Wanted...

Great dogs that would enjoying spending time with young students to help improve their reading skills.

A few new dogs and their owners are needed to help with the Dog Tales program run by Literacy for Life.

Program Coordinator Nicole Levesque says they're looking for dogs that would be good at listening to young students, between the grades of seven and 12, read out loud.

"We have some long-term fantastic volunteers that have been helping us," said Levesque. "But we need to keep building up our pool of potential volunteers so we can keep the program running smoothly."

The program is a stress free way of helping the readers who are having problems reading out loud.

"The children just tend to be more open to reading to the dogs. I think they feel less judged. Some of them will kind-of pet the dogs as they are reading, I think it relaxes them more. And they tend to engage a bit more with reading."

The program will be screening dog volunteers on Tuesday, January 15 and there are a few things they're looking for.

"They need to be able to not be too excited around the other dogs and they are able to settle. That they are not too excited looking for attention and they are not jumping around on the kids. That they are able to settle and just be mellow so they can sit with them for the times they are with the children and the children can settle in with the dogs and read to them."

Dog Tales is offered in the schools and in libraries around the Foothills.

To register for the screening call 403-652-5090 or email m.jewell@litforlife.com.

 

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