At age 5, Emily Bennett hasn’t mastered reading aloud. But that didn’t stop her from picking out the perfect book that her sister, Lilly Bennett, could read aloud to Merlin.
Emily picked “Olivia Forms a Band.” And the whole time, Merlin, a black Labradoodle, sat and listened. And he welcomed the occasional scratch on the head.
“It was fun, and he was kind of tired,” Lilly said. “He just sat there. He’s not like my dog. My dog is hyper, and there’s no time to get him to settle down.”
Emily, Lilly, 8, and their sisters, 7-year-old Memae and 6-year-old Amy, all gathered at the Westminster Library on Aug. 2 for an afternoon of reading. They are at the library every couple of days as their mom, LaVerne Bennett, works on her college studies.
But on this particular day, they made a special trip to the library.
They were there for an event put together by the library and the Oconee County Animal Shelter. About a dozen children gathered in the children’s library and took turns reading to animals — dogs such as Merlin, or Big Bird the yellow parakeet, or Joey Spike the guinea pig.
It’s all part of an effort by the Humane Society, the library systems of Oconee and Anderson counties and SC Therapy Dogs to encourage children to read and improve their reading skills. All summer, both animal groups made stops at the local libraries, and now that the new school year has begun, the groups are making their stops at local schools.
SC Therapy Dogs has eight to 10 schools already requesting its trained dogs and their owners to come in and help students, said Trish Carter, a member of the group. Some of their stops include elementary schools in LaFrance, Anderson, Central, Easley, Townville and Liberty.
“Around the animals, the children lose their inhibitions,” Carter said. “They don’t feel the peer pressure like when they are reading aloud to other students and teachers.”
Because of that, Carter said, the children build a bond with the dogs.
“They really, really do respond incredibly to this program,” she said.
SC Therapy Dogs, founded in 2000, is made up of pet lovers who have dogs that are trained to go into nursing homes, mental health facilities, hospitals and children’s shelters. About two years ago, the group started taking animals to schools to help students with reading.
In Oconee County, the Humane Society has developed a similar reading assistance program.
Christin Hirleman, the youth services librarian at the Oconee County Library System, said the Humane Society started offering the reading program at the library in 2010. When the animals returned this summer, there were waiting lists of children who wanted to go to a library and read.
Over the summer break, about 175 children turned up at a library in Oconee County to share their favorite stories with four-legged furry friends.
The program is geared to children between the ages of 5 and 12, Hirleman said.
“We had one boy who read Harry Potter to a dog,” Hirleman said. “He was in the middle of the last book, and he asked, ‘Can I read Harry Potter to a dog?’ It was wonderful seeing kids bring in their own books to read to these animals.”
The animals are all escorted into the libraries with their owners. The children also learned about caring for their own pets and were able to pick out four-legged stuffed animals to take for themselves.
Suzanne Daddis, who organizes the reading program for the Humane Society, said the education about animal welfare is an important part of why they work with local children.
“We’re trying to change the culture for the relationship between animals and people,” Daddis said. “Animals need our compassion and our care.”
The Tamassee DAR School is one of the Oconee County Humane Society’s planned stops this fall, Hirleman said. She said the animals may return to the libraries in Oconee County next spring and summer.
“But, for now, we are going to let them reach out to other organizations, since they’ve had such great luck with this,” Hirleman said.
LaVerne Bennett said she really liked the program and enjoyed seeing her girls excited about reading. She was only disappointed that they didn’t have the chance to experience reading to animals more than once.
“They enjoyed it quite a bit,” Bennett said. “I’d be glad to take them back. They can read to people all the time, but this was different because it was to a dog.”
As for Lilly, she’s ready to read another story out loud to Merlin. She liked giving treats to the dogs, reading to them and then picking out the stuffed animal.
“I love to play with dogs a lot,” she said.