Dog Talk ® (and Kitties Too!)

#965A: Melanie Kaplan wrote “Lab Dog: a Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research” after adopting Hammy, a Beagle “retired” from being a research subject. She wanted to find out how tens of thousands of Beagles were bred for often pointless and cruel experiments — done at University veterinary colleges, funded by US government agencies — and how all humans can contribute to reducing (eliminating?!) the use of dogs in research facilities.

#965B: Sy Montgomery’s fourth book about octopuses (yes, not “octopi!”) “Secrets of the Octopus,” is filled with stunning National Geographic photographs and brimming with anecdotes and scientific discoveries about the multitude of abilities and superior intelligence of these otherworldly creatures, who are having their moment in the sun. 

#964A: Sherrie Hines is an animal welfare lawyer — and professor at the University of Georgia Law and new director of the Practicum in Animal Welfare Skills (PAWS) — discussing legal solutions and remedies in cases involving dogs and how they differ from state to state.

#964B: Dustin Crummett is the Executive Director of the Insect Institute and co-author of research that questions the economic, environmental and animal welfare concerns of farming insect protein for pet food.

#963A: Jen Danna — writing "Deadly Trade" as Sara Driscoll — takes the team to Hawaii in her newest thriller in her FBI K-9’ series, which is focused on protecting endangered birds from deadly poachers. 

#963B: Taylor Waters from the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, who also teaches animal law and policy at the Vermont Law & Graduate School, worries about the "infantilization of animals” and the public desire for breeds like French Bulldogs, chosen for their big round eyes and round, flat faces like human babies — when the health of these overbred dogs has become a serious concern. She wants dog owners to ask themselves why they have chosen a particular dog — and what price is that dog paying for your desire?

#962A: Sean Sheer created his blog UrbanDogNYC about living with dogs in NYC ten years ago. The calendar shows all the places and events to which dogs in the city are welcome, as well as dog-centric events for humans. Sean’s articles about many canine topics are well written, informative and fun for dog owners, even if you live in a different urban area! 

#962B: Travel writer and cat lover Jeff Bogle wrote the book “Street Cats & Where to Find Them: the Most Feline-Friendly Cities and Attractions Around the World,” to inspire cat lovers to plan a trip to almost anywhere in the world to include visiting community cats.

#961A: Jennifer Mowdy (The Literary Cat Bookstore and Cat Lounge) brings books and reading to people in a lower socio-economic environment (Pittsburg, Kansas) who otherwise might not have access to it.

#961B: Internationally celebrated DNA specialist Ludovic Orlando wrote “Horses: a 4,000-Year Genetic Journey Across the World,”  illuminating his collaboration with hundreds of other scientists worldwide to discover where, when and how horses have been part of the human story, but also how science will write the future of The Horse — whether through the (ongoing) cloning of whole strings of Argentinian polo ponies or the manipulation of the DNA of English Thoroughbred race horses.

#960A: These are the actual names of some of the 60 sea creatures Cara Giaimo describes in her gorgeously illustrated precious little book “Leaving the Ocean was a Mistake: Life Lessons from Sixty Sea Creatures,” from whom she has extracted great nuggets of wisdom like “Don’t let anyone tell you your relationship is weird” (White’s Seahorse), “Dress up, whether or not anyone can see you” (Bloody-belly comb jelly) or “Don’t forget to take your little walk” (Sea toad).

#960B: Filmmaker John Semper made the charming animated tale "The Singular Affair of the Missing Ball," which delighted the NYC audience at the recent premiere of the 10th Annual NY Dog Film Festival. After decades of producing and writing shows, particularly the iconic Spiderman series, using AI was a fun artistic experiment for him. Semper discusses general fear and confusion about AI and how people have historically resisted change and pushed back against new technology — but since the Motion Picture Academy (that gives out the Oscars!) embraces AI animation, so should the Dog and Cat Film Festivals!

#959A: Dr. Mark Mamula at the Yale School of Medicine is part of a team developing an immunotherapy vaccine that can cure cancer in dogs — the way it has similarly revolutionized human cancer treatment. Information about their work (with trial sites) is available at https://therajan.com/joomla/, a company that will ultimately manage this therapy.

