Dogs Good Listeners As Children Hone Skills
By Jenny Marberry
The Morning News/NWAonline.net
FAYETTEVILLE -- Area youth will have a "pawsitively" educational summer as the Fayetteville Public Library is holding the "Sit, Stay, Read" program to help elementary school students with reading skills.
Four volunteer trainers and their dogs from Pawsitive Connection in Fayetteville will listen to children read each Saturday from books in the Early Learning Literacy program used by the Fayetteville Public Schools, said Lolly Greenwood, manager of children's services at Fayetteville Public Library.
Each of the 12 children participating in the program signed up for a 15-minute time period to read to one of four dogs.
The program is on referral-basis only, although Greenwood said she hopes to expand the program in future years. The majority of the children do not speak English as a first language, she said, but hope to have a better command of the language by the end of the eight-week program.
The Morning News bought 220 literacy books that vary in reading levels and help the tutors gauge where the children are in terms of their reading level compared to where they should be.
"We're so excited The Morning News is helping us," Greenwood said. "It will enable us to buy the books we need for the kids to read every Saturday."
The Animal Medical Clinic also is a sponsor, Greenwood said.
The dogs' owners will serve as tutors and will help the children enhance their reading skills, as well as monitor the progress of the children in their files. The children will undergo an evaluation at the end to note the success of the program.
The idea for the program came from Denise Holmes, owner of Pawsitive Connections. Pawsitive Connections is a nonprofit organization that pairs dogs and their owners with area organizations that request animal-assisted therapy.
All of the dogs are registered therapy animals, Holmes said, and the trainers underwent an eight-hour course to teach them how to work with the dogs and the clients. All of the dogs involved in the Sit, Stay, Read program have been with Pawsitive Connections for more than a year, she said.
"They all have the aptitude; otherwise, they wouldn't be here," Holmes said. "Most of them have been through some sort of basic-obedience school, but they just have the natural ability."
The dogs are evaluated for appropriate behavior before they are paired with clients, Holmes said, and all are "well-behaved."
Otis, a basset hound, and his owner, Bob Kohler, have been the most popular among the children, "probably because he's small," Greenwood said.
Chloe and her owner, Lynne Yenawine, are veterans in entertaining children during storytime. Yenawine served as an aide in a kindergarten class and occasionally took Chloe to class to assist her in reading to the children.
"Chloe is not a very active dog, but she's good company and a good listener," Yenawine said. "She's nice to pet and love on."
Chloe, a 7-year-old black Labrador, and Yenawine's daughter, Jennifer, also want to get involved in other reading activities at the library, Yenawine said.
"It's fun to bring (the dogs) in places you normally can't bring them in," Yenawine said.
Web watch:
Pawsitive Connections www.pawsitiveconnections.org
Fayetteville Public Library www.fayettevillelibrary.org
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