Disclaimer: These activities are not affiliated with Rogue Valley Kennel Club and are included on this site for information only.

READING BUDDIES

The K-9 Reading Program was started 3 years ago at the Grants Pass Library and has expanded to include second graders at Lincoln Elementary. We are at the library every Tuesday 3:00 to 4:00 year round, and on Friday mornings at Lincoln School during the school year.

The purpose of the program is three-fold: to improve literacy skills of children and lead them to like reading; to give our Therapy dogs a unique and positive experience; and to show the community another positive aspect of our organization.

All dogs are registered Therapy dogs with additional training to be around children in a calm way.

We (handlers) have personally observed children become more confident in their reading skills as well as more comfortable around dogs. Many children return to the library week after week and some have favorite dogs they want to read to, while others enjoy making the rounds and reading to each dog.

The current members of the program are as follows:

Handler	Dog
Iris Hurwitz	Oscar the Boxer
Carol Aubrey	Olly (yellow lab)
Bev Ball	Winston (black lab)
Sharon Watson	Trista (yellow lab)
Diane Fisher*	Zena (shepherd mix)
Nancy Edie*	Pogo (standard poodle)
Jani Mari Ziray-Cochran	Palley (Shetland sheep dog)
Vi Brown	Big Red (St. Bernard)

* = people only involved at the library