#959B: Krysta Fox talks about developing her unique, award-winning pet store Pug & Hound Apothecary with her husband as a place pet owners can come to find the most natural and pure products she has curated.

#958A: Margaret Mizushima talks about "Dying Cry,” the newest member of her Timber Creek K-9 Mystery series, this one as edge-of-the-seat dramatic as any we've come to expect from her brave heroine Mattie, and valiant search and rescue dog Robo.

#958B: Alan Fausel, the Curator of the AKC Museum of the Dog, talks about the delightful collection of original New Yorker magazine covers that is now a special show on display at the museum.

#957A: Jonny Maderson, the co-director of the charming documentary “Hustle & Run” in the NY Dog Film Festival, talks about the sport of Flyball as either “the F1 of dog sports or a posh game of fetch,” as his film follows a ragtag team of whippet owners who go after the biggest brass ring in the dog show world at Crufts.

#957B: Paulina and Andi Canalizo are “tied at the hip” sisters who do unique dog portrait sketches from their signature angle — from below the chin! They are bringing their @the.dogObsession [https://www.instagram.com/the.dogobsession/?hl=en] skill to the Pooch & Pussy Cat Party to celebrate the premieres of the NY Dog and NY Cat Film Festivals. 

#956A: First time film director Carphi von Limburg talks from his native Germany about the physical rigors and challenges of co-directing “Jamtland Dogs,” his documentary about a sled dog race which is featured in the 10th Annual NY Dog Film Festival. 

#956B: Karen Dendy Smith and Meredith Tollison — founders of The Animal Communication Collective, who have been practicing animal communication for decades — give Tracie some messages from her pooch Sky, a sneak preview of the readings they will be giving for guests at the Pooch & Pussy Cat Party October 25th in New York City to benefit Animal Lighthouse Rescue, the partner of the NY Dog and NY Cat Film Festivals. 

#955A: Victor Hurtado is the veteran with PTSD in the winning Dog Chow Service Dog Salute film ONE MIND, who describes his relationship with his life-altering dog, Holly as being "her 19th puppy," because before being paired with him she had two litters of 9 puppies each, all of which went on to become trained service dogs themselves.

#955B: Jerry D. Moore discusses his captivating historical nonfiction book “Cat Tales: A History: How We Learned to Live with Them," which required years of research to uncover fascinating aspects of history that cats share with humankind.

#954A: Film director, screenwriter and author Cathryn Michon talks about the groundbreaking way she turned her book "I'm Still Here: a Dog's Purpose Forever" into an innovative film for the 10th Annual NY Dog Film Festival, which is why she'll be flying to NYC for the premiere October 26th — where her film will be the closing one in the program.

#954B: Dr. Lisa Radosta DVM, DACVB is a world-renowned board-certified veterinary behaviorist, who talks about when — and which drugs — might help peoples' pets with Separation Related Disorders adjust and cope better in stressful situations. 

#953A: Kathy Alexander’s film of that title in the upcoming 10th Annual NY Dog Film Festival is a charming spoof on the reality TV show of a similar name.

#953B: Brian Nolan “rescued” the Australian brand Darren & Philipp, and now has a cult following for the matching comfy clothes and throws for the whole mutli-species family.

#952A: Shannon Walker talks about founding and running Northwest Battle Buddies, where they train and pair service dogs specifically for veterans with PTSD — and winning the Purina Dog Chow Service Dog Salute prize with “Following Flame,” a film from the dog’s perspective about one such pairing.

#952B: Susan Groeneveld in Calgary, Alberta Canada founded https://www.sylvester.ai, with tech experts and feline veterinarians, a smartphone-enabled app that can detect pain on your cat’s face with proven “grimace scales” that you and your veterinarian can use to evaluate whether your cat is suffering and find a solution.

#951A: Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins discusses how the veterinary community is stuck in decades-old (since disproven) studies about the negative effect of protein in diets for cats with kidney disease — so Tracie recommends everybody buy two copies of Dr. Elizabeth’s book “YOUR CAT: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life.” One copy for themselves, one for their vet. 

#951B: Tracie salutes filmmaker Kim Best, who yet again has two films in this year’s NY Cat Film Festival (as she has in every one of the 8 years Dr. Elsey’s has been sponsoring the Festival). One film is about an amazing older lady in North Carolina who runs a cat rescue that has adopted out over 3,000 cats. 

#950A: Christopher Berry, the Executive Director of the Nonhuman Rights Project, celebrates a milestone victory on behalf of pet owners whose dog was killed — and for the first time the court recognized that dogs are family members, worth more to their people than the original cost.

#950B: Rob Downey’s memoir of a lifetime passion for sled dogs and the racing sport is filled with adventures and misadventures — reminiscent of the tales of the great explorers in history, who risked everything to fulfill their dream of conquering the wild.

#949A: Dr Elizabeth Hodgkins rejoins Tracie to set the record straight about the extreme harm of feeding carbohydrates to kitties, because an old [flawed] study of carb-heavy cat foods is being trotted out to promote and defend carbohydrate-based foods for obligate carnivores. Could the pet food industry finally be reacting to their years of advocacy against "kitty krack?"!

#949B: Emma Sloley “The Island of Last Things” a novel set in the dystopian future, centered on a friendship between two women at the Alcatraz Island zoo, the last zoo in the world, who have different ideas about managing the animals.

#948A: Helen St Pierre, co-author of “Old Dog, New Dog: Supporting Your Aging Best Friend and Welcoming a New One,” talks about her sanctuary Old Dogs Go to Helen and advice about making a senior dog’s life more comfortable with or without the addition of a puppy, and practical considerations about euthanasia.

#948B: Dr. Andy Roark, the “relentlessly optimistic” philosopher veterinarian (The Cone of Shame podcast and Dr. Andy Roark blog) talks about optimizing communication between pet owners and doctors for the best medical and personal outcomes. 

#947A: Andrew Rowan, whose Wellbeing International publication covers the world of animals globally, talks about the wildly exaggerated numbers of community cats and how collaboration between cat lovers and environmentalists is needed, instead of high emotions and misinformation.

#947B: Chas Worthy talks about how he and his brother founded the pet food company Birdie & Louie with the intention of bringing premium pet food that is affordable and accessible to “everyday people” like themselves — putting high quality ingredients inside top shelf design and packaging — to reach people who shop at big box stores and 7-11.

#946A: A story of triumph over tragedy. Jim Scott and his wife Janet sold Wellness pet foods (the very first truly holistic recipes) to look after their sons, who both had been in life-altering accidents — but then created an even more premium pet food — RAWZ — so they could give away 100% of their profits in gratitude for all they still had.

#946B: Dr Cynthia Otto [Director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center and Professor of Working Dog Sciences & Sports Medicine] knows a thing or two about the dangers of heatstroke for dogs, particularly ones who are active outdoors as military or Search & Rescue working dogs. But for pets, when the ground and air outside are really hot for you, it’s too hot for dogs! No hiking! No jogging! Dogs can collapse (and die) from heatstroke. Dr. Otto did a study on the best way to cool down a dog in a heat emergency: Dunk their head!

#945A: Dr Evan Zhao talks about developing Pacagen with his wife, Dr. Siyang Han, who turned out to be allergic to their "pandemic pussy cat,” which inspired the two scientists to look for an effective anti-allergen — and they found it in the unique immune system of Alpacas!

#945B: Stella Hayward’s novel “The Good Boy” sets up the problem of how to put the genie back in the bottle if your wish for a boyfriend as great as your Golden Retriever comes true — and now you have a naked blonde man in your dog bed?!

#944A: Dr Patrick Pageat in Provence, France — the “grandfather of pheromones” developed to calm pets — has invented a new technology to deliver these substances more effectively for each species with sprays and diffusers for stress and anxiety: Secure Cat, Secure Dog, and Secure Bunny.

#944B: Sue Delegan, the co-founder of Brutus Bone Broth, realized that goat milk was another delicious way to supply fluids and nutrients to pets, especially kitties who often need encouragement to stay hydrated. So they developed a shelf-stable container for easy use. 

#943A: Aimee Gilbreath, President of PetSmart Charities, discusses the Gallup poll they commissioned, which discovered that half of all Americans skip or refuse veterinary care due to financial considerations, while most did not get treatment options that were more practical or affordable.

#943B: Kathy Callahan discusses “Old Dog, New Dog - Supporting Your Aging Best Friend and Welcoming a New One," which she co-wrote with Helen St. Pierre, about the challenges and wonderful surprises of overlapping an old-timer and a newcomer, with practical suggestions on how to make the transition work for all ages of canines.

