CALGARY -- In a celebratory twist to World Read Aloud Day, Clever Canines — a Calgary-based "day school" for dogs — invited author Shawna Robinson to share some of her stories with the pack.
Robinson is the author of Everyday Icing, a subscription-based, digital library of unique, five, 10 or 15-minutes stories meant to be read aloud.
On Wednesday, Robinson read a rhyming tale called Suburban Dawgs. It’s about a group of canines that disclose their secret identities when they hit the town as their owners sleep.
Joe Scorgie is the co-owner of Clever Canines and said they can have upward of 60 dogs at the facility. Staff work hard teaching the dogs during the day and are always looking for new, challenging activities for them.
“The purpose of our day school is not to just have the dogs run around crazy all day and play but to also do some training,” he said. "Give them some different experiences so that when opportunities like this arise and we can take advantage of them, we send a more well-rounded pet home to their owners at the end of the day.”
World Read Aloud Day is a global movement to celebrate the joy of reading and advocate for literacy as a fundamental human right.
Millions of readers, writers and listeners from communities around the world come together to celebrate the joy and power of reading and sharing stories.
On its website Clever Canines states, "All dogs have an innate ability to think, problem-solve, work and please. When we truly understand our dogs (and) how they respond, why they do what they do, why they react and how they communicate, only then can we influence their behaviour.”
Each dog in attendance is receiving a PDF copy of the story read by Robinson to share with their owners.
