Dog Tales Therapy Helps Children to Read in Pittsburgh

The Western PA Humane Society has teamed up with Sewickley Public Library to help children improve their reading by practicing the skill in a fun, nonjudgmental environment. The dogs are brought in for children to snuggle up with while reading.

Read more from the article by Jane Miller, for The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

…Butter is a rescued therapy dog owned by 13-year-old Maggie Dobbins, who started “Dog Tales” as a Girl Scout service-award project at Sewickley Public Library.

…”The younger children are often more comfortable, because a dog doesn’t correct them,” Maggie says. “I’m listening to them read, and I think, ‘Oh, you missed that word.’ But I don’t say anything because it’s the dog they are reading to — and a dog wouldn’t correct them.”

For the past month, nearly two dozen children in kindergarten through third grade, have benefitted each week, as Maggie, Butter, and adult handlers with their therapy dogs representing the Western PA Humane Society, spread out over the floor of the library to listen to a different child read every 15 minutes.

“It is just wonderful to have this program for the library,” children’s librarian Rita Crawford says. Earlier in the fall, Maggie had approached her, and together they picked out appropriate books.

“We have all sorts of dog books — chapter books and picture books — and some kids bring their own books,” Maggie, a seventh grader in Quaker Valley Middle School, says.