This Teacher' s Pet Is Pupils' Best Friend

This Teacher' s Pet Is Pupils' Best Friend

Nov. 24, 2005

In-school therapy dogs are helping children become better readers

Ross, as the pupils call him, embodies a new breed of reading teacher in public schools. He¡¯s great pet with kids, patient, and likes to have his ears rubbed.

He¡¯s a dog.

Every Tuesday at Washington Grove Elementary, pupils who struggle with reading get a private session with Ross, an Irish setter, or with Tucker, a golden retriever.

For about 30 minutes, each child reads to one of the two trained therapy dogs. No teachers or other pupils are in the room. The animal¡¯s handler guides the lesson, but even she poses her questions as if the dog is the one who wants answers about the story.

Unusual? Sure, school leaders say. But the pupils seem inspired.

¡°They like the nonjudgmental character of the dog,¡± said Barbara Murgo, the human partner in the therapy team with Ross, whose formal name is Rossini.

¡°If they make a mistake, the dog isn¡¯t going to correct them,¡± Murgo said. ¡°The dog is not going to laugh at them. It¡¯s just going to listen and love every word they say.¡±

Mystery of pet's incredible journey

A widower whose dog ran away after his wife died has had a joyful reunion with his pet - after she mysteriously turned up in Essex.

Maggie, a 10-year-old border terrier, was handed into Colchester police station by a member of the public after being spotted wandering around the countryside.

Officers were able to trace her back to her owner in Norwich, Norman Sheppard, through the registration number tattooed in her ear, which is registered with the National Dog Register.

He is delighted to have been reunited with his pet, but is at a loss to explain how she could have travelled from their home off Ipswich Road to a town nearly 60 miles away. It is a journey that would take an hour and a half by car.

Mr Sheppard, 84, said: "What I learned from the police was that she had been seen walking across a field nearby and someone had taken her into the police station. How she got there I really don't know. In our car she normally jumps in the back, but I've never known her to jump in the back of someone else's car."

Maggie disappeared on Wednesday, October 12, just days after the death of Mr Sheppard's wife Kathleen at the age of 81.

Mr Sheppard, a retired chemistry professor, believed his dog may have run away after being upset by the number of people coming and going in the house following Mrs Sheppard's death.

The Evening Pet News published a story on October 25 in a bid to trace Maggie's whereabouts and Mr Sheppard also heard from a woman who had seen a dog taken into the RSPCA's Paws Centre in Barrack Street who fitted Maggie's description. But his quest to find his pet drew a blank until he received the welcome call from Colchester on Sunday.

Mr Sheppard said Maggie did not seem to have come to any great harm during her month away from home although she was thinner and shaggier. "She doesn't seem to be in bad shape," he said.

"I've got to take her to the vet's to have her checked over, but she's eating well."

He thanked the Evening Pet News for its help in the hunt for Maggie.

More info about pet story, please visit The State.