http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/life/columns/article_1675271.php

HEADLINE: The simple secret to happiness

BY: Maryanne Dell. Pets columnist. The Orange County Register

The world is full of secrets.

I found a nifty one a couple of weeks ago in the form of a little book that was sent to me: "100 Simple Secrets Why Dogs Make Us Happy." Although the title refers to dogs, it could as easily be speaking about cats, birds, rabbits, pigs, horses … any animal, really, with which someone has bonded.

The book, by David Niven, is set to be published this month, so as I'm reading it I'm a bit ahead of the curve. Anyone who thinks his or her love of a dog – of any animal – is a bit crazy (after all, how many of us endure friends and family telling us that we ought to get a life, not a cat?) needs to read this book.

Niven uses research to support his claims – claims like "Dogs Help Us Show Affection," "Dogs Feed Our Creativity" and "Dogs Keep Us Calmer." His point? Life is better with a dog, scientific studies of people who live with canines prove.

That's a no-brainer for those of us who have been sharing our lives with animals for years.

The bond between a person and an animal is so much deeper than skin. It goes to our souls, to the roots of our beings. And it doesn't matter if it's a dog, cat, guinea pig, rabbit or potbellied pig. The bond is deep and true and very much real. And it doesn't even have to be your own pet for it to happen.

One of the chapters in "100 Simple Secrets …" is "One Dog, Many Happy People," which talks about a small-business owner who discovered that letting employees bring their dogs to work created a happier workplace.

When I bring my dog Jitterbug with me to the facilities we visit as Delta Society Pet Partners, I'm always reminded of how much happier many people are when a dog enters the room.

Last week we visited with a group of patients in a hospital. One of them excitedly rolled her wheelchair up to the table on which Jitterbug was lying. With tears in her eyes, she asked if she could hug my little dog.

What I like to call Jitterbug Joy worked its magic. She wrapped her arms around Jitter and just sat there, her shoulders bent over the table, happier, maybe, than she'd been in a very long time.

I do think that "100 Simple Secrets …"is missing one chapter. It's the one that should be called "Dogs Make Our Lives Whole." They do, you see. All animals do. If you open yourself to what an animal has to give, you'll experience a love that is, quite likely, the purest imaginable.

Now, I'm sure the love a newborn has for his or her mother is blinding-white pure, and vice-versa. But that newborn grows up and, like all people, starts putting conditions on love. Give me this, do that, or I won't love you.

Oh, we people aren't that blatant about it. We don't come right out with those hidden agendas we place on our love for others. But it's there. We can't help putting conditions on our feelings for other people. It's just human to be that way. It's how we're hardwired. But animals – animals don't do that. They are what they are, and their feelings for us are right there, out in the open, where we can see them and feel them.

Their agenda is right there, on their noses, for all of us to see. My dogs bond with me because I give them what they need – food, shelter, security, consistency, a life that is comfortable and secure.

I don't play games with them, and they don't play games with me. That's the beauty of animal love.

It's a key ingredient behind "Why Dogs Make Us Happy."

Copyright 2003 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI)
April 19, 2003 Saturday, ALL Editions
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. C1

HEADLINE: KARL GOING BY THE BOOK; THE BUCKS COACH HOPES THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF HAPPY TIMES FOR HIS TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS.

BYLINE: Jason Wilde

The book was sitting on coach George Karl's desk, obscured by a bowl of candy and under a stack of scouting reports. But it was hard not to notice the title, printed in black, orange and pink on the softcover binding.

The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People, it said.

"Christmas present from my daughter," Karl said. "I like it. You should read it."

While Karl isn't likely to start his own Oprah-like book club, he has tried to make the book part of his daily routine since receiving it from 23-year-old Kelci -- making it something of a literary self-help vitamin during a Milwaukee Bucks season that has been unlike any other during his five-year tenure.

And as the Bucks were preparing for today's Game1 of their best-of-seven NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against New Jersey at the Meadowlands, Karl had made it through many of the so-called secrets.

Some of them are obvious, like "Believe in yourself" (No.16) and "Accomplish something every day" (No.56). Others are practical, like "Keep a pen and paper handy" ( No.64) and "Turn off the TV" ( No.7). And then there are those that are just plain hokey, like "Surround yourself with pleasant aromas" (No.90).

So after practice ended earlier this week, Karl was asked whether he'd read No.87 yet. When he said he hadn't, a copy of the book was produced, and Karl smiled as he read the page that might as well have had the Bucks logo and his mugshot on it.

Give yourself time to adapt to change.

Karl and the Bucks have had only two months to adapt to the major change brought by the Feb.20 trade that sent all-star Ray Allen, who had been the face of the franchise, to Seattle for Gary Payton and Desmond Mason. Given that the Bucks had also traded their other all-star, Glenn Robinson, to Atlanta during the offseason for Toni Kukoc and a first-round draft pick, the entire season has been about adapting to change.

But after going from within one game of the NBA Finals two seasons ago to not even making the playoffs last year -- and being in danger of missing the postseason again this season -- Karl believed change was necessary. For that reason, he not only traded Robinson and Allen but also shook up his coaching staff and changed his approach on several fronts.

