The benefits of reading to (human) kids are well documented — not just for learning, but for strengthening emotional connections and improving mental health.
But could there be benefits for other species too? Specifically, for dogs in shelters?
At least anecdotally, staffers and volunteers at Pasadena Humane — an L.A.-area shelter that’s been around since 1903 — say they’re seeing real benefits to pairing volunteer readers with dogs.
Molly Litteken, a volunteer with the “Reading Rovers” program at Pasadena Humane, reads to a shelter dog.
When LAist’s How To LA podcast team visited recently, there was music playing over loudspeakers for the dogs in their kennels. They sometimes play audiobooks too, and each week a handful of volunteers also reads to the dogs in person.
The idea, spokesperson Kevin McManus says, is that it’s inherently stressful for the dogs to be in a shelter, so playing music or reading to them one-on-one helps create a “calming, more serene environment.”
Volunteers with the “Reading Rovers” program read all different kinds of books — or sometimes the newspaper — to the dogs.
“We have a lot of kids who do it after school,” McManus says. “It’s great for the kids, [and] it’s great for the dogs cause it’s a nice calm environment and a soothing voice. And for a shy dog, it really helps them come out of their shell a little bit. It helps them get adopted.”
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