Tale Waggers offers children a four-legged audience for reading aloud

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Before bed, 7-year-old Kannyn Boyd has been reciting the words from her book of poems in preparation for a reading in front of an audience.

But her audience isn’t an ordinary one. A four-legged, tail-wagging dog sat and listened one-on-one with Kannyn Wednesday as she read “Miles of Smiles” by Bruce Lansky.

“I like that they listen,” Kannyn said.

She said she likes coming to the Veterans Memorial Library, 301 S. University Ave., to read to the dogs in a program created by the Mount Pleasant Michigan Kennel Club. Since 2003, the Tale Waggers have children learn to read by lending them a listening ear through man’s best friend.

“I know that people will bring little dogs, and I like little dogs,” Kannyn said.

Kannyn said she loves to read, especially “Junie B. Jones” books.

The second-grader said she tries reading to her Cockapoo at home, but it doesn’t always turn out successfully.

“It runs away,” she said.

Her 9-year-old sister, Kolbey Boyd, also attended the program and said she loves the combination of reading and dogs.

“I like doing this because I really like dogs,” she said.

Kolbey and Kannyn’s mother, Linda Boyd, principal of Fancher 5/6 Elementary School, 801 S. Kinney Ave., said Tale Waggers is an opportunity to support reading and literacy.

This is the first year Linda brought her daughters to Tale Waggers. She said she wanted to last year, but the program was booked.

Linda said she finds reading important for young adolescents and reading to dogs makes it more enjoyable.

“It inspires them to read. They spend a lot of time picking up the right book,” she said. “It’s comical, because they want to make the dog happy.”

Alice Jenicke, co-chairwoman of Tale Waggers, said this organization is a perfect fit for her.

“I like kids and I like dogs,” she said. “I’m a librarian here, so I like reading.”

Jenicke said she has noticed some changes in participants as they progress each week.

“It does make an impression on a lot of kids,” she said.

She recently had an eighth-grader come back to give his appreciation to the group after what they did for him when he was younger, she said.

The Tale Waggers also participate in “Study Break Therapy” at Central Michigan University, and have gone to other libraries in Alma and Shepherd.

To get the community aware and involved, Tale Waggers advertises the event on the library website, along with sending flyers home to elementary parents.

Clare resident Lori Lickly said the Tale Waggers program allows kids to relax with the dogs.

“It’s a very non-threatening environment,” she said. “They don’t get corrected if they read it wrong.”

Lickly said anywhere from two to 15 teams volunteer and bring their own dogs, depending on how many kids are expected.

“We have an interest in doing community service,” she said. “We’ve heard about programs in other states that do it.”

Tale Waggers will be meeting for the remaining Wednesdays in October.

Kohrman said the experience is rewarding in many ways. She said she had a parent call and thank her because for the first time, her child brought a book home from school to read.

A member of Tale Waggers, Dee Kohrman, said reading to the dogs boosts childrens’ reading comprehension.

“It makes them happy with books,” she said.