Why do you read to homeless dogs?” was the question that began my conversation with Cindy Martin, a volunteer at the Port Colborne location of the Niagara SPCA and Humane Society.
“Just a love of dogs, and wanting to do something to make their lives better, and by doing that, it makes my life better too because I’m helping something, doing something that I love. It’s just always been in me, I’m an animal-loving person,” was her heartfelt response.
Martin worked at the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides facility near Breslau, Ontario for a number of years and frequently adopted disqualified dogs. She was a volunteer at the Brant County SPCA while living in Burford, and then moved to Port Colborne during Covid. Retired, and unable to walk dogs because of arthritis, she contacted the Port Colborne shelter and offered to read books to the dogs as a volunteer. The shelter didn’t offer such a program, so Martin became their first volunteer to read to the dogs.
“How do the dogs benefit?” was question number two. Martin suggested any type of enrichment for the dogs is good. When they are surrendered to the shelter, or rescued by SPCA officers, the animals have no idea what’s going on and are devastated.
Martin praises the shelter workers for being wonderful and helpful, then said, “But it’s still a kennel. Any time you do something that gives the dogs attention, makes them feel like they’re in a home somewhere, make some part of their lives different, that’s what this is all about.”
The goal of reading to dogs is to calm them, reduce their stress and allow them to relax with a companion. Martin believes this may help home them by improving their adoptability. She explained that most dog owners don’t want animals that bounce off walls, continuously demand walks, go nuts when the doorbell rings or fight for attention. The dogs calm down quickly when Martin enters the kennel, because they know her visit doesn’t involve a walk. She believes it may help the dogs understand they can have a relationship with a human that doesn’t involve jumping up and down.
Ian Sider has been volunteering as a dog walker and reader at Port Colborne for six months. He grew up on a farm in rural Niagara where dogs and other farm animals were an integral part of his life. Sider has recently moved to downtown Port Colborne, where dog ownership isn’t a viable option at his present home. He explained with a smile that by volunteering at the shelter he’s able to get his “dog fix.”
Sider and Martin agree on what benefits the dogs accrue from being read to, but they each have their personal reading styles. I asked which books Martin and Sider read with the dogs.
Martin, who reads with the dogs three times per week, laughed and said she didn’t think they understand, but she always has doggy books: funny dog books, dog rescue stories, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
I just put my chair down, sit down, and go from there
“It just feels appropriate,” she said. “I never quite know who’s going to be there. So I take my lawn chair in with me, I have my book bag and my treats. I just put my chair down, sit down, and go from there.”
Sessions can be up to an hour long, and the dogs she reads to frequently fall asleep, which she considers indicative of a successful session.
Sider isn’t sure dogs respond to specific subject content. He reads them his texts from friends and family and newspaper articles, while pacing back and forth in front of all the dogs like an itinerant preacher or high school teacher sharing their wisdom.
When I asked if this sustains the dogs’ interest, he replied, “Yeah, they’re watching you, their ears are back, they want to see what’s going on.”
Sider takes his dogs for a walk before he reads to them, so his sessions reading to exhausted listeners seldom last longer than 15 minutes.
Can reading to the dogs become emotionally draining? Both agree that dealing with so many desperate dogs, without knowing their history, can be mentally difficult.
“One hundred percent,” Sider said. “I was choked up the other day when one of the dogs had to leave. You get emotional, you get attached to them. Someone at the shelter took me aside and reminded me that there’s always more coming in, which helped.”
Martin draws on her many years of experience.
“I’ve shed some tears, so have the shelter staff.”
She explained that one has to focus on the helping, not the dogs’ history or situation.
“You can’t dwell on that, or you’re going to stop going. You have to step back. But I’ve shed tears of happiness too when they’re adopted, and I go in to say goodbye.”
Despite the challenges, reading to dogs is far from being a one-way street. The readers benefit too. Studies suggest that reading to dogs can combat stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure, slow one’s heart rate, and even improve self-confidence and public speaking skills, because dogs don’t judge in a human sense.
Martin first encountered dog reading programs for children while volunteering in Brant County, and confirmed that kids can benefit from reading to dogs too. Kids can be shy, afraid to read out loud because they lack self-confidence, or may be bullied or ridiculed when asked to do so in school. But children will read to dogs for the longest time — they’re non-judgmental and appreciative listeners.
My conversations with Sider and Martin were eye-openers, allowing me into a dog reader’s world of compassion and generosity I didn’t know existed.
Reading to the dogs and walking with them, “Just giving them the comfort of knowing that someone is there caring for them,” fulfills Sider as a volunteer.
Martin summarizes her involvement simply; “I go to sleep at night knowing I’ve done some good.”
— From Village Media's PelhamToday
