at The Boston Children’s Museum.
On December 22, 2004 nine Dog B.O.N.E.S. Therapy Dog/ Reading Partner teams participated in the museum’s Access/Ability Awareness Day. The museum invited Dog B.O.N.E.S. to participate so as to demonstrate the positive effects that children achieve when they read to a reading partner dog.
Children from all over the city chose books to read out loud to one of the nine teams in attendance. The dogs do not mind if a child stumbles over words, stutters, makes a mistake or reads the same book over and over. They are happy to provide unconditional support and love to children learning to read. And the kids are thrilled when the dog places a paw on the page as if to say I am looking at the pictures too! Take a look at Butternut pictured above. She and her human companion, Anne have been an active Therapy Dog Team for 2 years. They recently attended the Reading Partner Certification training at a conference sponsored by Dog B.O.N.E.S. and are now a certified reading partner team. Obviously Butternut loves her new role and children love to snuggle up to her to read.
Human companions with well mannered, even tempered canines may be interested in volunteering as a therapy dog and reading partner team. It takes patience and training. Dog B.O.N.E.S. offers workshops to become a therapy dog team and for teams that have visiting experience they offer additional training to become a reading partner. Both opportunities are posted on our web site: www.therapydog.info