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Title: The Healing Power of Pets: Harnessing the Ability of Pets to Make and Keep People Happy and Healthy by Marty Becker ISBN: 0-7868-6808-2 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 06 February, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.95 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: From Former Navy Pilot, Lt. Commander Bill Goss, USN (Ret)
Comment: What a book! No one knows more about the healing power of pets than Dr. Marty Becker. Sometimes the ways in which our pets touch us and enhance our quality of life almost seems miraculous. The way Dr. Marty Becker captures these uniquely special human and animal experiences on paper IS a miracle.
Do you love animals?
Then you'll adore this book.
Bill Goss
Author of THE LUCKIEST UNLUCKY MAN ALIVE
Rating: 5
Summary: Healing body, mind and spirit
Comment: In the Healing Power of Pets, Dr. Marty Becker and Danelle Morton remind us that good health, like living a good life, is not simply an issue of absence of disease. Good health is achieved by a balance between factors influencing body, mind and spirit. In this book, the authors explore how animals aid humans in all of these categories. Animals help the body by encouraging exercise and stimulating nerves. They help the mind by providing structure in the daily activities, giving a person someone outside themselves to think and care for, facilitating social contacts and breaking through barriers of isolation. They benefit the spirit by assisting people to achieve a meditation- like relaxation and experience living in the moment.
While this book will be a delight to most pet owners, I believe that its utility goes beyond that. Health care providers, mental health councilors and educational specialists will all find food for thought in this well researched book. One of the first things that I do when reading a non-fiction book is to flip to the back and see what information is referenced. This book has an extensive bibliography and considerable scientific material is cited. However, it is a credit to Dr. Becker's writing style that the narrative flows seamlessly from personal stories to scientific research that illustrate the same point. As a result, the information is conveyed in a way that is engaging as well as being educational.
While we derive many benefits from our association with animals, we must remember that the Human Animal Bond needs to always be a two way street of mutual benefits. Too often we fall short of our responsibilities to them, as the high numbers of animals abandoned at shelters attests. All too often, reality doesn't live up to our expectation and it is the animals who suffer because of this. So I was quite pleased that Dr. Becker included information designed to improve the human side of the Human Animal Bond, from discussing how to select the best pet for your needs to providing the needed mental and physical requirements for your pet to live a full and healthy life. In this way, Dr. Becker provides additional balance to this book.
Some of these stories will make you think. Some will make you cry. Some stories will inspire awe and wonder at the animals who have developed remarkable abilities to detect problems and assist humans. In most cases though, the animal helps humans, not because of what they do, but simply by being what they are. It is our challenge to take this gift and use it wisely.
Rating: 5
Summary: A fine balance of personal anecdotes and scientific info
Comment: The fact that this book was written by a co-author of "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul" (a book that I loved) is one of the things that made me pick it up. However, "Healing Power of Pets" is more than a collection of animal anecdotes. There's a lot of good, solid scientific information woven in, too. Dr. Marty Becker, a veterinarian who has worked with Animal-Assisted Therapy programs, cites numerous studies which show that people who are bonded with their pet(s) lead longer, heathier lives.
On page 74, for example, he refers to a 1995 study conducted by Erka Friedmann, a professor at the Department of Health and Nutritional Studies at Brooklyn College. She recruited 392 patients who had suffered heart attacks and were part of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial. Of these, 87 owned dogs and 282 did not. A year later, only one of the dog owners had died, while 19 of the non-dog-owners had passed away. In other words, people who own a dog are far more likely to be alive a year after having a heart attack.
Why is this? Many reasons are given in the book: dog owners get more exercise, they take better care of themselves because they feel responsible for the dog, they relax while petting the dog, they are less lonely because of the dog, etc. Other studies have shown that the act of stroking an animal's fur lowers the human's blood pressure like a form of meditation.
As a Jewish educator reading this book, I could not help but reflect on the fact that, compared to the general population, far fewer Jews have pets. In the Orthodox and Hasidic communities, especially, it is rare to see a dog in the house. One reason is because dogs were used to track and kill people during the Holocaust and other persecutions, so they have bad associations for many Jews. I understand this. Still, I found myself wondering how many of those 282 non-dog-owners in the Brooklyn College study were Jewish. (Brooklyn has a high percentage of Jews.) Are we allowing Old World fears about dogs to deprive us of a valuable form of therapy?
The pet doesn't have to be a dog, however. Cats (of which I have ten!) are equally therapeutic. So are other species, such as birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc. Even watching a tank full of fish can help a person to relax. The important thing is the Bond between the animal(s) and the human(s). Reading this book confirmed in a scientific way what I have always believed in my heart: this special Bond is a healing gift that God designed into the very fabric of creation.
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Title: Therapy Pets: The Animal-Human Healing Partnership by Jacqueline J. Crawford, Karen A. Pomerinke, Donald W. Smith ISBN: 1591020719 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 31 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy: Theoretical Foundations and Guidelines for Practice by Aubrey Fine ISBN: 0122564758 Publisher: Academic Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
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Title: Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship by Alan M. Beck, Aaron Honori Katcher, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas ISBN: 1557530777 Publisher: Purdue University Press Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Help Others by Kathy Diamond Davis, Kathy Diamond-Davis ISBN: 1929242050 Publisher: Dogwise Publishing Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Working as a Therapy Dog by Lorna Stanart ISBN: 0972806709 Publisher: Hispen Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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