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It's truly amazing to me, the similarities between canine and human health. You may have noticed that our pups are being offered the same types of prescriptions, surgeries, and treatments for many of the same issues we humans face. Diabetes, obesity, anxiety, arthritis, incontinence, the list goes on and on. In fact, it is said that the number of common ailments we share with our canine companions is in the neighborhood of 300. Wow.

It dawned on me one day (about 4 years ago) that the conversations I was having with others regarding hound and human health was overlapping quite a bit. That is when it hit me like a bolt of lighting - write a health book for hounds, not humans. Stretch Your Dog Healthy was the result. I always thought I would write a human health book, and started to do so many times. I realized, however, that with Stretch Your Dog Healthy, I could successfully reach humans and hounds alike.

I see that when looking for directions on Google maps, you're now offered walking routes as well as driving routes, with the ominous warning "Walking directions are in beta. Use caution - This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths." I'll say.

I tracked the walking route Google suggests I use to get from my house to my favorite bar, a journey I'm reasonably familiar with. The recommended Google route would involve me climbing over a metal fence topped with razor wire, into private a gated community that has an "armed response" warning, and then crossing various people's lawns and yards to a locked gate on the other side.

Now, I like adventure in my walking, and I certainly don't mind doing a little light trespassing, and I definitely think that private, gated streets are an abomination. But this still seems too much to take on. I continue to make my way to the bar by the tried and trusted route.

To be fair, Google directs you by exactly the same route even when you're in a car, which would make it even more exciting. The map, as Alfred Korzybski would be the first to tell you, is not the territory. I still don't know what "Walking directions are in beta" means.

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Raquel Wynn is our guest blogger during the week of December 1st. If you have any questions for Raquel Wynn, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some more information about Stretch Your Dog Healthy:

A holistic trainer and physical therapist tells dog lovers how to keep their pets healthy for a long and happy life.

Dogs' lives are high impact-playing, chasing, begging, walking. Just like people, they experience joint degeneration, muscle pain, stress, and general body breakdown. In Stretch Your Dog Healthy holistic health specialist Raquel Wynn offers dog owners the latest information on stretching, massage, acupressure, and other techniques to improve and maintain their dogs' good health, enhance calm energy, and strengthen the pet-owner bond. The natural treatments in this book suggest preventive care and offer an alternative to expensive prescriptions for day-to-day ailments, including such chronic problems as hip dysplasia. The stretching routines that form the centerpiece of the book are clearly explained and accompanied by photos of dogs and owners demonstrating the poses.

Raquel Wynn's stretching and massage techniques have been shown to drastically improve dogs' daily well-being in addition to overall health and life expectancy. What better way to treat man's best friend?