The Humane Society of Missouri has designed a program called The Shelter Buddies Reading Program, in which kids ages 6-15 read a book of their choice to the shelter dogs. The program is meant to give the dogs with anxiety more comfort around people as well as give the volunteers a chance to help the animals.

The kids read to the dogs as they sit outside of the kennel and reward them with a treat when they come to the front. This gives the dog more interaction and compliments their behavior. The program is also a big improvement for the volunteers as they become better readers.

Here at LNE, some students and teachers think the program is unnecessary to have, Autumn Wardyn who teaches freshmen English here at LNE says, “It would be more useful for the shelter to have the kids help with other things. It’s just a waste of time and resources.”

Although, many students say they would be happy to volunteer as it could be good community service if we had it here in Lincoln. One student says, “I think the program is a very good idea not only for education purposes but psychological as well.” If LPS implemented this program it could be very beneficial for many students, but the big question is, how?

One idea mentioned was schools around LPS to plan a week out of the year to go to the shelter and read to the dogs for an hour a day. The individual students would be assigned to the same dog that they would visit with. This would make it easier for the dogs to approach people. Struggling readers could use this program as an opportunity to better themselves. As they say, practice makes perfect.