Children gain confidence reading to dogs

In libraries and schools in 40 states, children who are afraid to read aloud to adults build their confidence and reading skills by reading to friendly, nonjudgmental four-legged friends, also known as Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ). Intermountain Therapy Animals started the READ program five years ago in Salt Lake City, and it's grown to include more than 350 READ teams. The group says reading to dogs can relax children, boost their self-confidence, and improve their reading scores.

A handler sits nearby during the 30-minute reading session. The handler trains the dog to keep its eyes on the child's face or on the book while being read a story. To promote learning without putting too much pressure on the child, the handler speaks on behalf of the dog. "Spot wants to know what that word means. Can you tell him?"

Reminding clients boosts compliance

Nearly 70 percent of respondents to a recent

VetMedTeam.com

survey say every team member plays a part in keeping clients compliant. However, in most practices, the job of sending reminders falls to the receptionist. Here's more:

Do you send a reminder for: a recheck or exam?

73% Yes, and they boost client compliance

6% Yes, but clients still don't schedule

medication refills? 14% Yes, and they boost compliance

3% Yes, but clients still don't refill

lab work? 59% Yes, and they boost compliance 9% Yes, but clients are resistant to our recommendations

Shelter and schooling after the storm

Hurricane Ivan barreled through Grenada on Sept. 7, destroying the homes of about half of the island's 100,000 residents. Some of those residents included veterinary students studying at St. George's University.

Most of the campus buildings fared relatively well with just missing roof tiles, blown out windows, and water damage. However the school's veterinary teaching hospital suffered heavy damage.

School officials salvaged what they could of the semester, finding three universities willing to open their doors to the veterinary students and faculty members, allowing them use of their facilities and providing assistance in finding accommodations. The result:

• 134 first-year students moved to North Carolina State University.

• 95 second-year students joined colleagues at Purdue University.

• 65 third-year students made a transition to Kansas State University.

I'll take Smart Dogs for $500, Alex

New research in the journal Science shows that dogs have a remarkable capacity to comprehend human speech. Their test subject: Rico, a Border collie, who knows the names of more then 200 toys and fetches them on command.

To test Rico's abilities, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, placed a new toy with seven toys familiar to Rico. When the owner asked Rico to fetch the new item, he correctly retrieved the new item seven out of 10 times. Researchers say that Rico realizes that a new word tends to belong to the object that he doesn't know the name of. This is much the same way that children learn new words. And once Rico learns the name of a new object, he'll remember the word when tested more than a month later. In fact, Rico demonstrates verbal understanding that's about at the level of a 3-year-old toddler.

Dogs now join bonobos, orangutans, and dolphins in the list of animals eroding the belief that only humans have the capacity for language. Woof.

Antibiotics are OK for food animals. Well, OK enough...

Antibiotic use in animal production results in healthier animals, and the meat from them has lower levels of bacteria, meaning fewer food-borne illnesses in people, according to Dr. Randall Singer, Ph.D., and his team of researchers at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. The team performed a risk-benefit analysis by developing a mathematical model to evaluate the potential human health risks and benefits of using the antibiotic tylosin in chickens. These benefits, the researchers say, outweigh the potential risks, which include the increased potential of greater antibiotic-resistant bacteria in meat.