How it started…
Once upon a time, in the town of Bothell, Washington, there was (and still is) a Librarian named MieMie Wu. MieMie wanted to make reading more fun for kids because she LOVED reading and she knew how important it was for children to love reading too!
MieMie heard about a program in Utah called R.E.A.D.® where kids read aloud to dogs. R.E.A.D.® stands for Reading Education Assistance Dogs. Through R.E.A.D.®, MieMie learned that kids who really needed help reading had improved their skills and confidence when they were assigned a reading assistance dog.
MieMie thought that having kids read to dogs was SUPER cool because dogs don’t judge kids when they read aloud. So she set out to start a similar program in Washington and she named it “Reading with Rover”.
MieMie needed help getting good dogs and kind people to volunteer so she contacted a nice lady named Dotti Snow. Dotti had Pet Partners® registered therapy dogs that would visit patients in hospitals. Dotti thought MieMie’s idea was GREAT and offered her therapy dogs as reading assistance dogs!
MieMie also knew LOTS of dogs were needed for the Reading with Rover program – so she called a dog trainer named Becky Bishop. Becky, like Dotti, had two therapy dogs of her own: Boomer and Moose. Becky was happy to help MieMie find more Reading with Rover teams. Becky, as a dog trainer, is in the business of helping families teach their dogs good manners, something all dogs need, especially Reading with Rover dogs!
And so the Reading with Rover story began and continues today.
Where is Reading with Rover now?
The Reading with Rover program is now in six school districts in the Washington State. The benefits that children experience reading to dogs include:
An increased comfort in reading aloud
The achievement of higher reading levels
More empathy and enhanced social skills
Improved confidence and less shyness
Just for fun, Reading with Rover is also providing reading sessions at libraries and bookstores around the Pacific Northwest. Several times each month, dogs can be found in the children’s section of bookstores, for example. Kids are welcome to pick out a book, pick out a dog and sit, down, stay and read, read, read! This is a great opportunity for people who want to volunteer with their well-mannered pooch and only have evening or weekend hours available to participate.
As our “D.R.E.A.M.” mission includes “and more”, which goes beyond reading with children, Reading with Rover is also visiting patients in hospital settings, assisted living and hospice. We are also called out for crisis situations to assist children and others (ie. the Oso Mudslide in 2014 and the Marysville Shooting in 2014) by providing comfort and support with our registered therapy dogs. We also work one-on-one with children who have fear of dogs. We continue to offer Zoom reads with children since the Covid pandemic started in 2020.
Photo: Will Austin
Please get involved!
We have lots of children who want and NEED to participate in the Reading with Rover program in schools and other venues. We NEED dogs and kind people to help fill this need. Becoming a Reading with Rover team is not only rewarding but it’s also loads of FUN!
If you’d like to become involved or to learn more about Reading with Rover, contact Becky Bishop at becky@puppymanners.com or reach out through our contact page.
You can also read more about becoming a D.R.E.A.M Team on our Volunteer page.