After his milestone last session, Dylan Blount is in a holding pattern.

Dylan still keeps his distance as he reads to Elle.

He remains skittish. Wednesday he declined to pet Elle, a registered therapy dog, on the head like he did the during his fifth session at the Roanoke Rapids Public Library.

Leah Brewer, the founder of the Tail Wagging Tales program at the library, tells Dylan, 6, and his mother, Adele Greene, there will be some changes to the program.

Two other therapy dogs will be joining the program, Zyla, a lab and retriever mix owned by Suzanne Thompson, and Anja, a German shepherd owned by Edie Bragiton. There will be an open house for them at the library in April.

Brewer, who will continue to work Elle with Dylan, explains this to the child.

“I’m not scared. I’m a little freaky,” he explains and then quickly asks, “Will that dog bite or what?”

The reasons Dylan is afraid of dogs remain sketchy. “I’ve seen dogs in movies and they don’t look pretty friendly.”

He tells a story of mistakenly touching a cousin’s dog. “I had my hand on the nose and it was sniffing me. I freaked out.”

Brewer explains to Dylan freaking out only frightens the dog. “The best thing you can do is be real still.”

Counters Dylan, “I was glad the dog ran out of there. I was like good riddance.”

The one thing that is clear, his fears are not because Elle is an American Pit Bull Terrier.

“He had never heard of the breed,” his mother said. “He has not heard the negative comments. He doesn’t know the stigma attached to the dog. I can’t imagine what would happen if he had been predisposed.”

Dylan reading.

Dylan reads to Elle with the same zest he did on his first session and on his personal reading, he is nearing reading his 700th book since his mother began tracking his progress when he was three.

During the reading session, Elle lays next to Brewer, sometimes falling asleep, sometimes looking around the room and at one point nodding her head. Dylan keeps his distance.

After reading Dylan is encouraged to pet Elle on the head like he did during his milestone fifth session. It doesn’t happen.

Brewer explains to the child, “I wouldn’t push you if we thought Elle would do anything bad.”

He promises at his next session he will pet the dog’s head, “If she falls asleep I will pet her on her head.”

Dylan is content to pet the dog’s back but declines to shake its paw.

While Brewer is not going to push Dylan to pet the dog’s head again, she does have a plan. “Elle did good as usual. I’m going to push the issue of him touching her until he feels comfortable.”

Editor’s note: This is the fifth of a continuing series documenting the progress Dylan Blount makes overcoming his fear of dogs by reading to Elle, a registered therapy dog, at the Roanoke Rapids Public Library. Dylan’s next session will be March 19 at 1 p.m. For more information on Tail Wagging Tales contact the library at 252-533-2890.