Reading without fear: The impact of reading dogs
Dr Melissa Smith’s research is reshaping how educators understand literacy by shifting the focus from skills to emotional safety. Her study into reading-to-dog programs explores how confidence, trust and relationships influence whether a child will engage with reading in the first place. Drawing on insights from children, volunteers, teachers and school leaders, the research shows that when fear is removed, reading can transform from a source of anxiety into a safe and even enjoyable experience.
At the centre of the findings is a simple but powerful idea: children need to feel safe before they are willing to try.
As Dr Smith explained, “willingness and emotional safety come first, and our systems barely measure them.”
Across interviews and creative responses, participants consistently described reading sessions with dogs as calm, supportive and free from judgement. Younger children expressed this through colourful drawings filled with hearts, rainbows and dogs, often without including books at all. Rather than signalling disengagement, this pointed to something deeper — reading had become embedded in a feeling of warmth and connection. Older students echoed this in their own way, describing sessions as “funny” or “relaxed” and, in one case, calling their reading dog “the GOAT FR”.
This emotional shift plays out clearly in practice. In a typical session, a child who may usually avoid reading arrives tense and guarded. The presence of a calm, trained dog helps regulate that anxiety. There is no correction, no performance pressure and no fear of getting it wrong. As one volunteer told Dr Smith, the dog “doesn’t know if it’s the right word or not.”
Alongside the dog, the volunteer supports the child gently, following their lead rather than directing them. Together, they create an environment where mistakes carry no weight, allowing the child to take risks and build confidence.
“The relationship is not the backdrop to the reading,” Dr Smith said. “It is the thing that makes the reading possible.”
Using an ecological systems approach, the study also highlights that these programs do not operate in isolation. A child’s engagement with reading is shaped by layers of influence, from relationships in the room to school culture and broader systems.
The success of a reading-to-dog program therefore depends not only on the dog, but on the strength of the surrounding support, including consistent routines, engaged staff and valued volunteers.
As Dr Smith noted, “the dog is not the whole story — the surrounding system matters just as much.”
The findings challenge several common assumptions about literacy. Traditional approaches often treat reading as a skills-based issue, measured through decoding and fluency. Dr Smith’s research suggests that this misses a critical first step.
“We tend to optimise what we can count,” she said, “but that means the relational side of reading becomes invisible.”
If a child feels unsafe, unwilling or ashamed, even the best instruction may not reach them. By contrast, when children feel calm and supported, they are more likely to engage, persist and gradually improve.
Importantly, the research does not position reading-to-dog programs as a replacement for structured teaching. Instead, they play a complementary role, preparing the emotional ground for learning. Children who begin to associate reading with safety are more open to classroom instruction and more willing to attempt challenging texts.
“A willing child is a teachable child,” Dr Smith said.
Across the study, teachers and volunteers reported increased confidence, greater participation and a noticeable shift in how children approached reading tasks.
While the research is qualitative, the consistency of these experiences across multiple perspectives is significant. Children who had previously refused to read began doing so voluntarily. Others who were anxious became more relaxed and engaged. These changes may not always appear immediately in standardised assessments, but they represent meaningful progress in a child’s relationship with reading. As Dr Smith emphasised, “the affective gains come first, and the academic gains follow them.”
Dr Smith’s journey into this research began in the classroom, where she repeatedly saw students held back not by ability, but by fear. A defining moment came when she was told that older students did not need reading support, prompting her to establish her own reading-to-dog program. Observing the response from teenagers who had been written off became the foundation for her doctoral work.
Her background in trauma-informed education and her understanding of the bond between children and animals shaped the research approach, but she deliberately centred the voices of participants.
“My job was to listen, not to prove myself right,” she said.
By including children directly through draw-and-write activities, alongside interviews with adults, the study captures an experience that is often overlooked in traditional research.
At its core, the work reframes literacy as more than a technical skill. It recognises that learning to read is also an emotional experience, shaped by confidence, safety and connection. For children who have come to see reading as something to fear, that shift can be profound.
As Dr Smith concluded, “A reading-to-dog program gives a child permission to be a beginner, to stumble, to try again and to fall back in love with reading without the fear of being judged as they simply spend time with their furry friend.”
Visit ResearchGate to read Dr Melissa's full thesis titled "Furry Friends and Fluent Readers: A Qualitative Exploration of Participant Experiences in Reading-to-Dog Programs"
