Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound

A dog is an ideal workout partner: always supportive, happy to go for a walk, and never judgmental. When people and dogs exercise together, fitness and health happen on both ends of the leash. As the obesity epidemic spreads, 70 percent of Americans and 50 percent of dogs are overweight or obese, resulting in staggering health care costs and suffering. The causes, consequences, and treatment for the overweight and obese are strikingly similar in people and dogs. Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound, written by an expert veterinary surgeon and leading nurse researcher, helps you move from a food-centered relationship with dogs to an exercise-centered relationship. This volume is designed for dog lovers, dog owners, and families. Based on the latest scientific findings, it will also help professionals (including physicians, veterinarians, and physical therapists) fight obesity and promote fitness in both people and pets. Never has there been a more compelling time for innovative approaches to increasing physical activity, reforming sedentary lifestyles, and enhancing fitness. Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound provides specific strategies for people and dogs to exercise together, lose weight together, and have fun in the process.

Phil Zeltzman, DVM, DACVS, is a traveling, board-certified veterinary surgeon near Allentown, Pennsylvania. His professional interests include soft tissue, orthopedic, cancer, and neurosurgery. A prolific international speaker and writer for twenty-five years, he has often written about pet obesity. He writes an award-winning, free, e-mail-based newsletter read by pet lovers in all fifty states and twenty-eight countries (visit www.DrPhilZeltzman.com). He is a contributor to Dog Fancy, The Bark, and Veterinary Practice News. Rebecca Johnson, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Millsap Professor for Gerontological Nursing and Public Policy at the University of Missouri. She holds a joint appointment at the College of Veterinary Medicine as the director of the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (visit www.rechai.missouri.edu). Author of over forty publications, she is called upon nationally and internationally to speak about human-animal interaction. In 2010 she was elected president of the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations.