reading to dogs

I’m very involved in dog related activities with my Corgi (ie agility), and know a few people doing this reading to the dogs bit. As an OG certified person I have really had to keep quiet as I think the people doing this with their dogs really have good motivations.

But I seriously question it. Unless the kids really learn how to decode— are really taught sound symbol relationship, I have no idea how it is more than a feel good activity.

OTOH, since so few schools are really doing what they are supposed to in reading, and as long as NCLB is just another unfunded mandate, I can’t see it would do any harm. But help?

(I have a bumper sticker, “My Pembroke Welsh Corgi is smarter than your honor student”. The trouble is, I think she’s smarter than me. However, to my knowledge she lacks training in OG. Now give the dogs OG training and maybe we could solve this mess. :-))

—des

This is another one of those adorably cute ideas — I hate cute — that looks so good, requires no great intelligence, requires very little real work — lots of running around and talking but very little thinking, very little sitting down patiently and doing things until you get them right — and produces a small short-term improvement that is enough to make people happy, of course our goal in elementary school is to make everybody happy, and to keep the self-esteem myth rolling. [The self-esteem myth — the idea that somehow real self-esteem can be built on lies and fakery.]

Yes, kids who can already read and who like dogs will be amused by the novelty of the situation and will concentrate on reading to the dog, and since the dog will respond to the human voice positively, the kids will feel rewarded by the response and will probably stay on task longer.
If the kids can’t read already, this will only teach them to fake even more and will reinforce bad habits and give them longer to develop a fear of admitting they don’t know. If the kids read badly with a lot of errors and guessing, this will reinforce the errors and guessing.

And if a child doesn’t like dogs or is allergic to them or is afraid of a carnivorous animal that is twice their weight and jumps on them (my daughter’s situation), this will be a really negative experience, and totally unnecessary. And what do they do about allergic kids (or teachers) anyway? Anyone brings a dog into my class, I leave, either by choice at once or in an ambulance later.

Anyway, after the novelty wears off, I suspect that performance will go back to about where it would be anyhow.

I hope that this idea dies a natural death among all the other cute gimmicks that come along every year.

Good reading instructions is really going to the dogs!

My granmmar is fine-it was a typo-it should say:

Good reading INSTRUCTION is going to the dogs!

>This is another one of those adorably cute ideas — I hate cute — that looks so good, requires no great intelligence, requires very little real work — lots of running around and talking but very little thinking, very little sitting down patiently and doing things until you get them right — and produces a small short-term improvement that is enough to make

The thing I forgot to say is that these people taking their dogs to schools are volunteers. So with the schools investing zero dollars they can think they are doing something by “allowing” the dogs to come to the schools.

>admitting they don’t know. If the kids read badly with a lot of errors and guessing, this will reinforce the errors and guessing.

My fear of it exactly.

>And if a child doesn’t like dogs or is allergic to them or is afraid of a carnivorous animal that is twice their weight and jumps on them (my daughter’s situation), this will be a really negative experience, and totally

Well mostly the dogs are better trained in therapy situations than teachers are in teaching reading. (Sorry to say that isn’t saying much.)
These likely won’t be dogs jumping up on students and terrierizing :-) them. However, the allergy and fear situation still arises.

>Anyway, after the novelty wears off, I suspect that performance will go back to about where it would be anyhow.

I don’t think anyone has done that serious research on the subject, ie comparing two novel approaches with each other. Or even the attention of a new adult (these are volunteers who come with their own dogs, give the kids attention and encouragement.) There has been more serious research on the therapeutic effects of animals but not when there is a skill that needs to be taught.

I feel Torie was therapeutic with my dyslexic students. Not because they “read” to her, far from it. But that when the session was over they could relax with a friendly energetic dog. (I could say the same for my saltwater tank, that provided relaxation.) But that’s a far cry from having a gimmick like reading to the dog and expecting the dog to in some magical way teach the kid to read.

—des

My bet is that it won’t last long. We have policy that we can’t wear perfume due to children’s allergies. Dogs coming in would be a liability nightmare. In time, they will figure that out.

Janis

Yup — all it will take is five assorted parents with issues with it, and people just getting bored with the hassles.

Unfortuantely, for some reason, five assorted parents and assorted hassles doesn’t seem to be an effective way to get school folks to *do* what works; just to cease and desist any given behavior.

>My bet is that it won’t last long. We have policy that we can’t wear perfume due to children’s allergies.

Well dogs have been going to the schools for several years now. I don’t know what the deal is if a kid is allergic. For the people I know this hasn’t been an issue. Perhaps they move on in rooms or something. I have heard of kids who are frightened. The people handling the dogs are very well trained, compassionate people who can deal with this. I haven’t heard of anything more than mild fears though.

I think they are very valuable for kids with other types of disabilities. For example, a physically disabled kid might work to throw a ball for a dog where he wouldn’t expend such energy for an OT. Dogs (and other animals) have also been very useful with people with dementia and frail elderly.

