Kids Read to a Dog at Monthly Library Program

Rancho Cordova, CA (MPG) – Learning to read for most kids can be really fun. For other kids it can sometimes be a little “ruff”.

On the second Tuesday of every month between 3:30 and 4:30, kids come to the Rancho Cordova Library at 9845 Folsom Blvd., to Read to a Dog.  “This is our first time we have come here to read to the dogs,” said Maddy, 5.  Maddy came to the library with her brother Daniel, 7, her mother, Rachel Aucutt, and her grandma Judy Ingram.  Maddy said reading is fun, and she likes dogs, “Because they’re playful.”

Children of mostly elementary school age (all ages of children are invited) sit around the library meeting room on colorful carpets reading to one dog at a time, while the dog’s owner sits close by.  The dogs may lie in a relaxed sprawl or sit up watching the reader attentively.

Katie Dekorte, 26, is a youth services librarian and has monitored the Read to a Dog program here since she came to the Rancho Cordova Library last March.  Dekorte, who is a Master of Library Science, was a teen volunteer with a similar program at the Carmichael Library when she was in high school.  In all, she has worked with the Sacramento Public Library System for around nine years.  “It’s something different every day, which is what I really like,” Dekorte said.

The dogs and their humans are members of “Lend a Heart,” a Sacramento-based organization that has provided animal-assisted therapy for 30 years in Sacramento and surrounding counties.  To qualify for the program, said Will Clenney, who participates in the programs with his Plott Hound Sophie, a dog goes through normal obedience training.  Then under a team leader, the dogs and owners have six trial evaluations, paperwork is completed, and if the evaluation is good the dog and owner receive a certificate that they have passed the evaluation process.

Dogs often participate in other types of programs such as visiting hospitals or nursing homes.  They may also go to the airport to calm nervous passengers.  “We have a lot of people whose planes are delayed, the kids are running wild,” said Sue Berli, who was with her dog Diesel at the library Read to a Dog program.  “It’s called Boarding Area Relaxation Corps or BARC for short.”

Kids had more than half a dozen dogs to read to at the November Read to a Dog program in Rancho Cordova.  “(The kids) think it’s fun,” Clenney said. “They’re going to read and then they have a dog there to read to, so that’s kind of a bonus for them.”  The dogs are well behaved and more calm than the dogs most children are familiar with.  That makes it easy for the kids to relate to them.

“So far the kids have loved it,” said Ingram.  “I think Dan’s on his fifth dog now.”