The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology

• Writers on what brings them hope for the human-animal relationship (bonus)

  Writers talk about what brings them hope for the human-dog, human-cat, and human-animal bond.This is a bonus episode featuring Patricia McConnell PhD, Jean Donaldson, Marc Bekoff PhD, and all of the writers who took part in Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers. Together they share their insights on what is cause for hope. Bark! Fest celebrated the launch of my book Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, which is out now.A few years back, I heard one of my favourite authors speak at an online literary festival. Amin Maalouf is a member of the Academie Francaise and the author of novels including Samarkand and The Rock of Tanios. He said, “I think the duty of a writer is to have lucidity and hope. If you spread despair, it’s best not to speak at all.” So that's what made me think to ask this question of everyone.You can find recordings of the full panel discussions in our back catalogue.The authors and their books:Patricia B. McConnell: The Education of Will and The Other End of the Leash.Jean Donaldson: The Culture Clash.Zazie Todd PhD: Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog.  Marc Bekoff, PhD: Dogs Demystified and The Emotional Lives of Animals.Cat Warren: What the Dog Knows.  Alexis Devine: I Am Bunny.  Teresa J. Rhyne: Poppy in the Wild. Lili Chin: Kitty Language.Mikel Delgado PhD: Play With Your Cat! .Lucy Hoile: the book your cat wishes you would read.  Pilley Bianchi: For the Love of Dog, illustrated by Calum Heath.Wendy Lyons Sunshine: Tender Paws.Carri Westgarth PhD: The Happy Dog Owner.  Antony Johnston: The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead.Louisa Scarr: Gallows Wood.  Philipp Schott DVM: Eleven Huskies: A Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery.  Sarah Chauncey: P.S. I Love You More Than Tuna, illustrated by Francis Tremblay.  Sassafras Patterdale (Lowrey): Claw This Journal.Rachel Wells: Alfie the Christmas Cat.  E.B. Bartels: Good Grief.Rev. Sarah A. Bowen: Sacred Sendoffs.Karen Fine DVM: The Other Family Doctor.  Kristi Benson.Finding hope in dog training and animal behaviour (Psych Today) https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/fellow-creatures/202103/finding-hope-in-dog-training-and-animal-behaviorSend us a text to say hello!About the co-hosts: Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of, and now on staff with, the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online classes. She is also a northern anthropologist. Kristi Benson's website Facebook Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. Instagram BlueSky

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• The benefits of tricks training for dogs and cats with Erica Beckwith (Replay)

  As we take a summer break, we're replaying this fun and fantastic interview with Erica Beckwith of A Matter of Manners dog training about the benefits of tricks training for dogs and cats.We talked about:the benefits of tricks traininghow tricks training can help you love your pet even morehow Erica got into training tricksErica's favourite tricks to teach others in classestips on how to take a selfie with your doghow to find the right reinforcement for your cat, and the right way to deliver that reinforcementThis episode was first published in 2022.About Erica Beckwith: Erica Beckwith of A Matter of Manners Dog Training in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Erica is an amazing positive reinforcement trainer who first got into dogs as a volunteer at Busan Abandoned Pet Sanctuary in South Korea. After moving back to America, Erica studied at the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers where she got her CTC. Erica is also a CBCC-KA and a Fear Free certified professional. Erica loves cats too, and earlier this year she graduated with a certificate in Advanced Feline behaviour for Cat Professionals with Distinction from International Cat Care.Website: https://www.amatterofmannersdogtraining.com/ See Erica’s dogs (including Ruckus and the trumpet) in the video Yes Sir, That’s My Baby from The Academy for Dog Trainers.  Kristi Benson’s website and courses: http://www.kristibenson.com/Zazie Todd's book Purr includes a training plan to teach your cat to go into their carrier and to teach them to sit pretty. Purr, Wag, and Bark! are available wherever books are sold.Send us a text to say hello!About the co-hosts: Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of, and now on staff with, the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online classes. She is also a northern anthropologist. Kristi Benson's website Facebook Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. Instagram BlueSky

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• Human remains detection dogs and historic searches with Kim Cooper and Cat Warren

