Volunteer Resources

It's always been a struggle to get my child to read each day. I've never seemed to be able to find the right topics to draw him in. Reading with Rover has been a HUGE help! My son will read almost any kind of book during Reading with Rover, and he wants to read for the entire hour! This is so different from how he is at home. I highly recommend this program for any child who is not a fan of reading!

Testimonial about Reading with Rover program This winter, I was living in southern California and had an opportunity to visit a first grade classroom at the Seneca Elementary School in Moreno Valley. Barley wore his little RWR vest and we visited the classroom once a week for about 3 months. There were quite a few children in this first grade for which English was a second language and of course, reading was a struggle for them. The teacher had 30 students and no teacher’s aide or any parental volunteer, so she was very challenged every day to teach and to keep them under some control. Barley Read more

I met you about a month ago at Borders while my son with special needs read with Moose. We were there to see our friends, Aimee and Aaron Shriner and Koa. When I got there I was so impressed. As I mentioned to you at the time that this program goes to Woodmoor, where my son attends school. It was Mark and Annie that made school something to look forward to and gave my son the confidence to speak to others about Annie, whom he was so proud to be walking! My son has among other things severe Read more

I have been meaning to write you guys and let you know that Toryn this year was doing 8th grade reading level. When she started LC and Reading with Rover in 3rd grade she was almost 2 grades behind. I can not even begin to tell you how much the program and all the dogs have meant to us and helped her. She is in 5th grade and reading/writing 3 grade levels ahead. Amazing!!!! Please share with the owners/dogs - they deserve to know that they are so appreciated and I am forever grateful to you and Dave. Thanks Becky Read more

How can I say thank you enough for everything that Reading with Rover has done for our daughter. I have always known that animals can have remarkable effects on humans and your Reading with Rover program just proves it. Our daughter has NLD a Non Verbal Learning disorder which effects her in many ways. One being reading and another is non verbal social cues. She is very smart and so sweet but she realizes she is different and making friends is very hard for her. She is self conscious about reading out loud but when she read to Read more

I wanted you to know what a hit Reading with Rover was in our house. Our son LOVED reading to the dogs. He was very excited about going and reading to them more. It is so great to see how excited he is about reading to them. I have not seen this excitement about reading. He doesn't even like going to the library and I haven't pushed it much for fear he will not like reading. Thank you so much for doing this program. I am so excited myself about going to see all the Rovers this summer. Read more

I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed going to Reading with Rover at the Lynnwood Barnes and Noble last Saturday. The children seem to truly enjoy themselves and the dogs were adorable. I was able to sit with 5 different handlers to "shadow" how they dealt with the children. All the handlers I met were very enthusiastic about what they were doing and were very easy to talk to. I definitely would like to belong to this group of wonderful people. Thanks Becky, for starting this group. It is a wonderful feeling knowing that you Read more

We just wanted to thank you for your very kind and very generous $1000.00 donation to our school! With the money you donated, we were able to purchase a new reading program, as well as a new writing program, we had had our eyes on. This year’s Rose Hill second graders will definitely benefit from your generous gift, as will upcoming second grade classes! We feel so honored and blessed to have Reading with Rover as part of our school program!

My granddaughter is in love with your program! And when I was first introduced to it at Third Place Books last month, I totally understood her delight and enthusiasm. In the 40 years that I’ve been involved with education, I don’t think I’ve experienced a more exciting and rewarding program. I had tears in my eyes as I walked around and watched the various children read to these wonderful dogs! I have told anyone who will listen about it! I applaud all of your special efforts to make this so magical!

Wow, was it a hit!!! Nate had a blast. Read to 5 dogs and finished 2 whole books. He was so proud of himself. He talked about the dogs all the way home. He is also trying to figure out how our unruly dog, Norton, could be a Reading with Rover dog. When we explained that Norton didn’t behave well enough to be around all those other dogs, he kept thinking. He’s now convinced we can start our own reading with rover at home with the neighborhood kids! I had to laugh. That should be funny. Thank you Read more

My son Oliver is part of Camp Sparkle at Gilda's Club this week. I just wanted to thank you for bringing your dogs to visit with the kids yesterday. My son talked about the dogs all evening and said he had a wonderful time meeting the "team." I appreciate your willingness to bring some happiness to some kids who really need it.

Dear Reading with Rover, Our team at Windermere Green Lake recently started a campaign to keep low-income kids academically engaged this summer. We felt passionately about this cause because our office sits in the center of the vibrant Green Lake community filled with many family activities, and as we approach summer, this is a reminder that for many, the cost of these activities can be too much. This campaign is about giving to low-income kids in the Green Lake area elementary schools (grades K-5) a way to stay academically engaged in the summer through a variety of donated school supplies. We never anticipated Read more

I wanted to mention a really happy story that a mom at a school age program told me this week. She has a child who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (age 6). She recently began bringing her to our Reading with Rover program. At one particular visit, while the daughter was reading to a dog, she was reading fluently in a way that she was never able to do with her parents or other adults. The mom had no idea that the daughter could read that well, because she has seen no evidence of that capability herself. The mom was Read more

I've been looking at some data regarding students in your Reading with Rover program and thought you might enjoy hearing the news. All your students made gains in both the number of words they could read correctly in one minute and in their overall reading accuracy! This all gets back to how fluently they can read, which relates to how much they can attend to the meaning of what they are reading. Four of the 5 students in your program doubled the number of words they could read correctly, and overall the entire group had an average improvement in reading Read more

Yesterday, Bella and I passed our renewal test for Pet partners! I just want to again express my gratitude to you for all the training I received over the years. You provided us with all the skills necessary to be a successful therapy team. Now that I have updated our certification I will work on getting certified with RWR. I will schedule my dogless shadows soon. Then do my floor time with kids. Bella did superb on her aptitude part of the test! The examiner, loved the "hug" part of it. A very big change from her testing last time 2 years ago Read more

Today my daughter participated in Reading with Rover, and it was such a gift. Reading has been a bit of a challenge for her, and something she usually does because she has to. However, today she was all smiles as she read to all three dogs at the library. She cannot wait to do it again. Thank you so much for this valuable service and delightful literary opportunity you gave to my seven-year old.

Diana and her team (human and 4 legged) always do such a wonderful job when you present here at the Museum. We love having them come for our Paws for Applause Dog Appreciation Day! Every one of you are so engaging, patient and encouraging to families. On behalf of all our visitors and staff Thank you to everyone who participates in the Reading with Rover program.

Thank you Leslie, I think my worry about Kaylee being nervous was extra :) She surprised me that she wanted to read the books alone and actually she didn't want us to be around. I am happy she likes it. This program will let her be more confident to talk in front of people she doesn't know. Many thanks to you, your program and your dogs !

Thank you for today's event. My son really loves it. He's more confident and likes to read/talk to dogs instead of talking to people!   My son hasn't been to school since last March after the pandemic. We speak another language at home so after staying at home for 6 months with a minimum social interaction with others, we suddenly found it's so hard for him to speak any English, even when we talked in English, he wouldn't respond to us at all. We've enrolled him in several English online classes, joined library story time, read English picture books since September, but it seems there's Read more