Have you ever wondered if you’re making the “right” decisions for your dog during an injury or illness?

All Michelle Slater ever wanted was to have a dog of her own with whom she felt a special connection and bond.  And her German Shepherd, Brady, was that dog.  

However, after a rollercoaster of adventures, Brady was struck with a life-threatening illness at only 5 years old. 

 Michelle turns to animal communication to guide her – with Brady’s input – to make the best decisions for his health during this scary time.  And Brady’s profound messages are lessons for all of us.

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy shopping for other people but have a more difficult time telling people what they should get you. This episode will give you plenty of ideas for your Holiday Wish List (and your dog!), no matter where you are in your Pet Parent journey.

What If you could solve your dog’s biggest behavior challenge TODAY? Dog trainer Juliana DeWillems says that while immediate results usually aren’t possible in dog training – they can be when we use management techniques. 

In her new book Manage It! Hacks for Improving Your Dog’s Behavior, Juliana shares how us Pet Parents can easily solve many of our dog’s behavior challenges by changing our environment.  

We’ll discuss the difference between training and management – and when to use each one (or both!).   Juliana & I also share some of our favorite management tools and techniques that we use with our own dogs.

In this solo episode, Erin is celebrating one year since their family adopted Nessie – which hasn’t always gone according to plan.

Erin shares the story of how Nessie joined their family and what she wishes they had done differently in the meet & greet process.

Erin also reveals what Nessie has taught her – not just about training dogs but about herself, too.  And this lesson might be something you’ve never heard before.

Has your dog ever helped you through a hard time in life?  Your answer to this is most likely, a resounding YES, right?

Author Christopher Dale credits Vector, his rescued “sato” dog from Puerto Rico, with helping him start a new chapter in life after going through hard times.  Like really hard times.  Like life-changing medical diagnosis turned depression turned addiction turned nearly blowing up his marriage-type hard times.

Chris became curious if other people were having a life-changingly special relationship with their rescue dog too.  In his book “We Saved Each Other: How Rescue Dogs Help Us Through Hardship,” Chris mixes in his own memoir reflections with profiles of other rescue dog adopters to explore experiences such as trauma, grief, addiction and mental health challenges and examine the role of their dogs in their journey. (Trigger warning for ongoing discussion of these themes throughout the episode.)

Have you ever thought about your pet parenting philosophy? Maybe you have an idea in your head of what you want your relationship with you dog(s) to look like, but how would you describe it?

Debby is known for sharing her life with multiple dogs. Working as a dog trainer since the late 1990s, Debby developed a niche in the dog training world helping families introduce & integrate new dogs into multi-dog households. 

Debby shares – what I will call – her “ pet parenting philosophy” and it’s the closest explanation I’ve seen to how I feel about my relationship with my dogs.  We discuss what this looks like through setting boundaries and the importance of routines & predictability for establishing trust with a new dog in your home.

So are you ready to introduce a new dog to your family?  Whether you are or not, Debby identifies important body language and training cues that are helpful for any & every pet parent.  We also discuss how to teach your dog good behavior without needing a clicker!

Has your dog ever shown fear, anxiety or reactivity?  If your dog hasn’t, I’d be willing to bet that you know someone whose dog is dealing with one of these issues.

Returning guest Dr. Zazie Todd is a psychologist who digs into the science of dog behavior to help us make the best decisions for our dogs. Her new book, Bark!  The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful or Reactive Dog is going to help so many dogs & their people.  And I’m so thrilled that she’s here to share her insight with us.

Have you ever heard that it’s wrong to comfort your dog when you they’re showing signs of fear?  This is just one of the outdated dog training myths that Zazie helps us myth bust.

 So what should we do to help our fearful dogs?  Zazie shares how we can create a safe space for our dogs and how to be their safe person. 

Do we really have to understand science to teach our dogs?

According to Annie Grossman, it really does help - both us & our dogs - if we grasp the basics of how dogs learn. 

But science doesn’t have to be difficult, and Annie helps simplify the concepts for us.

Annie also shares with us the many ways in which learning about learning benefits our lives – from making us smarter consumers to raising the next generation.

Have you ever heard someone say that you should be your dog’s “alpha”?   Do dogs have alphas?  or is that a wolf thing? What is the role of the alpha in a pack?  Are dogs even looking for humans to be their alpha?

We have renowned ethologist Dr. Marc Bekoff to answer all these questions and more for us.

As a pet parent companion animal guardian, Dr. Bekoff makes me think about the type of relationship I want to have with my dogs and the type of human I want to be.  (And also about some of the past blunders I’ve inadvertently made.)

We know that people can have different types of intelligence, but what about our dogs?  I think every pet parent I know has been astonished by how smart their dog is – and usually in a good way.

Author Jennifer Holland explores the many different ways that dogs show their intelligence in her new book Dog Smart: Life Changing Lessons in Canine Intelligence.

Jennifer interviewed everyone from scientists to dog trainers to pet parents to learn how dogs demonstrate their smarts.  I was fascinated to learn about all the different types of working dogs – some of which I’d never heard of before!

But what does this mean for pet parents?  Jennifer shares with us what she now does differently with her own dogs after everything she learned while writing Dog Smart. We also discuss the types of intelligence we’ve seen in our own dogs.