  Dogs have incredible noses, and can trained to search for the scent of human remains, bringing closure to those who are grieving and the opportunity to memorialize. As well as recent remains, they can also search for historic remains. We're joined by two experts in the field, Kim Cooper of Ottawa Valley Search and Rescue, and Cat Warren, author of the NYT-bestseller What the Dog Knows, to learn more about these dogs and the work that they do.We talk about:How Kim and Cat got started in working with human remains detection dogs and how the dogs are trainedHistoric human remains detection dogsHow these dogs can help with searches at the sites of former residential schools in CanadaThe emotional side of a search from the handler's perspective and the skills a handler needs to work with communitiesWorking with communities and the role of oral history in historical searchesWhat type of dog is best suited to this work (breed, personality, size, etc.)And finally, we talk about the books we're readingThe books we recommend:The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think by Brian Hare and Vanessa WoodsNative Nations: A Millenium in North America by Kathleen DuValWords Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula Le GuinVanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures by Katherine RundellAlso mentioned:The work in Croatia is described in this article by Cat Warren https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/dog-archaeology-ancient-human-remains-bones-croatia-a9522776.htmlCat Warren at Bark! Fest (with Marc Bekoff and Zazie Todd) https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/16276537Cat Warren's books are What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World, and the Young Reader's Edition of What the Dog Knows. They are available wherever books are sold.Learn more about Kim Cooper on the Ottawa Valley Search and Rescue Dog Association website: https://www.ovsarda.on.ca/Learn more about Cat Warren: https://catwarren.com/Send us a text to say hello!About the co-hosts: Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of, and now on staff with, the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online classes. She is also a northern anthropologist. Kristi Benson's website Facebook Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. Instagram BlueSky

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• Fearful and Anxious Dogs with Zazie Todd, PhD, at Bark! Fest

  Zazie Todd is at the forefront of the move towards positive animal welfare and kind, humane dog training methods. Her third book, Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog is a compassionate and practical guide to overcoming your dog’s fears. In this panel from Bark! Fest, you’ll learn how to help your dog feel safe, how your presence can help your dog, and get a new understanding of the training techniques that can make a difference, as she shares tips from Bark!. We talked about:How Bark! Fest came aboutHow to counsel people that slow is the new fast when it comes to fearful dogsDecisions about how much of the "why" and "how" to include in the bookWhy tricks training is included in a book for fearful and anxious dogsHow to keep dogs and people safeWhether pandemic puppies really do have more behaviour issues, and how we can use management to help a fearful dogThe gorgeous cover of Bark! and how much input authors get into book covers and titles with a traditional publisherPlus Zazie did a reading from the bookBark! is out now in paperback. It is available wherever books are sold.Find out about upcoming events and learn more about Zazie Todd, PhD, on her website https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/p/home.htmlThe recording of Bark! Fest with Patricia McConnell, PhD, is here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/16149739Send us a text to say hello!About the co-hosts: Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of, and now on staff with, the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online classes. She is also a northern anthropologist. Kristi Benson's website Facebook Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. Instagram BlueSky

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• Loving and Losing Pets with E.B. Bartels, Rev. Sarah Bowen, and Karen Fine DVM at Bark! Fest

  Living with pets sadly means losing them too. There wasn't a dry eye in the house (in a good way) at this event.Loving pets means thinking of them both in life and after their loss. In the poignant and personal Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter, E.B. Bartels takes us on a global tour of how we love and mourn our pets. Sarah Bowen shares her deep insights on the lives and loss of all animals—pets and wildlife—in Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain’s Advice for Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, and Trying to Heal the Planet. And Karen Fine DVM’s heartwarming memoir about becoming a veterinarian, The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life, and Mortality, is full of tales about what we can learn from the animals in our lives.We talked about:Why E.B. Bartels wrote her book and what she learned about how people memorialize their pets, including taxidermy and mummificationThe way that grief for a lost pet is often disenfranchisedWhat an animal chaplain is and why Sarah Bowen wrote her bookBlending science with spirituality, and practical tips to help when someone loses a petWhat it's like being a veterinarian, and how Dr. Karen Fine was influenced by her grandfatherThe value of making home visits as a veterinarian, and helping other pets cope when one of their fellow pets has passedPlus each author did an amazing reading from their bookThe quote by Irving Townsend can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/37516-we-who-choose-to-surround-ourselves-with-lives-even-moreLearn more about the authors:E.B. Bartels: https://www.ebbartels.com/ Rev. Sarah Bowen: https://www.sacredsendoffs.com/ Karen Fine DVM: https://karenfinedvm.com/ Send us a text to say hello!About the co-hosts: Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of, and now on staff with, the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers and has her PCBC-A from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She lives in beautiful northern British Columbia, where she helps dog guardians through online classes. She is also a northern anthropologist. Kristi Benson's website Facebook Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. Instagram BlueSky

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