Sierra Joy padded softly across the carpet of the children’s area of the Millhopper Branch Library, her three legs barely slowing her down.
The 9-year-old gray and white American Staffordshire Terrier settled beside a child reading a picture book. She tilted her head while the reader began sounding out words. Each time the child stumbled, Sierra Joy waited. Silent. Patient. Tail thumping the floor.
Sierra Joy visits libraries alongside her owner, Dennis Pollard, as part of the Alachua County Library District’s Read with a Dog program. Pollard, a retired physician assistant and UF alumnus, volunteers with Gator Paws, an organization providing therapy dogs for community programs in schools, nursing homes, hospitals, libraries and more.
Through the literacy initiative, children can practice their reading skills by reading to certified therapy dogs with unwavering patience and nonjudgmental eyes.
“It’s a really nice incentive for the kids to read, and we have every age,” Pollard said. “I’ve got a couple children that are younger than 5, just right about 5, and they read beautifully. It’s unbelievable to me.”
The program kicked off at the Alachua Branch in 2014. After a hiatus from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program now meets on a weekly or semiweekly basis at multiple library locations. The Millhopper Branch holds sessions twice a month on Thursday afternoons.
Pat Bellis is a tester and observer with the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, a Gator Paws member and the owner of Eddy Spaghetti, a 7-year-old tan therapy Chihuahua. Wanting to connect the therapy dogs’ owners to those who could most benefit from the canines’ support, she helped found Gator Paws, which she said has about 38 active members.
Bellis regularly attends the Millhopper Branch’s Read with a Dog program with Eddy Spaghetti prancing at her side, eager for the attention and comfy beanbag chair that await him.
“Students’ competence and their position in the classroom increases because they’re chosen to read with a dog,” Bellis said.
Bellis also said the program supports families in other ways. She recalled a woman who regularly came to the program with her 3-year-old daughter and read preschool books herself to improve her English.
Coleen Tobin, the children’s librarian at the Millhopper Branch, has seen the program’s benefits firsthand. Read with a Dog has helped young readers recognize the library as a space to experience new things, connect with their community, discover more about the world and learn how to be safe around dogs, she said.
The program has averaged 25 participants per session at the Millhopper Branch since it started back up in 2023. There is even higher attendance for programs during the summer, when school is not in session, she added.
Tobin stressed literacy engagement should stem from a place of passion and curiosity. Sometimes, mothers bring in reluctant readers who quickly become excited about dogs at the library and the chance to read to them.
“The kid’s department is focusing on early literacy and just kind of sparking that joy for reading,” Tobin said. “Read with a Dog program supports that idea of fostering a sense of passion and excitement for reading.”
Contact Curan Ahern at cahern@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @CuranAhern.
Curan is a third-year journalism-sports & media major who currently serves as the football beat reporter for The Alligator, now in his third semester with the paper. When not at his computer screen writing, Curan enjoys spending time outdoors, hanging with friends, family and pets, and watching the Patriots lose (no, he doesn't miss Brady).
