INTRODUCTION

Hello, my name is Angel. I’m a dog. I am writing this book to provide you with some useful information about how I manage my days, weeks, months, and years. And I hope that my tips will be useful to you. It may seem odd that a dog is providing you with this information, but I am writing from a very special place. I am a certified pet therapy dog. I am trained to be supportive to people. I am trained to be friendly to people. I am trained to improve the mental health of people.

At the time I passed all my training and became a certified pet therapy dog, I was one of the youngest pet therapy dogs in the country. Pet therapy dogs should be at least one year old. I was one year and 12 days old. My daddy just knew I had some special skills that he knew would help many people. And so, my goal is to make as people as possible as happy as possible. Nothing is better than making someone smile and that makes me smile.

I travel with my daddy to colleges and universities all across the country. He teaches everyone about the science of mental health, the science of pet therapy and how the two subjects are the perfect match for each other. I recognize stress and do whatever I can to make that stress go away. As college students, you know stress and I want to come to your school to help you and all your friends improve your mental health.

When I cannot be there with you in “dog-son” (my version of person), I want you to have a resource to remind you of things you can do for yourself to make your day better, your mental health better, and help those around you until I get that invitation to come see you in dog-son.