Positively Powerful

This is our dog Vincent Van Gogh, a very long name for a very small dog. When not entertaining and feeding Dr. Van Gogh, you will find me leading teams, consulting, training, speaking, and otherwise motivating people and their organizations to do the right and smart thing because the complexion, landscape, and generational characteristics of America are changing quicker than it takes to upload new software.

I delight in speaking about the untapped potential, the power, and the purchasing dollars of the people who make up diversity’s dimensions. What does Dr. Vincent have to do with diversity? Part of my conversation about the men and women who have disabilities and over $1 trillion in purchasing power includes service animals. These furry mainly 4-legged folk are a gift. They guide, protect, and are indispensable to those they serve. Being the happy owner of the soccer playing Pom, I know first hand the curative properties of pets. This goes far beyond the enthusiastically wagging tall, welcome home yelps, and eager playfulness.

One Japanese study found pet owners made 30 percent fewer visits to doctors. A Melbourne study of 6,000 people showed that owners of dogs and other pets had lower cholesterol, blood pressure and heart attack risk compared with people who didn’t have pets…

Dogs, in particular, also have been shown to do remarkable things to improve the health of their owners. There are stories of dogs warning their owners of imminent health threats. In 2003, University of Florida researchers published a report in the journal Seizure noting that some dogs seem to have an innate ability to detect impending seizures. A 2000 report in the British Medical Journal examined case studies of dogs alerting people with diabetes of a coming hypoglycemic episode.

More recently, some studies have suggested dogs can be cancer detectors. In 2006, the medical journal Integrative Cancer Therapies reported how ordinary house dogs could identify breast and lung cancer patients by smelling their breath. A University of Maine study is testing whether dogs can sniff out ovarian cancer.

The role dogs play in medicine is celebrated in a new book, “Paws & Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs’’ (Alyson Books, 2007), which chronicles the numerous ways dogs contribute to our health.

Therapy Dogs International, among others, speak about how dogs are wonderful therapy for seniors and that dogs will love you forever. I’ve found this to be the absolute truth and am seriously thinking about getting another doggie doctor for our home.

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