Therapy dog gives kids the confidence to read

It doesn’t matter what story children read to Bailey.

Paws To Read:
When: 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays
Where: Rustburg Library
Who: Children ages 5 and up
Cost: free
More information: (434) 332-9560

It doesn’t even matter how well a child can read out loud.

All Bailey, a therapy dog who visits the Rustburg Library once a week, cares about is that she has children who read to her.

“Dogs are non-judgmental. They don’t care how well you read, if you read well, if you make a mistake,” said Janet McQuain, Bailey’s owner. “All she wants is to hear your voice and get petted in between turning the pages.”

Bailey and McQuain have been volunteering at Paws To Read for about three years. They are there every Thursday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., when children can come read books aloud to the dog.

Bailey, a six-year-old black lab and chow mix, was rescued as a young pup from the woods in West Virginia by a group of children, McQuain said. “Frank (McQuain’s husband) and I think to this day that is why she loves kids.”

After seeing how well Bailey interacted with children, McQuain decided she would try to train the dog into a therapy animal. “I’ve always wanted to do therapy dogs program, but I never had the dog to do it,” she said.

It took about six weeks of training and then a stressful evaluation before Bailey was certified. Now she goes to hospitals and nursing homes to help patients, and to elementary schools and libraries where children read to her.

About three years ago, McQuain approached Valinda Trent, the children’s program manager at the Rustburg library, to see if there was interest in starting up a library dog program. Trent said she had just been thinking about establishing something similar, and within a few weeks Bailey and Janet were on their way to Rustburg.

Since then, several children have become regular visitors. One child, a 10-year-old girl, even calls the library to let staff know if she cannot attend, Trent said.

Kids with all reading level abilities come to read to Bailey, Trent said. “The program is designed to build their confidence in reading. It’s not teaching them how to read,” she said. “They come from all different reading abilities. It’s not just the struggling reader. We have some that are strong readers, but they may not necessarily want to read out loud to someone. But Bailey is not going to be critical.”

Children often choose stories they think Bailey will want to hear, McQuain said. “Do you have any idea how many Clifford, the Big Red Dog books she’s heard? I’ll tease them and say, if you have a cat book, I’ll have to hold her ears.”

Luke Tibbs, 7, read a short story to Bailey on Thursday about a swimmer. He read aloud with silly sound effects and wild hand gestures, while his mom, sister and a friend looked on. Luke said he picked out the book because there was a picture of a dog on the cover, though the dog wasn’t in the story.

His sister Nadia, 9, read a book that had cartoon animals as characters to Bailey. “It was just something I found,” she said. “It involves animals.”

Even though children may not have more than about 10 minutes to read to Bailey, who sits patiently or snuggles up with the readers, many kids leave with motivation to continue, McQuain said.

“I’ve had many parents say my kid went home to read to our dog. It gives them the idea to read. It’s fun.”