There are several programs with prison inmates (including teens) that are successful in preventing recidivism. There are also some programs where teens train dogs in various contexts.

I think if anything the phenonema will grow.

I think Torie has been valuable for me with my students at home. I would not be able to bring her to school as she could not pass the Delta (or other therapy animal) tests. But she definitely has a relaxing effect on my students. She takes this very seriously sitting by their side the whole time. She is very aware that she is working. In the rare case that a kid was more riled up, I just crated her for the session. I make no pretense of the kids reading to her or in any way directing attention to her.
OG is hard work though, and I think Torie is good at helping kids deal with it.

> Dogs coming in would be a liability nightmare. In time, they will figure that out.

Well Delta and some of the other organizations supply liability insurance for the dog in question, who has to be very well trained; pass temperment testing; and deal with distractions. This is all taken up at the individual’s expense. The dogs I know that do this are just extremely sweet predictable dogs.

OTOH, it is as I said a volunteer thing, so that the schools can do nothign for reading but think they are doing something as they have some person who will volunteer their time and skills (with the dogs).

IMO, bringing the dogs is not the issue. The issue is that some schools are doing this instead of doing things that will actually help kids learn to read. If an OG (or other type of trained person) worked with the kids to actually teach them to read, I think it would be a valuable asset.

>Janis[/quote]

—des

Des — my issue is not whether or not *your* dogs are well trained. Unfortunately my daughter was severely traumatized (and my allergies were made much worse) by people who claim their dogs are nice but have no clue what training means. My daughter was severely underwieght until her teens and was a year younger than average in her class, a tiny little thing, perhaps forty pounds in Grade 1. To have an eighty-pound dog, twice her size, leaping on her with jaws open wide was traumatizing, whether it only wanted to play and lick or not. She does not like any dogs of any sort or any size at any time, and while I’d like to get her over the dislike I think there are many more important educational missions for the schools. For her, having a dog in the class would be a totally unnecessary distraction and stress.
For myself, I actually like animals and used to pet friends’ dogs; dogs absolutely love me, partly because I do like animals and partly because I wear no perfumes and probably smell much better to them; unfortunately, over the last several years training of pets has become a lost art and I cannot get people to stop their dogs jumping all over me and licking me, and each lick is anopther asthma attack and a re-sensitization of the allergy, so now I have a new policy of no dog in a room with me ever.

Yeah, gimmicks abound. If this works so well with children learning to read, perhaps we can use them to help our med students master some surgical techniques - not as guinea pigs, but as warm and loving (caring) little friends.

>Des — my issue is not whether or not *your* dogs are well trained. Unfortunately my daughter was severely traumatized (and my allergies

I know that kids (and adults) can have terrible experiences. I actually was mauled by a dog at about 10, but at the same time had a nice little
dog at home, so I didn’t generalize the experience.

I don’t know what such groups do when kids have been severely traumatized. I have heard of cases in hospitals where there have been kids that have. They bring in the littlest dog they have and stand in the hallway, it is kind of a progressive desentizations thing that they do.

I havne’t heard of anybody in the schools that has encountered this. I don’t really know what they do. I’m sure they would not push the situation on any child. These are trained sensitive people. They are just
not trained to teach reading.

I also would assume that they do not go into rooms with people who are allergic. I think that would be a concern of mine. I do tell people that call that I have animals and if they are allergic. I have had two people say that their kids are allergic to cats (but not dogs).

>lost art and I cannot get people to stop their dogs jumping all over me and licking me, and each lick is anopther asthma attack and a re-sensitization of the allergy, so now I have a new policy of no dog in a room with me ever.[/quote]

—des

Yes, there’s something about being allergic that attracts the critters!!! (I do think there really is… perhaps the utter lack of Another Animal Smell…) Luckily, I have been able to desensitize myself to cats (the dog desensitizatin has probably worn off) with gradual exposure. (Last weekend my brother’s cat was endearing enough in our cabin in the woods to deposit that mouse in my sleeping bag… some love is better left unexpressed…)

My child’s tutor has a cat that roams about during the sessions.My child doesn’t read to it and sometimes gets distracted by it, but the tutor usually brings my child around to getting back on task. The cat has been the subject of many sentences my child has written during her instruction and has helped her keep her interest in going to the tutor,which is getting more difficult lately. I had sat in on the sessions so I picked up alot of how to help my child read, otherwise if I hadn’t I would just be listening to her read and not helping her progress..

Well one of my cats sits on the table at times, and I have to shoo him off. He doesn’t help much but he does give ME inspiration for sentences at times. The dog is much more useful as she really does give the kids a break in terms of stress. However, as I said we don’t do anything cutesy. They don’t read to her or somesuch. OTOH, once the kid was really distracted and I had to crate her.

—des