As Karl re-read the passage, he lifted the brim of his baseball cap, running his fingers through his thinning hair. "My philosophy that I would add to that is, Change can be exhilarating,' " he said. "I had a team that for the last year and a half was depressed. We can't give a team drugs. So, in relationships and personality, change is good for depression. And that was kind of the philosophy I was using.

"Everything was just too tight, too depressed. The way I put it was, we were tied in knots. I could have managed it, but what I did was make a change that brought excitement and enthusiasm and exhilaration. Now, there's some growing pains to that. But I enjoy that. For me, it's a lot easier to manage fitting together (new pieces) than trying to untie knots."

Asked if he ever wondered how his team's chemistry got so bad so fast, Karl replied, "You know. It's very simple, it's called selfishness. It's the cancer of NBA basketball. But now, there's a newness, there's a lot of excitement and hope in my mind, not only for this year but for the future. When we made the trade, we'd been in the clouds for awhile. And we see the sunshine now."

Although Karl says this team fits the mold of his kind of playoff team more than the 2000-01 outfit -- mainly because of Payton, who played for Karl for 6 1/2 years in Seattle -- the Bucks are the NBA's playoff X-factor. They're 15-13 since the trade and won eight of their last nine regular-season games, but it's unclear whether they've jelled sufficiently to make a serious run in the wide-open East.

"We've come a great ways," said Payton, who will be a free agent after the season and could leave if the Bucks don't go deep into the playoffs. "When we first got here, everybody was trying to figure me and Desmond out, and we were trying to figure each other out. Now that we went through the stretch of the last few games and won eight out of nine, everybody's starting to figure out what we need to do.

"We want to go far in the playoffs. And I think we have a good chance of going far if we play together the way we've been playing. If we just keep playing the way we've been playing for the last nine games, we can get wins."

Karl admits that even he isn't sure what to expect. But the change, while challenging, has revitalized him.

"Right now, there's some insecurity in some of the things we do. But I'm hopeful," Karl said. "I don't know if we have the confidence or the experience of playing together that some of the other teams are going to have, and we're probably going to have some luck go our way, but it's time to play.

"Only being together for two months, that's something that everybody can be worried about. But I also think there's an excitement there. We don't know who we are yet. We feel we can be good, and we've shown that some, but we haven't shown that definitively, and that's going to be our challenge.

"But the state of our team at the time of the trade -- and it was probably more mental than physical -- I think had us really nervous. And the change and putting it back together I think has made us stronger and more hopeful. It's pretty simple."

Volume 37 Issue 3 Page 544 - February 2004

The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It. David Niven. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002.

Is there an audience among the general population for scholarly writing? There is now. David Niven has come up with a creative twist that tends to make other academics ask ''why didn't I think of that?'' The formula is so simple and not that difficult to devise. Niven took principles that might be considered practical common sense and presented them in an easy-to-read book. Each of the principles is ''verified'' through a recently published scholarly study. For thorough readers, each source is clearly identified and included in the bibliography at the end of the book.

For example, the first of the one hundred ''secrets'' he lists is ''competence starts with feeling competent.'' Anyone familiar with psychology and the basics of human nature knows this is not a startling new revelation, but it is information that is useful for the general audience. Niven's source for this is Gribble's 2000 Kent State dissertation.

The second ''secret'' is similar, ''it's not how hard you try.'' Niven gives an anecdote to make his point, then cites an academic source to add credibility, in this case, Scherneck's 1998 dissertation from State University of New York at Albany.

Niven's book is a ''feel good'' work that makes the reader feel confident that if the right principles are applied consistently, a desired outcome will result. It's the kind of information that successful consultants use on the lecture circuit.

Take ''secret'' 12 for example: ''write down the directions.'' Niven tells his readers ''writing down your plans, goals, and ideas makes them more real for you. Every step you take to define what you want and what you need to do to get it increases the chances that you will actually pursue these goals and someday achieve them.'' His source for this bit of wisdom is a 1999 International Journal of Reality Therapy article by W. A. Howatt.

''Secret'' 47, ''you'll get what you're afraid of,'' emphasizes the importance of enjoying the process of achievement, not just the end result. Rejection is presented as a necessary part of the process of goal attainment. An acting coach is quoted saying, ''there isn't an actor you've heard of—there isn't an actor alive—who hasn't been rejected for more parts than they'll ever get.'' Niven's source is a 2000 Journal of Marketing article.

One of the weaknesses in this book is that the anecdotes are not as clearly cited as the academic sources. For example, the acting coach mentioned in secret 47 is referred to only as ''Martin.'' Incomplete cites are found throughout the anecdotal portion of the book. Secret 45 refers to ''Don,'' who had difficulty listening to his wife. Secret 44 talks about ''Charlotte,'' a paralegal. There are a few incidents, however where first and last names are given in the illustrative stories. For discriminating readers, Niven would have a stronger case if clear identities were included in every example.

The last secret, number 100, completes the cycle of optimism and self-perception, ''only you can say if this is a world you can succeed in.'' He vividly illustrates how self-perception is the defining factor between achievers and people who feel victimized. His source is a 1995 article from the Journal of Men's Studies.

Niven's book is a delight to read. It is written to successfully bridge the gap between writers of academic journal articles and the general public. Niven is to be commended for showing readers how they can apply what the academics discuss. Beyond that, he confirms what they already suspect: that most of practical wisdom can be verified.

William G. Covington, Jr.
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania