The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology

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Zazie and Kristi chat about what we can do to better advocate for reward-based dog training methods, and some common things that people get wrong.
We talk about:
The podcast Kristi heard by Rachel Gilmore and why it made her want to talk about this topic
Why reward-based dog training methods are better for dogs and their people
Bothsidesism, and how portraying the use of aversive methods as normal and just another side of the argument is potentially damaging
How we can use a truth sandwich to counter myths about dog training
What the Overton window is and how it relates to conversations about dog training methods
Treviño's degrees of acceptance and how positive reinforcement dog training went from radical to sensible to popular
If you want to listen to some truth sandwiches about dog training and cat behaviour, check out episode 3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/12778186
The books we recommended in this episode are:
By Strength We Are Still Here by Crystal Gail Fraser
Pugs and Kisses by Farrah Rochon
You can listen to Farrah Rochon talk about Pugs and Kisses in the romance panel at Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers, where she's joined by Julie Howarth (New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe) and Nicola Knight (Washed Up). Save your spot here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5917869995632/WN_svRTPtHARD-_BrgsmER6WA
And check out all of the Bark! Fest panels at https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/p/home.html
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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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Marc Bekoff, PhD, joins Zazie and Kristi to talk about his new book Love in Their Hearts, his work (and upcoming book) with Jane Goodall, and what it's like studying canids.
We talked about:
Why Marc and his co-author Jeff Campbell wrote Love In Their Hearts
The time Marc's dog Jethro rescued a baby bunny, and stories of the grizzly bear known as 399
The importance of naming animals
Marc's research on dogs, wolves, coyotes, and foxes, and how his work replaced theories of dominance leading to the dissolution of litters in the wild
How animals tell stories
Marc's work with Jane Goodall, how he first heard of her, and how she influenced his work
The educator's kit that goes with Love In Their Hearts and how it can inspire hope and activism in young readers
The book Marc recommended is Knowing Wonder: An Elephant Story by Merrill Sapp illustrated by Gareth Hooks. You can read Marc's interview with Merrill Sapp here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/202412/an-elephants-world-from-the-mind-and-heart-of-a-matriarch
Love In Their Hearts: A Celebration of Animal Emotions and a Guide to Compassionate Action is by Marc Bekoff and Jeff Campbell.
Every Elephant Has a Name by Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff illustrated by Gavin Scott will be published on Feb 8, 2027.
Marc Bekoff will be at Bark! Fest to talk about Love In Their Hearts on Sep 23, joining Alison Pearce Stevens (Detective Dogs). Sign up here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1317856369316/WN_QnjJGASbSvyWmpRL-mp1lQ
Find out more about Bark! Fest and sign up for the other events at companionanimalpsychology.com
Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has won many awards for his research and writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society. He writes regularly for Psychology Today and has published more than thirty books, including The Emotional Lives of Animals and numerous scientific and popular essays. Visit marcbekoff.com to learn more.
Find Marc's Psych Today blog here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions
Support the show
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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How can we set and maintain standards for dog training and animal behaviour? Zazie and Kristi are joined by Fiona Cooke, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council to learn all about their important work in the UK, and what anyone can do if they want to make a difference.
We talked about:
What the ABTC does
Why it's so important to follow a compassionate, non-punitive approach in training and animal behaviour
The wide range of organizations who are part of the ABTC (and how they represent people who work with dogs, cats, horses, and exotics)
The benefits of being on the ABTC register for practitioners in the UK, and how the public can use it to find a good trainer or behaviourist
We get a sneak peek of what the ABTC is working on right now
The importance of collaboration and how people can increase awareness of the ABTC and support their work
We get Fiona's tips on what people can do to make a difference
And finally we find out what Fiona's been reading, which turns out to include an instruction booklet for building a wardrobe!

The books Fiona recommends are The Secret Hour by Mick Herron and also his Slough House series, of which the first is Slow Horses.
The Animal Behaviour and Training Council sets and maintains standards of knowledge and practical skills needed to be an animal trainer, training instructor or animal behaviour therapist and maintains the national Register of appropriately assessed practitioners.
ABTC members include major animal welfare charities, organisations concerned with human-animal interactions, educational institutions and membership organisations for practitioners. The Council represents the training and behaviour sector to the public and to governments.
Visit the ABTC website: https://abtc.org.uk/
Sponsor the ABTC: https://abtc.org.uk/sponsors/
ABTC merch: https://shop.abtc.org.uk/
Fiona Cooke is Chair of the ABTC Board of Trustees. She is Head of Specialist Services (vet, behaviour, training and research) at Woodgreen Pets Charity. Her PhD focused on the role of local government in the implementation and enforcement of animal welfare legislation. She is a lecturer in law and runs an animal behaviour company working with complex behavioural issues of dogs and cats. Fiona is a full member of the APBC and FABC as well as an ABTC registered CAB.
Support the show
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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Zazie and Kristi chat with scientist Dr. Catherine Reeve about her research to find out whether dogs change their behaviour when their owner is pregnant and if they can use their noses to detect when someone is stressed.
We talked about:
The survey that investigated whether women think their dog's behaviour changed when they were pregnant
The kinds of dogs that were most likely to show changes
How the scientists got scent samples from people who were stressed
The training to teach dogs to alert to the scent
How well the dogs did at the task
The implications for ordinary dog guardians
The papers we talked about are:
Dog owners’ perceptions of their dog’s behaviour during pregnancy https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2025.2502241
Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274143
The books Catherine recommended are The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry and The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica.
Also mentioned: Earlier episodes on surveys and understanding research (Ep61), and on dogs and scent work (Ep56 with Melissa McCue-McGrath; Ep 46 with Bonnie Hartney; Ep35 with Kim Cooper and Cat Warren).
Dr. Catherine Reeve is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Mount Saint Vincent University. She has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Dalhousie University. She’s interested in applied canine behaviour, canine cognition, especially olfaction, and human-animal interaction. And she’s the head trainer at Epic Tails Canine Adventures in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
University website: https://www.msvu.ca/academics/bachelor-of-science-bsc/psychology/faculty-and-staff/dr-catherine-reeve/
Epic Tails Canine Adventures: https://epic-tails.ca/
Support the show
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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New research on dogs and cats helps us to understand them better and give them better lives. But how do we know if the research is any good, and what about our feelings about the results? Zazie and Kristi chat about how to evaluate the science.
We talk about:
Taking an ethical stance on dogs and cats that recognizes that they are sentient beings
How it can be tricky to assess research if you're not trained as a scientist
The research on training methods shows risks to using aversives and that it's much better to only use reward-based training methods
Why we look for more than one study to teach us something
We consider different types of research, including the value of questionnaire studies and of experiments
What a meta-analysis is
How it can feel emotional if you don't like the results of a particular study
People's willingness to take part in research
A re-evaluation of a classic study on spanking children that is relevant to the discussion
And finally we talk about the books we're reading

The books we recommend this time are:
People, Places, Things by Chuck Palahniuk
New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe by Julie Haworth

Also mentioned is Zazie's post about a literature review on dog training methods: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2017/04/new-literature-review-recommends-reward.html
Support the show
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