Read to a Dog Program Helps Young Readers at Parsippany Library

PARSIPPANY, NEW JERSEY — The Parsippany Public Library is hosting Read to a Dog this Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Children's Room. The event allows children to read to therapy dogs for fifteen minutes each. It takes place the first Wednesday of the month.

"It’s a good opportunity for kids to read without worrying about their reading," Rosie Schulman, children's librarian at Parsippany Library, told Patch.

The therapy dogs come from Creature Comfort Pet Therapy in Morristown. The dogs are trained to sit quietly, which makes the children feel comfortable, Schulman explained.

Mary Beth Cooney, executive director of Creature Comfort Pet Therapy, went over the type of dog that works best as a therapy pet.

"Personality-wise, they need to be calm, love strangers, love to be petted by strangers, even hugged," Mary Beth Cooney told Patch.

In addition to dogs, Creature Comfort also offers cats, a rabbit, a guinea pig, a mini-horse and a mini-goat as therapy pets. The animals are all privately owned and need to pass obedience training before they work for Creature Comfort.

"We do a test on several different points: obedience, reaction to noise, reaction to a crowd of people they don’t know. They have to be hugged for a strange for fifteen seconds," Cooney said, describing the process. "They’re tested with a mutual animal. They have to be calm around other animals. And take a treat with a soft mouth."

When children read to these dogs at the Parsippany Library, they recognize the animals as attentive listeners, Cooney explained.

"These dogs are attentive to people. They’re not judgmental," Cooney said.

"The dogs just kind of sit and listen," Schulman said. "It doesn’t matter if you’re a good reader or struggling a bit with reading. It’s a soothing environment."

The program is recommended for ages 5-10, but children of all ages are welcome.

"We’ve had people who call and say, 'My child is too young to read, but they’re a little skittish around dogs,'" Schulman said. Those kids are welcome to stop by too, this Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at the Parsippany Library.