Breed dogs for reading dogs for schools and libraries? Advertise here
Buyers and trainers use this page to find breeders whose lines do this work. List your kennel free, tick the industries your dogs work in, and advertise litters and stud dogs from proven working lines.
No breeders are listed here yet, so the first profiles get the page to themselves.
- Free basic profile: your breeder or company name, website, social media, location, breeds and industries.
- Litters and stud dogs advertised in their own sections, never mixed with puppies for sale.
- Premium showcase for your services and prices, previous customers, awards, video, gallery and health certificates, with your phone and email shown to buyers.
- Sponsored articles about your breed or industry, written and published by our team.
- Featured placement at the top of this page, labelled as sponsored.
Is it free to advertise here?
Yes. A breeder profile and your litter and stud dog adverts are free. Premium profiles, featured placement and sponsored articles are optional paid extras; see pricing.
Do I need a licence to advertise puppies?
In England you need a dog breeding licence from your council if you breed three or more litters in 12 months or breed and sell dogs as a business, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes. Licensed breeders show their licence number and issuing council on every advert. Puppies must be at least eight weeks old before they go to new homes.
Is my listing already here?
We add licensed breeders from councils' public registers. Search for your kennel name; if it is listed you can claim it and edit everything.
About reading dogs for schools and libraries
Reading dogs sit quietly with children while they read aloud. For a child who dreads reading in front of classmates, a dog is a patient listener that never judges, corrects or comments. This page explains how reading dogs work in the UK, who organises them, and what breeders and owners should know if they hope a dog will one day become a reading dog volunteer.
What this work involves
A session is short and calm. A child, often one who finds reading difficult or stressful, sits with a registered visiting dog and its handler and reads aloud, sometimes directly ‘to’ the dog. A member of staff stays involved and the handler watches the dog throughout. Schools use the sessions to support literacy, confidence and concentration; the dog’s job is to lie still, stay relaxed and enjoy the company.
These are not specially bred or specially sold dogs. They are volunteers’ own pets, assessed and registered by a visiting-dog charity. When people search for ‘read to dogs UK’ or dogs that help children read, they are usually looking at one of the schemes below.
Who trains and supplies these dogs in the UK
Pets As Therapy runs Read2Dogs, in which registered PAT dogs visit schools so pupils can read to them. Regular visits are free to schools. Before registering, a school must carry out a risk assessment, and if a volunteer’s role requires a DBS check the school arranges it at no cost to the volunteer. Setting up visits can take from a few weeks to a few months, depending on local volunteers. PAT dogs must be at least a year old, have lived with their owner for nine months and pass an assessment of about 45 minutes.
Therapy Dogs Nationwide (registered charity 1167622) runs Paws & Read, in which its assessed dogs visit schools to help children build reading skills and confidence; new volunteers need at least three months and eight regular visits at another establishment before joining it. The charity says it was a founder member of the Kennel Club’s Bark & Read scheme and helped establish its 2018 standards for therapy dogs in schools. In 2019 the Kennel Club (now the Royal Kennel Club) described Bark & Read as an alliance of the nation’s largest therapy dog charities, backed by the Kennel Club Educational Trust and free for schools, with Standards of Practice that put the dogs’ welfare alongside the pupils’.
Therapy Dogs Nationwide also visits libraries and bookshops, and libraries and community groups can ask either charity whether a local volunteer team is available. No breeder or trainer supplies a ready-made reading dog: the owner raises and trains the dog, and the charity assesses and insures it.
Breeds and lines
Any temperament-assessed pet dog can be a reading dog. The qualities that matter are patience, a relaxed body when children are close, and the ability to settle on a mat for the length of a session. Steady retrievers such as Labradors and Golden Retrievers suit many classrooms, while smaller breeds such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels let a child sit comfortably beside the dog.
If you are considering a flat-faced breed such as the Pug, breathing matters. A dog that struggles in a warm classroom will not enjoy the work, so ask whether the parents have been graded under the Respiratory Function Grading Scheme run by the Royal Kennel Club and the University of Cambridge, which assesses dogs for brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) and covers breeds including the Pug and the Cavalier. For any breed, ask whether both parents meet the Royal Kennel Club Health Standard.
What to ask a breeder
- Are both parents calm and tolerant with children, including noisy or sudden ones?
- How were the puppies introduced to children, handling and settling on a bed while people move around them?
- Have any dogs from this line become Read2Dogs, Paws & Read or other registered visiting dogs?
- For a flat-faced breed, what are the parents’ respiratory function grades, and how do they breathe at rest and after exercise?
- Do both parents meet the Royal Kennel Club Health Standard for the breed?
Frequently asked questions
Do reading dogs need special training?
There is no formal reading-dog qualification. The dog needs reliable everyday manners and a calm temperament, and must pass the visiting charity’s assessment. Therapy Dogs Nationwide recommends the Royal Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Training Scheme Bronze standard, or equivalent, as a benchmark.
Who pays for a reading dog in school?
Pets As Therapy does not charge schools for regular visits, and volunteers give their time free. The school handles its own risk assessment and any DBS checks the role requires.
How can my dog become a reading dog volunteer?
Apply to Pets As Therapy or Therapy Dogs Nationwide once your dog meets their age and ownership rules. After assessment and registration, you can ask to be matched with a local school; Therapy Dogs Nationwide asks new volunteers to gain visiting experience elsewhere first.
Have dogs from your breeding gone on to listen to young readers? List your breeding on caninebreeder.co.uk and describe how you raise calm, child-friendly puppies. We do not certify reading dogs, but we help families find breeders whose dogs show the temperament for this kind of volunteering.