Please read Angel's wonderful story below and then vote for her on the link provided at the END of her story. She is a wonderful dog and is trying to help other dogs!!!
We’re nominating Angel, our Sheltie for her work with a boy named Sage in a reading program at Cabell County Public Library in Huntington, WV. The program provides children who may have difficulty learning to read and children who are good readers an opportunity to read aloud for 20 minutes to a handler and dog team. The child reads with the dog next to him. The handler assists the child if necessary. Children read to Angel at the library Wednesday evenings.
When Sage started the program, all we knew was that he spent 2 years in silence in school, speaking only to his family. Sage had selective mutism, a social communication anxiety disorder. No one was sure whether he would read aloud but on his first night in the program, Sage immediately read to Angel.
At first Sage only read to Angel and did not speak to us. After a number of weeks, Sage began speaking to us in the library setting. After a year of weekly reading Sage saw us at a park and a pool and he almost couldn’t stop talking.
