The mission of Canine Classmates is to encourage and improve literacy skills for struggling and at-risk pre-K through 5th grade students through pairing mentors and trained service dogs in a one-on-one program that is positive, nurturing and motivational. Reading can be an extremely daunting task for students who have difficulties. Embarrassment, fear of failure, inferiority, and humiliation are a few of the feelings that children with reading difficulties experience. Students exhibit the highest level of stress when their peers are present. The Canine Classmates program is structured to remove the feelings of inadequacy that often block a student's ability to “break the code." Canine Classmate personnel tailor their approach of literacy support based on the needs of each child creating self-motivation in students through success, thus increasing their desire to read.