68
PETS | Paw Tales
diffi cult to stay on track with the book. She gets
frustrated over the tricky words, but she’s keen
to fi nish the 20-minute reading session so she
can do dog tricks with Chia.
When she’s done, she gets a sticker and tries
some training with Chia, who sits, drops, shakes
hands and rolls over. She’s pretty pleased with
herself that the dog is listening and responding
to her commands. It gives her confi dence that
she’s good at something.
Ellu has long blonde dreadlocks to his waist
and has missed a lot of school. He lives on a
one-hectare farm in Yarra Junction. When he
arrived at Sassafras Primary School at the age
of nine, he couldn’t read a jot. After a year of
regular school and Story Dogs, he can get
through a picture book. He’s slow, but Sheila is
patient and encouraging and at the end, Ellu
pats the dogs. He admits he doesn’t like reading
much, but it’s defi nitely more fun with a dog.she has a real affinity with animals and she
opened up a lot through the year and she
even spoke at the end-of-year assembly.
She’s still quiet, but just to have that
confidence makes such a difference. It was
really thrilling to be part of that process,”
Louise says.
One boy has a great sense of humour but
often used it to cover for his insecurities
about learning. “Several children often
commented ‘you’re so lucky to read with
Sadie’ so that’s a little bit of social cache
for him,” Louise says.
That’s part of the positive influence of
the Story Dogs program — that children
struggling with learning or social skills
suddenly have something special to help
them and the experience involves the
whole school.
“When we’re in the schoolyard, all
the children come running. They’re very
familiar with her. It’s a lovely opportunity
to make the world a little bit more pet
friendly,” Louise says. “And it’s a lovely
feeling to be a special moment in these
little people’s week.”Making reading fun
Louise says the key is to show kids that
reading doesn’t always have to be hard work
and that it can be fun. “Teachers do a wonderful
job and we wouldn’t pretend to take away from
that, but so much of what they have to do is about
assessing and watching the children’s progress,”
she says. “What we’re really after is making it fun,
that this reading business can be an enjoyable
experience. One boy was very insecure about his
reading. He had a great sense of humour so we
ended up reading joke books. It’s still reading.”
Sheila Millar and her Standard Poodles Chia
and Tikka visit Sassafras Primary School.
Daniel is 10 and in grade fi ve but didn’t start
speaking English until he was fi ve. Half Egyptian
and half Thai, he was speaking and reading
Hebrew, which made it diffi cult to learn to
read English from left to right.
Story Dogs has helped him make great
progress and he often reads about some of his
favourite topics including astronomy and science.
Natalie struggles with her focus and fi nds itAugust http://www.facebook.com/petsmagazine
Chia is a Standard Poodle and one of
the members of the Story Dogs team.PLF070_pg066-068_Story Dogs.indd 68PLF070_pg066-068_Story Dogs.indd 68 6/21/2017 11:09:29 AM6/21/2017 11:09:29 AM