Dog Days at the Library

By M.J. Prest

Photograph by Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle

Once a week at Northern California’s Pleasanton Library, about 20 kids come to practice their reading skills by curling up on mats and pillows with dogs of all sizes who have been specially trained to listen attentively, even as the young readers struggle through unfamiliar words.

The Paws to Read literacy program, now in its fourth year, has become so popular that it has a waiting list of more than 40 children for the fall session.

Sue Jones, a library assistant who helped start the program, says its main mission is to help children who have difficulty reading, but it also attracts other children who just love dogs.

“We give the reading-challenged children an extra foot up getting into the program,” she says. Seventeen of the summer session’s 20 children were referred by literacy specialists because they have reading difficulties.

Ms. Jones says she first heard about pairing young readers and animals at an Intermountain Therapy Animals conference in Salt Lake City. Similar programs have been established in 44 states and Canada, according to Kathy Klotz, executive director of Intermountain Therapy Animals.

The Valley Humane Society — also in Pleasanton, which is just south of San Francisco — provides dogs that have been specially trained to spend time visiting the children. The animals have their behavior and physical health evaluated regularly, and their handlers are always within reach during the program’s sessions.

The free program is offered as a series of weekly sessions, which last about 25 minutes each.

The program costs the library very little to run. The floor mats and cushions were paid for by the Friends of Pleasanton Library fund-raising group. The library’s main expense is a dog-themed book-mark that it gives each child in the program. All of the animal handlers donate their time.

Ms. Jones says the effects of the program extend beyond the library’s walls. Parents report seeing their children reading to their cats, turtles, and other pets at home, she says.

Here, a child in the Paws to Read program reads Lulu Goes to Witch School to Willow, a St. Bernard.