Dogs are amazing creatures! They provide unconditional love, do not discriminate, judge, laugh, or criticize, and they are excellent and attentive listeners. They encourage relaxation, lower blood pressure, and brighten affect. These characteristics help to make pet-assisted therapy a natural fit for children and adolescents, and students in North Carolina's Orange County Schools will happily agree!
—One of the first pet-assisted therapy programs in schools, R.E.A.D. (Reading Education Assistance Dogs)focuses on reading and was introduced several years ago in the west by Intermountain Therapy Animals. The concept spread throughout the country and there are now a variety of programs and models that work with children at school and in libraries (See Spot Read, Tail-Wagging Tutors, etc.). Pets are now being used in many ways in educational settings and even help to relax University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students during exams.In 2007, Ella and Julius (two mixed-breed, rescued dogs who are registered therapy dogs with Delta Society Pet Partners), began coming to two of our Orange County schools to read with children in the classroom and meet with students in the school social worker's office. The results were amazing, word spread, and other schools wanted to know how they could have visiting dogs. So, in 2010, Pet Pals was born to include the additional schools and to provide a more structured program to support pet-assisted therapy and activities.
The Pet Pals program could not exist without the volunteer
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