“You can find magic wherever you look.
Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.”
— Dr. Seuss
For some children, reading is anything but relaxing. Especially in school, when asked to read out loud in front of their friends, reading can be intimidating, frightening, and something to dread. Like tying shoes or riding a bike, it takes practice and patience—and an audience that won’t laugh or judge or criticize.
At the Holly Springs Library, the perfect audience awaits with tails wagging. That’s right. Therapy dogs are great listeners! And See Spot Read has furry volunteers who are all ears and ready to be read to.
What Is See Spot Read?
See Spot Read is neither an organization nor a program. Rather, it’s a calendar of events managed by volunteer coordinators to provide ongoing service opportunities for therapy dog teams. Volunteers must be trained, evaluated, and certified through nationally-recognized therapy dog organizations and dogs and their handlers are expected to adhere to the rules and guidelines of their certification.
Since 2008, therapy dog teams have been attending See Spot Read events at Wake County schools and libraries, helping children overcome insecurities about reading and sometimes their anxiety about dogs themselves. For a typical library event, teams sign up in advance for one of a limited number of slots available at a particular location. At the event, dogs have a quick meet-and-greet outside before going inside to settle on their blankets in a designated area. Handlers supervise the interaction between their dogs and the children, making sure everyone is comfortable and calm at all times. While the dogs snooze and soak up the attention, volunteers nurture children’s reading skills through praise and assistance with sounding out tricky words. There’s plenty of encouragement, too, for the gentle affection the children show to the dogs.
Dawn Friedel is the See Spot Read coordinator for Wake County’s library events. She and Colden, her German Shepherd-mix therapy dog, attend events in Wendell and Zebulon and have witnessed the magic that happens when children read to dogs. “We take away the judgment factor,” she says. “That’s the beauty of what we do. For [children] that can read, it’s a very encouraging environment. They can read to the dogs and if they struggle, we’re there to help them. We’re not there to criticize them in any way. I’ve had kids who aren’t of reading age come with their older brother or sister. The younger sibling wants to interact with the dog, too. I tell them, ‘Colden doesn’t know how to read yet, so you can make up stories about the pictures.’ Pretty soon they’re talking about the pictures in the book and they don’t have to read. It’s all about encouraging them to love to read.”
Sometimes, the interaction is less about the words on the page than simply being close to the dogs. Dawn recalls, “I’ve had people come in who are afraid. A child who had a bad incident with a dog, so they don’t want to go near [Colden]. By the end of the hour, this kid is stroking the dog and reading a book as if they’ve been best friends forever. It’s so rewarding because you see those relationships develop and the kids want to come back next month.”
Therapy Dogs
Today, people take dogs (and other living creatures) with them wherever they go. Some dogs are trained for service, others are therapy-certified, still others are recommended by medical professionals for emotional support. There are significant differences in the tasks these dogs are expected to perform and, more importantly, the training required to earn certification. Service dogs, for example, are taught to perform tasks to assist people with disabilities, as in the case of guide dogs for the blind. Therapy dogs and their owners are certified as teams and trained “to provide affection and comfort to people in need.” This is according to a Pet Therapy website created by Dawn to answer questions about therapy dogs. The site is a wonderful resource for information about the history of animal-assisted therapy, places where therapy dogs are becoming more welcome, and steps to take if your dog shows potential to be trained for this type of service.
See Spot Read volunteers know what’s involved in becoming a certified therapy team, and it’s not as simple as attending an obedience class and putting a vest on the dog. It’s also worth noting that downloading “credentials” from the Internet is not a substitute for proper training nor does it provide legitimate certification.
Dawn rescued Colden when he was seven months old and people recognized his potential before she did. “I took him through basic obedience and then advanced classes. He got his Canine Good Citizen [certificate] and everywhere we went, people told me he’d make an excellent therapy dog. I had no idea what that meant. I did some research and found Canines for Therapy based out of Wilmington. Once they had an evaluator in this area, we took a six-week course and passed our test.”
Judy Blaner and her therapy dog, a seven-year old Sheltie named Divot, also went through extensive training and evaluation before being certified to volunteer at the Holly Springs Library for the first time in 2013. “We had to be evaluated on three separate occasions. We met the evaluator at [a] retirement center that had independent living, assisted living, and a memory-care unit. I had to take Divot to each setting on three separate occasions so [the evaluator] could see how we both interacted at the different levels.”
Growing Interest & Benefits for Everyone
See Spot Read has an active list of participants and Dawn and her fellow coordinators, Linda Pattison for schools and Janice Firling for volunteers, have made it easy for newly-certified or interested teams to get involved. “When I first got certified, See Spot Read did orientation once a quarter. We wanted to make it more convenient for people so I created the See Spot Read Calendar website.” The website contains instructions, videos, and links to articles and forms, all of which answer questions and describe the orientation process and what to expect at library or school events.
The need for easily-accessible information on the website is genuine. Dawn explains that in Wake County, “[See Spot Read] started out with one team. The interest was there and it grew. One librarian talked to another librarian and [now] there are people who come every month to read to the dogs. I’ve walked in with my dog and a group of regulars is waiting to read, and then someone comes in to get a book and didn’t realize dogs were there and they’ll come over. In Holly Springs, we’ve had great acceptance by the librarians and we have reading teams that go there regularly.”
At the Holly Springs Library, See Spot Read events take place on the first Monday of the month from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. For several years, Judy and Divot have been familiar faces there along with Rebecca Brady and her Flat-Coated Retriever-mix, Sammi (Samantha), and Alisa Dahlhoff and her Labrador Retriever-mix, Holly.
Judy loves seeing children engage with the dogs and become more comfortable with reading. She and the other teams reassure hesitant children that they don’t have to read if they don’t want to; they can just pet the dogs. “If children say they can’t read very well, I say, ‘Divot can’t read. He likes the Biscuit stories but he doesn’t know whether or not you’re reading the right words and you don’t have to worry. You can make it up or tell him about the pictures, or just show him the pictures if you want to.’”
See Spot Read is a beneficial service, whether you have two legs or four. Dawn emphasizes that, “There’s scientific evidence that petting a dog reduces your stress level. [See Spot Read] events are for kids who are reluctant to read or afraid of dogs, and kids who love to read and love dogs. We’re here to help in any way we can. And, if you have a [therapy] dog and want to get involved, we’re happy to have more volunteers.”
In Colden’s words, “I love to see the smiles on the kids’ faces. When I hear them reading, it relaxes me, especially when they stroke my ears or rub my belly at the same time. Plus, I get to hang out with some of my canine friends and go to lots of different places with my mom. It beats having to stay home, paws down!”
If you’re interested in learning more about
See Spot Read, please visit their Facebook
page or their websites:
fleenj.wixsite.com/ssrcalendar
fleenj.wixsite.com/pettherapy.
