Rachel McPherson

This is a book of short stories about dogs enriching our human lives. From dogs that aide autistic children, dogs helping kids learn to read, seeing eye dogs, dogs in wheelchairs, to dogs aiding Vietnam Vets, you would have to be a very cold hearted person not to be touched.

Tho all the stories are sweet and melt the heart, they at times felt like they were more about the humans. Thus, my four star rating. The last quarter is full of information on choosing, training, or getting involved in the dog service.

Potential buyers need to be aware of one thing: Tho the book tops out at 288 pages, when you take into account the pages dedicated to helpful websites, pictures, wide spacing, and the last quarter about getting a dog or whatever, you have a very short read. It only took me four hours and I put it down a few times in that four hours.

To those that have at some point in their lives rolled their eyes at a dog loving person and said, "It's just a dog!!," you need to read this.… (más)

Inspiring stories of dogs who do good.

"Anyone who has ever had a relationship with a dog will tell you: They want nothing more than to give love and be loved in return. In Every Dog Has a Gift, Rachel McPherson draws on her experience as the founder and executive director of The Good Dog Foundation, the largest animal-assisted therapy organization on the East Coast, to share the amazing stories of dogs that bring hope and healing into our lives.
Much has been said about the heroic roles dogs played following September 11th and Hurricane Katrina in providing support and comfort for the families and victims of these terrible tragedies, but the truth is that millions of dogs around the world are heroes every day. These therapy and service dogs (and often quite ordinary, "uncertified" dogs just like your own!) can:
*serve as the perfect audience for kids who need help with practicing and improving their reading skills;
*hold troubled families together;
*provide a calm and centering presence for autistic children, and
*help individuals who have lost the ability to walk to more easily navigate the world.
Every Dog Has a Gift is a celebration of the gift that each and every dog possesses: the ability to bring the healing power of unconditional love into our lives."

My Thoughts:
I am not much of a dog person, I prefer cats, but I found this book to be very interesting. Rachel McPherson is the founder of The Good Dog Foundation that is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to all aspects of dog assisted therapy. This program has helped train and place dogs with people with illness, disabilities and helped in disasters such as Katrina and 9/11.The foundation,with the help of these trained dogs, has even helped disadvantaged children practice and learn to read just by having the dogs present. These dogs have also helped people who are grieving a loved one. I found this book to be an excellent source of information. After every section there are other organizations, websites listed to help anyone interested in learning or even volunteering for The Good Dog Foundation and other organizations.The foundation offers an evaluation,training and followup program for anyone who has or is planning on getting a dog to use for dog assisted therapy. I highly recommend this book. I have worked in a nursing home for 23 years and they had had a program called the Eden Program.This involved having pets for the residents. There were cats and dogs and even birds that lived on premise.It had a positive effect on the quality of life for these people.
I received this book(ARC) from Tarcher/Penquin Group to read/review.
I was not compensated monetarily for my honest review.

To Learn More visit http://www.thegooddogfoundation.org/… (más)