When she was experiencing an “empty nest,” Jodi’s husband, a retired Marine, encouraged her to express her feelings through writing. Now Jodi is the author of more than a dozen suspenseful thrillers – with a bite!

All of Jodi’s books include dogs as central characters in the stories. I’m a huge fan of the Tin Star K9 books featuring Renegade, the law enforcement K9. Since Jodi doesn’t have experience working in law enforcement, I was curious how she learned so much about working K9 dogs.

Jodi shares with us how she’s learned about these highly trained dogs, her favorite part of writing her books, where she comes up with these heart-stopping ideas, how to nurture your own creativity and just how much of her own life ends up in her books.

We’re also celebrating the 50th episode of the Believe in Dog Podcast!

Join us today as we celebrate the life of Catherine Violet Hubbard who was taken from her family & the world much too soon.

Carrying out her daughter’s lasting legacy of kindness to all creatures, Jenny Hubbard shares the story of how the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation and Animal Sanctuary came to be.

While Lynne Cox is known to the world as an elite world-class swimmer who’s set open-water swimming records all over the world, she is also someone whose life has been shaped by the love of dogs and the lessons she has learned from dogs.

Lynne’s new book, Tales of Al – The Water Rescue Dog – The Making of a Canine Athlete, is a story of dreams, expectations, disappointments and courage. And if you’ve ever felt misunderstood, you might find a piece of yourself in Al’s story.

As a Pet Cannabis Expert and expert in holistic health for pets, I have so many questions for Angela.

I’ve been hearing about using CBD – for both pets and people – for the last several years. In fact, my dog Penny takes it for arthritis. Some people swear that CBD has been a huge help for them or their dog. Some people think it’s snake oil. I didn’t always know what to believe or how to find a trustworthy product. I’ve had questions. And Angela answers all of them!

By the end of this episode, you’ll feel confident about how to choose a high-quality CBD product to benefit your dog and understand why CBD is recommended for so many different health issues.

Tamara joins us bringing her wealth of knowledge and lifetime of experience about what it means to have a happy, healthy dog in mind, body and spirit.

Tamara shares her journey with us and how her career taken her from learning about training, obedience, behavior to canine nutrition, health and wellness. I love the idea of looking at our dogs holistically in this way.

Tamara also shares the story of Sammy, her rescued laboratory beagle, who is memorialized in the book “Blessed,” the children’s book Tamara wrote in his honor.

After witnessing firsthand, the difference that the love of a dog made in her son’s life, Natalie decided to learn even more about dogs by becoming a dog trainer.

Seeing the power to connect her professional work with children with her dog training skills, Natalie founded the Kids-4-K9s organization and was awarded a prestigious Open Society Institute fellowship to launch her program in schools. Kids-4-K9s has a mission to teach compassion in everyday interactions between people and companion animals.

If you have a high school-aged child in the Baltimore area, they can even learn from Natalie at the Kids-4-K9s Summer Camp at the Baltimore Humane Society.

From leaving New Jersey to start a new life – and a holistic dog boutique – in Montana to history, science and technology, Ellie and I cover a lot of ground in this episode.

Ellie’s life was forever changed when she was scrolling on social media one morning and saw a video that shook her to her core. This was a video showing laboratory testing on beagles. A beagle owner herself, Ellie was horrified and decided she was going to do something about this.

Ellie’s book, Laboratory Dogs Rescued: From Test Subjects to Beloved Companions, takes a look through the past, the present and the future of the use of animals in research. In the second half of the book, we hear from the organizations rescuing these dogs and many heart-warming stories from the adopters of beagles rescued from laboratories.

Marta Negro is one of the bravest and coolest people that I’ve ever met and I can’t wait for you to hear her story.

Leaving at the end of 2019 to embark a solo adventure around the world, Marta hitchhiked her way through Poland and worked as a tour guide in Russia before landing in Thailand to volunteer at an animal rescue helping Thai street dogs. On her first day at the rescue, Marta fell in love with a little dog named Teaspa who really needed some TLC. Marta knew she had to bring Teaspa home with her to Scotland and made a promise to Teaspa that she was now Marta’s dog.

Unfortunately, Marta happened to meet Teaspa in March of 2020. And there were some major things happening in the world. Marta had to make the heart-breaking decision to leave Teaspa behind in Thailand temporarily.

While Marta spent months trying to figure out how to get Teaspa from Thailand to Europe, she discovered there was not one central clearinghouse for pet owner or travelers to coordinate. So she decided to create it. And Help The Dog Fly was born.

It’s not an exaggeration for me to say that the information in this episode could save your dog’s life.

After a terrible accident, Paweenduh (you can call her “P” for short) found her purpose and has dedicated her life to raising awareness about keeping your dog safe in the car with dog seatbelts with Dogs Ride Certified.

By the end of this episode, you will know what the safest products are for your dog, where to find them and how to use them.