Our library has a Paws for Reading program. They are therapy dogs (though your own pooch might do!) that are trained to basically lay there and listen to your child read. The therapy dog's handler is there to help them with words they get stuck on. If you have a pet (or stuffed animal) she can read to, then maybe she'd be open to that.

I'm pretty sure my son didn't learn to read based on phonics. He is more of a memorizing a new word kind of kid. He spells like you would write if you spelled it like it sounded. For instance, "success" is spelled "sukses".