Saturday, July 5, 2008

Tail-Waggin' Tutors love nothing more than a good story

Jackie Schlotfeldt News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jschlotfeldt@news-bulletin.com

Belen Kicked back on the brightly colored carpet inside the children's section of the Belen Public Library, two girls are oblivious to the rest of the world around them. Their attention is focused on reading their books to the four-legged furry friend lying next to them. It's hard to tell who's enjoying themselves more — the children or the therapy dogs.

Tail Waggin' Tutors began June 24 at the Belen Public Library and allows children an opportunity to spend 15 minutes twice a week reading to either Miracle or Nestor, two black English Labrador retrievers.

Claudia Barreto, the owner of the dogs, which are certified by Therapy Dogs International, said she's been volunteering with her therapy certified dogs for six years and finds that when camines interact with people, it's beneficial to them. That applies to children, the elderly — anyone.

"I read a lot about reading programs, and the idea is that, when a child is reading, it helps to read out loud," Barreto said. "But a child who is struggling doesn't want to read out loud."

Barreto said sitting down and reading a book to a dog works extremely well because the child is not being judged by the animal on how well they're reading. A bonus is that both child and dog seem to enjoy the interaction.

"Research shows there's not only an increase in literacy skills of children who read to dogs, but they also learn to love reading," Barreto said. "It's very rewarding and interesting to watch the children so engaged with the dogs. Some are reading really difficult books, and it just blows me away."

Barreto, who is a science professor at the University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus, became involved with dog obedience training in the 1970s after she acquired an extremely shy dog. Knowing that shy dogs can often become biters, she enrolled her pet in obedience training and has been hooked ever since.

She trained her own dogs to become therapy certified and volunteered regularly at a neurological research center at a rehabilitation hospital in Milwaukee, Wis., before moving to New Mexico three years ago.

"I love it here," Barreto said. "It's so diverse."

Wanting to continue volunteering in her community, Barreto contacted Belen Library Director Beverly McFarland and presented her idea of bringing in her therapy dogs and offering a summer program for children to help them with reading.

"Beverly McFarland is wonderful," Barreto said. "And this library is outstanding. Everything is first-rate. There are libraries in big cities that aren't as nice as this one."

Lisa and Lawrence Kaneshiro's 6-year-old daughter Lilliana is now in her second week in the program, and Lisa said it's helping her to read.

"She loves it too," Lisa said.

Jennifer Montoya said her daughter, Kieana, 8, is also participating and it's made a big difference in her reading.

"It's nice they have a program like this," Montoya said. "You can tell it encourages them."

"It feels good," Kieana said. "I like it."

The program is not just for struggling readers. Max and Evelyn DeHerrera's granddaughter jumped at the chance to be in the program, and Evelyn said she is an excellent reader.

"She wants to be a vet when she grows up, so when this opportunity came up, she wanted to do it," Evelyn said. "I think it's an excellent program, and for a child who needs this inspiration for reading, it really benefits them."

Cristina Aufmann, the library's children's specialist, said having the therapy dogs at the facility is a big attraction.

Barreto said she would like to continue with the program on Saturdays once school begins if she can find the time to do it.

"For me, it's so different to get to work with little kids," Barreto said. "This, to me, is fun, and I get to incorporate all the work I've put into my dogs."

She said this kind of program is catching on "like gang busters," and she can envision needing more therapy certified dogs for this area.

"It's a very popular and worthwhile program," Barreto said. "We have to get more dogs certified."

A total of 16 children are enrolled in the Tail Waggin' Tutors program at the Belen Public Library this summer.

For information on getting a dog therapy certified, e-mail Claudia Barreto at barr@unm.edu

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