Going to the Dogs

To help children’s literacy, a British school has called on the dogs. At one elementary school, children are reading to Yorkshire terriers, Labradors and Shetland sheepdogs, because the dogs won’t laugh at them if they make a mistake.

As the Brits might say: Are they barking mad?

Martin Ford, the teacher who helped introduce the program at St. Michael’s elementary school in Dorset, England, told the U.K.’s The Telegraph that the dogs had a made a "significant impact" on the reading ability of children ages 7 and 8.

"The children always looked forward to their sessions and it certainly helped with motivating them to read both at school and at home," Ford said.

Nonprofit Caring Canines donated the dogs — or, really, the dogs’ time.

"Ours are special dogs that are good with children,” Caring Canine’s Julie Lankshear told The Telegraph. "The scheme works because the dogs are non-judgmental; they won't laugh at stammers or get impatient."

Or, at least, they’ll make a dogged effort not to.