Pleasanton Library is using dogs to help kids learn to read. It happened because a children's library assistant named Sue Jones heard about something Salt Lake City Library was doing, and attended a workshop there.

Its sponsor was a non-profit called Intermountain Therapy Animals. Back in 1999, Sandi Martin, a critical-care nurse on their board, familiar with all the ways animals were helping humans, got the idea that maybe they'd be useful in helping kids learn to read.

She got a local bookstore to let her try it out there. Then she persuaded the Salt Lake City Library to allow her to try it there on Saturdays. Kids loved it and kept coming back. She added volunteers from ITA, which uses The Delta Society's Pet Partner Training Program to prepare the animal and the volunteer. Now named the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) program, it moved to the public schools.

The reading specialist at the school was asked to identify children who would most benefit from the program, and a weekly appointment with each child was set up with a team (animal and volunteer handler). Usually the appointment ran 15 to 30 minutes. The child was alone in the room with the team, reading aloud. The handler encouraged, but did not correct or teach.

The program has grown. Cats are also serving, and in one case, an African grey parrot. Six years later, it's being used in schools and libraries over 45 states. In Birmingham it's called Sit, Stay, Read. In Baltimore it's Fidos for Freedom. In Bothell, Washington, it's Reading with Rover.

Documented benefits, in the Salt Lake City schools, have been that the use of animals in this way draws the child's attention outward, turns off anxiety, creates safety and intimacy, and increases positive expectations. Testing actually shows higher reading scores.

In the Bay Area, the program exists only at the Pleasanton Library. If you'd like to try it out on your own, try the Pet Partners Team Training Course for Home Study.