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home-away-from-home for families who would come to New York from all over the world. Here, they hoped to find answers for their children who were fighting battles with cancer and being treated at New York hospitals such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering, NewYork-Presbyterian, and New York University.
    Meanwhile, the Westminster Kennel Club asked me to come and work for them. I had done their TV commentary on USA Network since 1990, so we were not strangers. They created a full-time position for me as director of communications, and I moved a few blocks south on Madison Avenue from the AKC to Westminster in 2003.
    The following year, I suggested that Westminster consider creating and supporting a charitable activity that combined dogs with children—something to bring the club into a new part of the New York City community. We were very active in a number of dog-related charities, but as the kennel club of New York, we could do more. I suggested a therapy dog program at the NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, something that would bring us into the area of helping humans. I also suggested the name “Angel On A Leash,” and we all agreed that it was a perfect description. So we were off and running, soon adding Ronald McDonald House New York and Providence Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, as Angel facilities.

    Anyone who shares his or her life with a dog understands intuitively the magic that dogs bring into our lives. I know what my dogs do for me, and I know what they do for others—no one needs to tell me why or how. Lately, though, science is catching up to our intuition. We are learning the physiology behind it all. Studies have shown that when you interact with a dog, whether it’s petting a dog or just looking at a dog and smiling, it increases the flow of endorphins, the “good” hormones, and that makes you feel better. When you feel better, your blood pressure goes down and your heart rate goes down.
    We call it the therapeutic touch. There are more and more studies being published every day that back this up. Here are some, as reported by Delta Society:
    â€¢Â  A 2005 study by the American Heart Association showed that heart patients visited by therapy dogs experienced a reduction in stress levels.
    â€¢Â  A 2004 study by Rebecca Johnson, PhD, RN, of the University of Missouri-Columbia Center for the Study of Animal Wellness, showed that when a human pets a dog, it launches a release of hormones such as beta-endorphin, prolactin, dopamine, and oxytocin, all associated with good health. This was the first time that a therapeutic relationship between animals and humans had been scientifically measured.
    â€¢Â  An earlier study at the State University of New York at Buffalo by Dr. Karen Allen evaluated forty-eight stockbrokers who were taking medication for hypertension. The study found that the brokers who were given a pet saw their stress levels drop significantly, and half of them were able to go off their medication.
    â€¢Â  Studies reported in the American Journal of Cardiology in 2003 found that pet owners have shorter hospital stays, make fewer doctor visits, and take less medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol that those who do not own pets.
    â€¢Â  The Chimo Project in Alberta, Canada, compared animal-assisted therapy with traditional therapy for patients in treatment for depression and anxiety in a twenty-seven-month project that began in 2001. The patients who met with therapists who used dogs in their sessions looked forward to therapy more, felt more comfortable talking to the therapists, and felt that they performed better at home and school than patients receiving traditional therapy. Patients who had pets were less depressed or anxious at the outset and showed lower scores on the depression severity scale after therapy than those who did not own pets.
    But I found that it still is more than science and physiology. It’s