Were you one of those kids who was terrified to be called upon in class to read? If so, this week’s Good Dog episode, brought to you by Eukanuba, will warm your heart.

Dogs are being trained to sit in classrooms and have young kids read to them. Don’t laugh. It’s actually a skill. The dogs have to look interested and, hopefully, not fall asleep.

These programs are springing up everywhere and the results are tremendous. Kids become excited about reading to dogs and end up being far more comfortable reading aloud.

In this episode I speak with Darlene Blackman who coordinates the SHARE a book program at the Marin Humane Society in Novato, California. She trains volunteers and their dogs and then works closely with local teachers, reading specialists and librarians. Learn how this program evolved, how you can volunteer in this way, and how you can bring a similar program to your community.

For more information, Darlene can be reached at dblackman@marinhumanesociety.org.

Tags: Eukanuba, Good Dog, Marin Humane Society, Reading, reading programs, SHARE, smarter podcasts, smarterpodcasts.com, volunteering

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Good Dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.