the Magic of Raising Children with Animals.”

Hamer says interacting with an animal causes lower blood pressure and more relaxing breathing in children, producing a calming effect during reading and other homework. She even suggests families with pets incorporate the animals into the homework routine.

“You can say, ‘Why don’t we go read to Buffy? I really think she would like that story,’” said Hamer, who is the education chair of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

Kasey has been a therapy dog for two years, having undergone training and certification from Therapy Dogs International.

“I just knew my dog was a very friendly dog and thought she would be good working with children,” Barbs said. “I have three kids, so she knows what it’s like to have kids lay on her and tug her tail.”

In addition to her work at the library, Kasey has also visited a special needs class at a Shen elementary school.

“She really enjoyed that,” Barbs said. “The kids gave her so much attention.”

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