These Visalia shelter dogs are the best listeners
It’s reading day for the third graders in summer school at Exeter’s Lincoln School. But instead of reading in class, they board the Loop Bus and head to the Visalia Animal Care Center where they are greeted by the dogs being kept there.
Yes, the students are going to practice their skills by reading to the dogs.
It’s part of the Shelter Buddies program created by Read for Life as part of the nonprofit’s goal to lessen the high illiteracy rate in Tulare County.
The program is run through Pro-Youth’s after-school program. During the school year, third graders from various Visalia schools are bussed once a week to the Animal Care Center, which houses lost and abandoned animals.
Last summer, Nancy Loliva, who coordinates the program for Read for Life, wanted to add outlying schools that were too far away from the animal shelter to participate during the school year. Incoming third graders from Elbow Creek Elementary School east of Visalia and Ivanhoe School got to participate.
This summer, students from Lincoln School in Exeter are reading to the dogs.
More than reading
Not only do the students have a fun way to practice reading, they learn about caring for the dogs.
“The humane education is much more than I thought when we started this program,” Loliva said. “There have been some beautiful moments. How the kids and dogs respond is priceless.”
The animal shelter is delighted with the program. It helps socialize the dogs and makes them more adoptable.
“It helps the dogs feel a little more normal. They’ll warm up and start listening to the children,” said Tracy Everett from the animal center. “After the kids come, the dogs actually have a little bit of a personality change.”
New animal shelter manager Candace Harrington was happy to see the program in action when she arrived.
“I always tried to get something like this at other shelters I’ve worked in,” she said, “but we were never able to make it work.”
Norma Gutierrez, program leader from Pro Youth at Lincoln School, accompanies the students on the Loop Bus.
“I think this is an amazing program,” she said. “It helps the dogs too. It’s sweet that the dogs get human contact, and it teaches the children to be compassionate.”
How it works
Loliva began the program in 2017 after learning about a similar program. She partnered with ProYouth and the county-run Loop Bus, which provides free transportation to events for at-risk students.
During each school semester, students from four schools each participate in a six-week Shelter Buddies program. They start with Shelter Buddy Promises and dog behavior tip sheets so they learn the proper way to work with animals.
The last session celebrates the Shelter Buddies’ successes and awards them with certificates and their choice of four to five books from Read for Life to keep among the 100 they have read to the animals.
The students’ favorite books? The “Dog Man” series, hands down.
“Because he’s a dog!” said one young participant. What else?
Read for Life
Read for Life was begun in 1989 by local women who wanted to help stop the cycle of illiteracy in Tulare County. California has the highest illiteracy rate in the country, and Tulare County is one of the least literate counties.
Read for Life solicits donations of gently-used books for young children and receives grants and donations to buy new books. Each year it donates over 70,000 new and used English and bilingual books to at-risk children at health clinics, food pantries, Head Start, Bright Start and migrant preschools, women’s shelters, teen parenting and prenatal programs.
The volunteer members teach parents the importance of reading to their children and work with communities on events and activities to promote reading. The program also gives an annual scholarship to a high school senior who has done volunteer work with literacy.
For more information or to organize a book drive, go to www.readforlife.org.
To sponsor or adopt an animal
Call the Animal Care Center 559 713-4700. Sponsorships help pay for vaccinations, surgery and microchipping, which lessens the cost for those adopting an animal
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: These Visalia shelter dogs are the best listeners
