Five-year-old Micah excitedly pulls out his book, sits down beside Fergus, a neatly-cropped four-year-old Goldendoodle, and starts to read to him.
Fergus gives the book a sniff, pays close attention to the Westwood Public School kindergarten student for a while, then flops on the floor with his paws in the air.
Welcome to PAWS 4 Stories, a therapy dog program offered by St. John Ambulance of Guelph that for several years has helped numerous area children learn to read and a host of other skills.
“A lot of the time the students lay on him and pet his ears while they read,” says program coordinator Wendy Eastman. “He loves it. He’s a big baby.”
The program is not only is aimed at helping with a child’s reading proficiency, but also self-esteem, empathy, self-regulation, confidence and interpersonal relationships, Eastman points out.
“Children have a natural bond with animals and dogs,” she says. They feel confident and more comfortable around animals than they do some people.”
Westwood is one of four schools benefiting from the program, which sees the dogs come in weekly for a stretch of several weeks to work with the same students. Brant Avenue, E’cole Harris, Rockwood and Robert Little in Acton are the others.
Westwood kindergarten teacher Melissa Kooiman says the program works on several levels.
“Our initial reasons for reaching out to the program is that in kindergarten we really believe that kids have to be authentically motivated to read and to write,” Kooiman says.
“We have students who have diverse learning needs in our classroom and we’re really finding it’s promoting empathy and self-regulation skills. Just being in here with the dog is a very calming experience for them.”
PAWS 4 Stories is one of several therapy dog programs run by the the local St. John Ambulance.
The prime focus of those programs is adults, including visits to seniors homes, libraries and stops at the University of Guelph or local high schools during high-stress exam periods.
There are currently seven child certified dog teams in Guelph and all therapy dog teams that visit schools have first completed a minimum of 60 hours in a senior’s residence and are then given a child test evaluation.
Therapy dogs, unlike service dogs, are meant to be petted and handled.
“They’re able to interact at their level,” Kooiman says of Fergus, who works with children with a variety of reading levels.
The children even put together special books and stories for Fergus in advance of his visits.
“They see Fergus almost like an extension of themselves or a classmate that doesn’t know how to read, so they can teach him the skills,” Kooiman says.
“Fergus does different things for different students and some of them don’t have animals in their own life. They’re developing their empathy skills.”
