R.E.A.D. with a 4-Footed Friend @ the Bailey Branch

Join Therapy Animal Handler with Pet Partners Janie Allen and her dog Caramel, both associated with R.E.A.D. Caramel loves children to read to him and enjoys their companionship. If you are interested please call or come by the library to schedule your time! 

Pet Partners^® Therapy Animal Program

Pet Partners' Therapy Animal Program trains volunteers and screens volunteers and their pets for visiting animal programs in hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, schools and other facilities.

The program was established in 1990 to ensure that "both ends of the leash," people as well as animals, were well-prepared to participate in animal-assisted activity and animal-assisted therapy programs. Pet Partners' Therapy Animal Program is the only national registry that requires volunteer training and screening of animal-handler teams.

Pet Partners' national network links volunteers with facilities in their own communities that request visiting pets and helps volunteer teams contact facilities to begin visits in new locations

What is R.E.A.D.®?

The Reading Education Assistance Dogs® (R.E.A.D.) program improves children’s reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method: reading to a dog. But not just any dog. R.E.A.D. dogs are registered therapy animals who volunteer with their owner/handlers as a team, going to schools, libraries and many other settings as reading companions for children. Today, hundreds of registered R.E.A.D. teams work throughout the United States and Canada. R.E.A.D. is one of those ideas that, in the words of Bill Moyers, “pierces the mundane to arrive at the marvelous.” Intermountain Therapy Animals, a nonprofit organization, launched R.E.A.D. in 1999 as the first comprehensive literacy program built around the appealing idea of reading to dogs, and the program has been spreading rapidly and happily ever since!

R.E.A.D. utilizes registered therapy animals who have been trained and tested for health, safety, appropriate skills and temperament. When these special animals come to hear children read, it’s fun! And that makes all the difference.

Dogs can read? Of course they can’t. But they can be great listeners. And their presence creates an inviting and motivating environment:

• relaxed

• comfortable

• safe

• nonjudgmental

• empowering, and

• FUN!