The Power of Wagging Tails

Foreword Reviews 2011 Book of the Year Honorable Mention (Health Category)

Medical studies have consistently shown that patients benefit from therapy dog visits. One recent study of 59 adults showed that following a therapy dog visit their energy levels increased, respiratory rated calmed significantly and pain scores decreased by over 20%. Mood scores improved by over 60% with the patients feeling less tense, anxious, angry, tied depressed and dejected.

Now in The Power of Wagging Tails, Dr. Dawn Marcus showcases the wide range of research that shows the therapeutic and healing power of dogs for people of all ages and with a wide range of health conditions. These research findings are brought to life through the personal stories of healing from dog owners across the United States and Canada.

She shows you how to unleash the healing power of your own dog, describes how to effectively add a dog to the home of someone with a chronic condition, explains how the family dog can help with chronic health conditions, and teaches how to train a companion dog to be a certified therapy dog to help others.

The Power of Wagging Tails will be of interest to dog owners, people wondering how to help family and friends coping with chronic illnesses, and individuals considering training their dogs for therapy work.

Special Features of The Power of Wagging Tails include :

• Presentation of reliable medical research showing that dog therapy offers therapeutic benefits to people
• First-person accounts from service dog trainers, aerobic instructors, and recognized dog training experts such as Carol Lea Benjamin
• First-person accounts of people who have experienced dog therapy
• Practical suggestions to help people decide if they should add a dog to their home or have a therapy dog visit
• Sound advice to help people decide if dog therapy is right for them
• Practical tips on how to make dog therapy visits safe, effective, and successful for the dog, handler, and people visited

Dawn A. Marcus, MD, is neurologist and Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, working at the Pain Evaluation and Treatment Institute. Dr. Marcus is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

She received her undergraduate degree in Biology at Marywood College in Scranton, Pennsylvania; she received her medical degree from State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse. Her postdoctoral training includes a rotating internship at St. Joseph Hospital in Syracuse and a residency in Neurology at University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Marcus joined the faculty at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1990.

Dr. Marcus has authored over 100 articles on the topics of chronic pain and headache, and has given numerous training sessions and invited lectures on the topics of chronic pain and headache in the United States and internationally. She has served as principal investigator on research projects investigating pain epidemiology, pathology, treatment, and women's issues that were funded by regional or national sources. She has also authored numerous books on chronic pain and migraine, including 10 Simple Solutions to Migraine, for which she won the 2007 Excellence in Media Award from the National Headache Foundation. Her most recent consumer book is Fit as Fido: Follow Your Dog to Better Health, (self-published) which teaches you to use your relationship with your dog to improve your general health. She has authored several books on chronic pain management for health care professionals, including the recently published Headache Simplified, Chronic Pain: A Primary Care Guide to Practical Management (second edition), Effective Migraine Treatment in Pregnant and Lactating Women, and Chronic Pain Atlas. In 2010 she authored a book on migraine for women.

She published The Power of Wagging Tails: A Doctor's Guide to Dog Therapy and Healing with Demos Health in 2011.

Dr Marcus is a consultant for Del Monte's ""Power of Paws"" program, encouraging human health through dog companionship. Dr. Marcus has trained her two wheaten golden terriers to be therapy dogs.