Dogs are more than just good companions.

Byline: BUILDING YOUTH ASSETS By Anne Kraft For The Register-Guard

I have always felt a special connection with animals, but it was while I was working at an emergency youth shelter that I first realized the power animals can have on people.

The runaway and homeless young people took in a stray dog that had been wandering the street behind the shelter. The dog, with his wagging tail and smiling brown eyes, caused the youths' previously prickly attitudes and defensive postures to become relaxed and affectionate. The simple presence of the dog shifted the entire milieu of the shelter - from intense and crisis-oriented to calm and comforting.

Since then, I've sought ways to re-create this experience. My dog Hanai and I are a registered Delta Society Pet Partner team. This program trains and screens volunteers and their pets to conduct animal-assisted activities in hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, schools and elsewhere.

I'm also a board member for a local Delta Society affiliate group, People and Animals Who Serve. More than 35 registered pet partner teams make up PAAWS. Among many other important services, PAAWS teams participate in an innovative children's literacy program called Reading Education Assistance Dogs. READ's mission is to improve children's literacy skills by using a unique approach: reading to a dog.

Intermountain Therapy Animals, based in Salt Lake City, started this program, which can be used in schools, libraries and other settings and uses registered therapy animals that have been specially trained and tested for health, safety, skills and temperament. As of last May, there were more than 550 READ teams across the United States and Canada helping children fall in love with reading. READ teams offer children an often irresistible opportunity to improve their reading in a setting that has proven not only effective but fun!

Since piloting the first local READ program in 2003, Elaine Pray, a PAAWS board member and local READ program coordinator, estimates that READ teams have made more than 1,000 visits to children in Lane County. PAAWS has partnered with the Eugene Recreation Services Department's after-school and summer programs and the Eugene Public Library. Every week, trained READ teams visit local elementary schools and the library's Saturday Dog Tale Times.

The Search Institute has identified 40 developmental assets for childhood. These assets are `building blocks of healthy development that can help children grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.' Reading for pleasure and early literacy are among those assets. Through the READ program, children are encouraged to not only develop basic reading skills, but also enjoy reading as a pleasurable pastime.

Difficulties with reading often represent a vicious cycle: The child who says, `I hate reading!' practices less, fails to gain confidence and fluency, and has an aversion to reading all the more.

On Saturdays at the library, one of my dog Hanai's favorite readers is a young girl I'll call Shanti. It is obvious that reading is not Shanti's first interest. Yet as she snuggles up on a blanket with Hanai, it's clear that she loves dogs. Shanti spends much of the visit petting Hanai's soft ears, hugging him, and telling him what a good boy he is. Shanti struggles through the book she has selected, but I notice she has chosen a longer story so that she has more time with Hanai. The girl's mother tells me that although reading at school is Shanti's least favorite activity, she enthusiastically looks forward to her visits each week with Hanai.

Research with therapy animals indicates that children with low self-esteem are often more willing to interact with an animal than another person. They focus better when an animal is present, and refer back to the session many times in later conversations. Further, during interactions with therapy animals, children are inclined to forget about their limitations. Children find reading to a dog less intimidating. A dreaded reading experience can be transformed into something positive, rewarding and fun.

Anne Kraft ([e-mail]) is a founding board member of PAAWS (www.peopleandanimalswhoserve.org). She and her dog have been registered Delta Society Pet Partners (www.deltasociety.org) since 2001. This is the 12th in a series of biweekly columns about ways of helping young people acquire the assets they need for a healthy, productive lives. More information is available from www.search-institute.org or www.lanecounty.org/prevention.