Bonnie Bergin started Assistance Dog Institute to train "Helping Dogs Help People."

Teaching a dog to read requires far more than a few flash cards and a pocketful of biscuits."

Chapter 1, Learn to be your Dog's Coach, shows how your attitude affects your dog's familiarity with basic skills. It sets the stage for your dog's successful reading lessons.

She founded the only college offering Master of Science and Associate of Science degrees in dog studies, creating the High School Assistance Dog program for at-risk teens, and researching how to teach dogs to read and how to train pups as young as three weeks.

The realization that dogs do read printed words on cards surprised me. I'd wondered, but had not taken the time to teach a dog to read.

Programs such as Precision Teaching evolved from translating dog training manuals to working with human children in school classrooms. Interestingly, these programs yield extraordinary results for students in such programs. I wonder why more teachers don't use them, why so many children do not read because teachers don't use them.

Kudos to Bergin. She has another intriguing insight I missed without her. That means she's a reasonable teacher. I probably should get a copy of her book to use with AJ. Maybe I'll read to him, also.


Tablet PC Education Blog