Reading programs pairs dogs, students

By: JENNIFER KABBANY - Staff Writer | Thursday, June 8, 2006 10:04 PM PDT ∞

Pippin the reading dog just rests quietly as Gabriel Schneider, 8, reads aloud at Rancho Elementary School. Having the dog nearby has a calming effect on students according to Andee Browning, Pippin's owner. Children also enjoy the responsibility of walking the dog to and from reading time, as well as playing fetch with him.
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TEMECULA ---- It wasn't too long ago that reading was a struggle for 8-year-old Gabriel Schneider. But not so much anymore, the Rancho Elementary School second-grader said, thanks to his fairly new four-legged friend, Pippin.

"I think it was the dog that taught me to read," said Gabriel, his big blue eyes wide. "Until I found Pippin, I never wanted to read."

Gabriel is one of many success stories at Rancho Elementary thanks to the Temecula-based Reading Pals with Paws program, said Principal Pam May.

The free volunteer program pairs a specially trained dog and its owner with young, struggling readers. The dog acts as a nonjudgmental listener and supporter as its owner works as a reading coach and helps, on a one-on-one basis, students read books in an empty classroom.

"It's a really great motivator and a confidence boost for students," May said of the program. "Pippin is a silent, loyal coach. ... Anytime you can have a child do more reading, when he wants to do it and has an audience he can trust, it will transfer back to the classroom."

Learning to read can be tough, said Pippin's owner and reading coach Andee Browning.

Sometimes making matters worse are when young students who stumble over their words are made fun of by their classmates, she said.

Browning said that by bringing students individually to her own personal library set up at the campus, and quietly reading together with Pippin, they feel at ease and enjoy the process.

"We are a therapy team," Browning said of herself and Pippin, a 3-year-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. "It's a passion of mine. I like the magic it works on young readers."

Browning, who lives in Temecula and whose daughter attends Rancho Elementary, has a partner who reads with a golden retriever at another local school, she said.

The two coaches and their dogs were trained through the Utah-based Intermountain Therapy Animals nonprofit group and its Reading Education Assistance Dogs program, or READ.

The nonprofit's literature states that when young students learn to read with dogs, it helps increase relaxation and lower their blood pressure. The dogs, in turn, do not "laugh, judge or criticize, allow children to proceed at their own pace, and are less intimidating than peers."

Browning has been facilitating the program at Rancho Elementary for about two years, and regularly meets with about 10 students once or twice a week. The majority of the students participating are selected because they could use extra help learning to read, she said.

"Many of the children may be English language learners, and they don't have an adult to read out loud to at home," Browning said. "Others may have Attention Deficit Disorder. With a warm body next to them ... it calms them down. Focuses them. It grounds them for the moment."

During the training sessions, the student selects a book, sits down on a special blanket, and reads the book aloud as Pippin sits nearby, often with his head on or near the student's knee. Next to Pippin, Browning sits and reads over the student's shoulder, helping and guiding them along.

Months after beginning the program, after a student improves his or her reading ability, their teacher might "graduate" the student, Browning said, adding that at that point she gives them a specially "paw-toe-graphed" book of their own to keep.

Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.

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