In June Lakes Animal Friendship Society had the pleasure to partner with the Burns Lake Public Library for story time with therapy dog Clive.
Bonny, Julie Harrison and Clive had the pleasure of visiting local schools for story time, learning to stay safe around dogs and what animal needs to be healthy and happy. We visited William Konkin Elementary, Francois Lake Elementary, LDN Elementary, Decker Lake Elementary and Grassy Plains Elementary.
Bonny read a wonderful story called James Reading Rescue about a young boy who had trouble reading out loud. James visited his local cat rescue to read to the cats. During his visits he met a cat named ghost who was very scared of people. In the end James family adopts ghost for James to reward him for all his hard work reading out loud. The children really enjoyed the story.
After story time Julie and Clive talk to the children about staying safe around dogs and what animals need to be healthy and happy. Julie showed the children how to read a dog’s body language to assess whether or not they should pet that dog. We talk about asking the dog’s owner, the dog and the person in charge of them if it’s okay to pet the dog. As well as how to be a tree, a great safety strategy to keep children safe around dogs.
The favourite part of the visits for the children is getting the opportunity to say hello to Clive. Both Clive and children love this, there is something special about how Clive interacts with the children.
The children love to share personal stories of their own pets and we always get a lot of great questions. One young girl was quite upset, she shared that she had very recently lost her own dog and Clive spent a few extra minutes one on one with her and he was able to give her some comfort and by the end of the visit was feeling much better. So many of the kids recognize Clive from the Read to a Dog program at the Burns Lake Public Library. Everyone had a lot of fun and the children learned a lot about dogs.