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What
is B.A.R.K.S.?
Helping Paws is
a therapy-assistance dog organization. We are not a dog
training business. We
do not offer general obedience training to the
general population. Our
only goal is to train dogs and their owners to
do therapy-assistance work within the
community. At the
moment we only have dogs but hope to add other
species of animals shortly –like cats,
rabbits, etc.
Helping
Paws B. A. R. K. S©
is
a program that was started as a reading with
dogs program at a Durham County elementary
school in 2001-2002 school year with the
assistance of Helping Paws member, Amy
Parsons--the school’s psychologist --and her
fur-therapist, Beamer. We
developed the program after seeing a TV
documentary on how schools in Israel
were using small pets with great to success to
improve their students learning in all subjects. Ms. Parsons also
collaborated with InterMountain Therapy Animals
who were developing their R.E.A.D. program at
the same time. Therefore
the reading part of the two programs is very
similar.
The mission of Helping Paws B.A.R.K.S©
program is to help people, both children and
adults, to develop a life-long love for reading
and learning, better inter-personal
communication skills, pet safety, and the proper
care of their personal pets.
How often do they work
together?
In the B.A.R.K.S school
program, the children who participate are
selected by their teachers or reading
specialist. The child may be an excellent
student but may extremely shy and self-conscious
or the child may need
additional help with reading and other learning
skills. We also
work with autistic children. The
children are told they have been selected to
help the dog learn to read -which is very true. One of the newest
techniques in training assistance-service dogs
is teaching them to read up to 25-30 words or
more and for them to be able to understand those
words in short written sentences.
We then assign a
B.A.R.K.S Reading Assistance team (dog and its
owner/handler) to each child.
That B.A.R.K.S team usually works with
the same child once a week for 8-12 weeks so
that a more trusted and secure relationship
evolves. At the end
of that 8-12 weeks we usually rotate the
B.A.R.K.S team so the child does not become
overly attached to one dog.
In some cases, the teacher may feel that
the student needs more stability, so the same
B.A.R.K.S team will work with the student all
year long. The
B.A.R.K.S program is designed to be flexible so
we can adjust to the students needs.
Each child spends between a half-hour to an
hour with the dog and handler -a few minutes
getting acquainted and comfortable, time
reading, then a few minutes at the end for
tricks and treats and less formal play.
Depending on the age and physical limitations of
the dog’s handler, they all sit together on the
floor on large pads. The
dog sits or lies by the child, usually with the
child usually stroking the dog while they read. At the end of each
reading session the student get a badge with the
dog’s picture. If the student has done
exceptionally well he may also get a “great job”
certificate.
To foster reading at home and to continue the
joy of learning we reward the students at the
end of each 10 weeks. At
the beginning of each 10 weeks, we give the
student two doggie bookmarks with his dog’s
picture on it. One bookmark stays in the
student’s folder and one is sent home with the
student. On the
back of the bookmarks are 10 blocks. Every time the student
has a reading session at school, they get to put
a sticker of their
B.A.R.K.S dog in a space. Every
time they read at least 30 minutes at home with
an adult or older sibling, the parent or legal
guardian gives then a check mark.
Once the 10 spaces are filled, the
students get to exchange the bookmark for a new
book which they get to select from the Helping
Paws "Adventures in Reading"
treasure box. That
book then receives a bookplate with the
student’s name, a picture of the student’s
B.A.R.K.S dog, a note from the dog and its
handler, and is “pawtographed” with the dog. The
students will receive their final books at the
end of the year celebrations/graduations where
the parents get to watch the students help the
dogs with the book “signing”.
How
have the children reacted to working with
the dogs?
The response has
been wonderful! The
children’s eyes light up every time their see
their dog. They hug and
kiss their dog and show the dog off to their
friends and peers. They
are really proud they were chosen to help the
dogs learn to read. They
will come to their B.A.R.K.S sessions instead of
attending parties or other school events, they
will tell the dogs about their pets at home, and
most of time they ask for more time to read with
the dogs. The
children love the dogs so much that we have even
been successfully able to use the dogs in
special behavioral modification programs.
How can volunteers get
their dogs involved? What type of
training/requirements do you have for the
dogs/owners?
All of Helping Paws
therapy-assistance dogs and their owners receive
5-6 months of obedience and therapy-assistance
animal training. During this time they are
observed by an animal behaviorist, behavioral
consultant or canine psychologist many times.
They are tested many times –both in the
classroom and in facilities, they are certified,
and they are insured. Then,
Helping Paws B.A.R.K.S dogs have additional
assistance dog training so they can retrieve
books, help turn pages, read with the children,
or whine on cue when the child makes a mistake. This last one allows
the handler to stop the reading a say something
like, “Rita wants to know how to pronounce that
word correctly”. The
B.A.R.K.S dogs are also starting to learn to
read real words. All of Helping Paws therapy
dogs and B.A.R.K.S dogs are constantly evaluated
on a monthly basis by our Helping Paws Facility
Directors.
The first step is for an owner to make an honest
self-appraisal of their dog’s temperament and
health. Is the dog
an indoor dog and disease free? Do they enjoy
meeting people and being touched? Do they inspire
confidence and trust in the people around
them? Are they
calm, reliable? Not afraid of loud,
unexpected, and unusual noises?
Obedient? Patient?
Well groomed? Do not bite or jump up? Do not bark a lot? Do
not pull on their leashes or drag the owner
around? Enjoy
children? Like
curling up on the floor or bed with children and
adults? Pay attention to the owner? Does your dog work
well with other dogs, cats, and animals? Is the
dog 1-year old? Are
all vaccinations and/or titers up-to-date?
For the owner: Do
you enjoy spending time with your dog or other
pets? Are you
willing to learn new techniques for training
your dog? Can you
work one hour per week during regular schools
hours? If you work,
will your company let you take time off for a
couple of hours one day week to work in the
B.A.R.K.S program? Can
you commit to a year long school program one
hour per week? Are you reliable? Do you like
children? Are you
patient? Are you willing to attend training
classes one day a week for 6 months then one day
per month after? For
people interested in doing therapy dog work but
not the B.A.R.K.S program, can you commit to
making at least one therapy dog visit per month?
If you can answer YES to all of
these questions then please contact Helping Paws
for more information on our classes and
therapy-assistance dog work.
Is there
anything the public can do to help?
In order to expand the
B.A.R.K.S program to other schools on our
waiting list we need people with dogs who can
meet the above requirements.
As you can
imagine, with the large number of new books we
are giving to the students, approximately150
this school year, plus all of the printing for
bookmarks, bookplates, and “I read with”
stickers, the B.A.R.K.S program is very
expensive for Helping Paws to maintain. We could
really use donations of new books for K-6
grades.
We are in desperate need of a
new training facility.
For the past three years, we have been
training in Dorothea Dix’s Haywood Gym. Dorothea Dix Hospital donated the
use of this space because of the large number of
therapy dog visits our teams make to the
hospital and other care facilities in the Wake,
Durham, Orange, Johnston, and Graham
County
areas. In November,
the NC Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
took over the management of Haywood Gym from
Dorothea Dix as part of the movement for closing
Dorothea Dix in 2008. In
December, DHHS canceled our use of the gym
because they plan to convert it to a health spa
for the DHHS employees working on the Dix
campus.
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