2024 Reading Dog Fun
September – December
We continue to do Reading Dog at Tongue River Elementary (pre-K through 6th grade) on Monday mornings. We are there two hours, so I take two dogs. Spirit, Hopeful and Lovely take turns doing Reading Dog there. So far this fall no one has taken any pictures. The school has a cute mailbox, which I check each Monday, but so far we haven’t received any letters from TRE students.
The 2024-2025 kindergarten class at Holy Name School is huge – 12 kids! Spirit and I do Reading Dog there every Thursday morning. At the beginning of the school year, I read to the child while he or she cuddles with Spirit, but by mid-October this bunch was already reading simple books to Spirit. AND writing letters to Spirit, who answers them on her own stationery.
Here is a letter Spirit received from a Holy Name Kindergartener on October 17th.
Here is a letter Spirit wrote to a different Holy Name Kindergartener on October 20th.
(See our firefighter adventure)
September 19 I had shirts made for each of my therapy dogs to wear during winter visits. I always try to wear cheerful colors to the nursing homes. I have lots of colorful t-shirts for warmer weather, but not many for cold weather. So I went down to Kilpatrick Creations and asked them if we could make shirts with a headshot of the dog and its name on the front and an action shot on the back – of light fabric like the t-shirts since the nursing homes are kept warm, but long-sleeved for comfort traveling to and from the home. We had our first chilly day on a Thursday, so I wore Spirit’s shirt to Holy Name School for Reading Dog. The kids loved it, so the teacher, Emily, took a photo of all of us.
October 31th Spirit dressed up as a jack-o-lantern this year (and I wore orange, too). We had extra fun because Halloween was actually on the day we do Reading Dog. We always take a photo of spirit in her Halloween costume. It was extra special this year because the kids were all in costumes, too!
January – May
January 25th We had so much fun celebrating Spirit/s birthday with the Holy Name School kindergarteners last year, that I decided to do it again this year for her 9th birthday. I made Elephant Ears, which are like squashed cinnamon rolls, for everyone. Before we ate them Emily, the teacher, led the class in singing Happy Birthday to Spirit. Spirit wasn’t too impressed with the serenade, instead concentrating on the Elephant Ears on the tables. Several of the photos caught her “Hurry up!!!!” look. The kids had all made birthday cards for Spirit, and you can see several of them holding those in the photos.
After our party, we did our usual Reading Sessions. One of the kids insisted that I take his photo with Spirit.
February 5th Spirit celebrated her 200th therapy dog visit this morning at Tongue River Elementary School. Berakah is the only other one of my therapy dogs to reach 200 visits. I spayed her at two years when she came down with pannus, so she had a long therapy dog career. I have several who made it over 100 (Chaos & Lively come to mind), but it’s hard for a dog to get 200 visits in when I have 4-6 certified therapy dogs at a time and they take turns doing visits. The breeding bitches, especially, seldom get to 200 because they miss so many possible visits while in heat, pregnant or lactating. And only the ones who participate in Reading Dog have much of a chance. Lovely, for instance, even with doing Reading dog at TRE, at 7 3/4 years has only 80 visits. Hopeful, who is spayed, already at 3 3/4 years has 94 visits in, so she has a chance to make it to 200. So for Spirit, who raised two litters, to get to 200 visits is absolutely fantastic!!!
One of the TRE staff members took photos of two sets of kids reading to Spirit. I took some of a third group.
April 25th I took photos at today’s Reading Dog session with the Holy Name School kindergarteners. They will vote on which photos will be used to create their own set of trading cards. I include the link to last year’s trading cards so that you get an idea.
See all of today’s photos
See the 2023 Kindergarten Trading Cards
April 30th Jamboree from the JJ litter (Spirit’s niece and Mercy’s sister) is also a Reading Dog. She lives in Sundance, WY. I recently added a bunch of photos of her doing Reading Dog to the litter page. Jamboree is also a service dog, competes in Nosework and was the only Court Advocate Dog in Wyoming until recently, when the program was, sadly, discontinued. Court Advocate Dogs go to court with a child when he or she must testify in an abuse or neglect case, offering comfort and courage when the child must tell of what he or she endured. We are VERY sorry that Wyoming didn’t pursue this service. See Jamboree’s Reading Dog photos. Also, see Jamboree’s trading cards.
May 13th The trading cards for the Holy Name School Kindergarteners are done!
See all the trading cards.
See the photos from which the kids picked their favorites for the trading cards.