Paw Print

Dogs are the best therapy for humans strong or weak, young or old, small or large.  It’s more than the unconditional love and support they offer willingly every time you walk in the door (unless of course they’ve had their own unscheduled or unchaperoned play date with something they weren’t supposed to), the full body wiggle and their undivided attention.  What a wonderful welcome home!  And if a therapist ever suggested I find my “safe place”  you can bet it would be somewhere with my two dogs and cat.  In addition to the always cheerful welcome, dogs have become more than household pets - there are now an estimated 40,000 service dogs assisting people with disabilities in the United States BUT there are tens of thousands of dogs assisting even more people with reading problems, depression, illnesses, old age, disorders ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s.  Studies have shown that animals have a way of getting through to people that often other people can’t.  There is a summer and fall program held every Saturday at local libraries where children with difficulty reading join the program and read to a dog - conceptually children can improve their reading skills and confidence levels by reading to a warm, accepting, non-judging, non-correcting dog.  One child sat and read while holding the dogs paw, one child read and shared pictures in the book with the dog, another read while resting her arm on the dogs back - this is a win win win!  The child has time to read without being corrected or challenged, the dog gets attention, and the dogs owner gets to spend time with the dog doing something pretty terrific!  Dogs don’t criticize or judge people - can’t we all learn a little random kindness and consideration for others from our dogs!