Area children had a chance to experience the fun of reading with a non-human partner last Saturday morning when Elsie, the reading therapy dog, paid a visit to the Becker Public Library. Elsie is a seven-year-old Shih Tzu mixed-breed dog who has undergone extensive training and testing before becoming a certified Reading Education Assistance Dog®.
Elsie and her handler, 16-year-old home school student Frankie Persons of Becker, embarked on the reading project as a result of a 4-H dog training project. She had originally planned to work with a show dog, she said, but changed her mind after learning more about canine therapy programs. Dogs and handlers must complete many hours of training in the program, according to Frankie’s Mom, Sue, with dogs carefully examined for health, appropriate skills and temperament for working with children.
Elsie has proven to be a very quick study in her lessons, Sue Persons said, as well as having a friendly and out-going personality. A first meeting almost immediately includes an inverted canine seeking a tummy rub, though Elsie in all business when the reading begins, keeping her focus on the reader and listening to the story as it unfolds.
The literature on the process states that therapy dogs help young children overcome fears about learning to read in a variety of ways. Working with a reading therapy dog increases relaxation and lowers blood pressure, proponents say, and the dogs are excellent listeners, do not laugh or criticize reading mistakes, allow children to move forward at the own pace and they provide an experience that is less intimidating for children than reading to their peers.
Handlers are taught to be facilitators as well, working with their dogs to remove any “performance pressure” children feel and making reading an enjoyable learning experience rather than a dreaded chore and providing the supervised reading practice that builds vocabulary and reading fluency.
Frankie and Elsie make regular visits to the Becker library, as well as schools and other facilities around the area.
For more information about this and other programs at the Becker Public Library, call (763) 261-4454.
