Dog-Assisted Reading Program in Mexico

Maria Espinosa de los Monteros didn’t grow up with dogs, but quickly opened up her heart and home to the many stray dogs in need of care in her community once she was able to. Maria’s love for dogs prompted her to earn a diploma in Assisted Therapy with Dogs in Mexico City in 2014. Afterwards she began to search for distance learning education opportunities beyond her community that would help her further her specialization in this area. She had discovered a new passion and interest in animal-assisted therapy interventions. Eventually she found the Institute for Human-Animal Connection and quickly enrolled in the Animals and Human Health certificate program.  

“I think I could not have chosen a better and more complete program. Its content and academic quality are unquestionable… Animals and Human Health has been a very important and strengthening part of my training as it has allowed me to have a much more complete and professional vision to design, offer, and implement programs focused on mutual human-animal welfare,” says Maria Espinosa de los Monteros. “The bond we have with animals and its benefits must be known, more studied, and re-valued by the world, a world that we undoubtedly share with them.”

Maria is currently serving as a representative and director of the R.E.A.D. (Reading Education Assistant Dogs) program from Intermountain Therapy Animals in Mexico. She says, “I have found that reading aloud, applied to diverse populations not only for children, and in the company of animals, can be an educational, therapeutic, and healing resource with great potential.”

As part of her next educational journey, Maria is enrolled in another professional development program at IHAC, the 2021 Canine-Assisted Intervention Specialist certificate program.