Gatorland K-9 German Shepherds Become Therapy Dogs

Apryl Polster takes her dogs, Bailey and Boone to the library and children who have trouble reading aloud will read aloud to the dogs because they trust them not to make fun of them. Apryl shared their story with us. The dog lays down in the middle of a circle and the children take turns reading to the dog. When we were reading “White Fang,” after we read the last page, Bailey sat up, pointed her nose up and howled like a wolf. Some of the kids still talk about that. We were reading at the school and everyone heard it. Also, my friend wants me to do the hospital with her. They have a guy there with post stress syndrome—who hadn’t spoken in years and he has started talking to her Shepherd. They want her dogs there because of all the good they do for the patients, but she needs more dogs, so hers get a break.

If you would like to follow along with Bailey, Boone and all of our dogs, be sure and become a Fan of GatorlandK9 on Facebook.

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Sandra Nelson said:

	Therapy Dogs Wonderful story.
	report abuse vote down vote up

May 27, 2010
Votes: +0

Nancy Hendricks said:

Tribute to our Service Dog We just lost our wonderful German Shepherd Max who also was part of a reading program at an elementary school and the children loved him. He also worked as a pet therapy dog at an assisted living facility. He always seemed to know how to act around each patient. We are now looking forward to our new German Shepherd puppy from Ted. After a lot of research I am confident that we will get the type of dog that will have the same temperment that someday will also work as a therapy dog.

report abuse vote down vote up

October 21, 2011
Votes: +0