You’ve heard of people who go down to the homeless shelter to read from the bible, or going to the orphanage to read fairy stories to children, but how about reading to dogs?
It happens, and an animal shelter in Nottinghamshire is asking for volunteers to spare some time to read stories to their inhabitants, the dogs. The idea is that by reading to dogs it helps to relax them, and gets them used to human contact, which will make it easier to find homes for them when people come to view them.
The shelter, run by the RSPCA, could be the first dog shelter in the UK to read to dogs. As well as reading to dogs, the animal shelter also uses aromatherapy oils to stimulate the dogs’ senses while they’re being read to.
Anyone interested in reading to the dogs will also be ‘trained’ in uses the correct tone of voice.
Ella Herring, assistant manager for the RSPCA dog shelter, stated:
People will think it’s quite bizarre and quite unusual but I think obviously once they understand why we’re doing it and the benefits the dogs are getting out of it, then people will come forward and want to do it.
Would you be interested in reading to dogs?
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[…] month we reported on how Ella Herring was looking for volunteers to read to dogs for the RSPCA. She wanted budding story tellers to help the dogs feel more at home and to get used to human […]