Karalynn Thomson

The gift that is Dogs

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Hosted by

Hilmarie Hutchison

Co-Host

Namita Thakkar

About Karalynn Thomson

The gift that is Dogs

Karalynn Thomson, a British expat, who has lived in the UAE for the last 20 years. A lover of animals, she saw firsthand the issues the UAE experienced with animal welfare and dumping. In 2015, she launched the Animal Agency which is the region’s only agency providing animal actors and models to the UAE’s film and media industry.

It was always her plan to add an educational initiative to the Animal Agency’s offering and in Sept 2017, Reading Dogs was born. Reading Dogs, and its sister project Happiness Dogs, aims to build children’s confidence, reading literacy and wellbeing through the use of specially trained dogs. The programme delivers weekly sessions in schools, nurseries, and private venues and, as of Aug 22nd, 2021, children’s hospitals too. As well as offering children a whole host of educational, social and emotional benefits, it also teaches them about animal care and welfare.

About this Episode

Is your pet destined for fame and a life in the spotlight or on the big screen? In this episode, we find out about the region’s only agency providing animal actors and models to the UAE’s film and media industry.

We also talk about Karalynn’s latest passion, Reading Dogs. Stay tuned to find out more.

“Reading Dogs, is a concept where we take specially trained dogs, send them to schools, nurseries, and private venues to help children improve their literacy and reading confidence. So the dogs come in, they don’t read.”
Karalynn Thomson

“It really does take a special dog to be a reading dog. They have to be extremely calm, enjoy interaction, and be comfortable in a new environment.”

– Karalynn Thomson

Show highlights

“Having a dog around really becomes not only a child’s friend but also a teacher as well and there’s a lot to gain from that.”
Karalynn Thomson

“A part of what we’re doing is teaching children how to safely interact with dogs. We are keeping them safe not only around our dogs but any dogs that they might come across”
Karalynn Thomson