#942A: Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds calls his book "the little book that might just save democracy," because cats are intrinsically "little fluff balls of resistance." Tracie says this handbook of feline wisdom should remind us that if we do not remember history (for example Hitler's rise to fascism, which current events bring to mind) — that we might just be on the road to ignoring the wisdom not to repeat history.

#942B: Dr. Don Harris was called in to reduce the explosive population of invasive peacocks in the Pinecrest neighborhood of Miami — because the birds are protected and even their nests cannot be disturbed. But you cannot neuter them or they lose their big beautiful fan tails. 

#941A: Tracie has long advocated for quality supplements for people and pets, so she was thrilled to have a conversation with Dr. Michelle Dulake, the veterinarian behind Fera Pets, a company dedicated only to the purposeful formulation of pet supplements to maintain wellness and address illness, with the first supplements created specifically for cats.

#941B: Andrew Rowan — President of Wellbeing International and renowned animal welfare advocate — talks about the book he facilitated, written by Arnold Arluke, called “Underdogs: Pets, People, and Poverty” which looks at free-roaming dogs in communities worldwide. 

#940A: Joan Dalton's book “Second Chances” chronicles a program for youth in Oregon’s toughest juvenile detention facility, where they pull the least adoptable dogs from the local shelter and let these young men train them for adoption. Miraculously, 95% of the participants were never incarcerated again. 

#940B: Vivian Zottola, author of “Being a Good Dog in a Human’s World,” discusses some of the philosophical aspects of having a dog and whether words make a difference when you use the phrase “owner” or “pet parent” instead of  “guardian.” 

#939A: Charles Hood, the naturalist photographer, talks about his full-of-surprises book “Nature at Night: Discover the Hidden World That Comes Alive After Dark,” and how you can turn your cell phone into a bat detector.

#939B: Nicole Navarro — founder of Pawsitive Beginnings, located in Key Largo, Florida — describes her sanctuary for foxes rescued from the fur trade, partners with organizations like the Florida Keys Children’s Shelter, using the foxes’ stories of survival and resilience as therapeutic tools to help youth on their own paths to healing.

#938A: Lorie Westhoff from Purina’s Purple Leash Project talks about their partnership with Red Rover, the non-profit that is working to have more pet-friendly domestic violence shelters able to accept pets, since not being able to take the family pet(s) is a barrier to leaving an abusive relationship.

#938B: Tracy Kinney in Batavia Illinois says if she were a canine she’d be a bully type dog — meanwhile she has trained 9 of her 13 rescued Bullies to be registered therapy dogs (English Bull Dog, Pit bull, Boxer, French Bulldogs, Pug, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Bull Terrier). Getting them to line up for a yearly group photo is a Facebook feat!

#937A: Chloe Dalton's illuminating and luminous memoir "Raising Hare,” describes with poetic delicacy the powerful yet fragile bond she had caring for a wild hare, which became "semi-domesticated" of her own volition.

#937B: British dog trainer Mark Bridger-Prescott — the owner of Bone Canis and canine behaviourist with a degree-level qualification in Advanced Canine Behaviour — says the problem with aggressive dogs begins with people ignoring signs of a dog’s discomfort. “When a dog growls you need to say, ‘Sorry, Mate. Thank you for growling and letting me know you needed space.’”

#936A: Sy Montgomery’s ground-breaking, award-winning book “Soul of an Octopus” is even more relevant now than when it was first published, as we discover that everything depicted in the bestselling novel called “that octopus book” (“Remarkably Bright Creatures”) is factually-based on the wily brilliance of these multi-armed creatures.

#936B: Aditya Siroya explains how rePurpose Global has funded projects across Asia, South America and Africa to recover 30 million pounds of plastic waste from nature, while supporting more than 2,000 Waste Workers at the front lines. And what happens to all the plastic bags with our pet foods in them?

#935A: Dr. Eleanor Raffan [Assistant Professor in Systems Physiology in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge] has made a breakthrough discovery of the gene in Labrador Retrievers that makes them insatiable and drives them to overeat, confirmed with her “Sausage in a Box Test.”   

#935B: Investigative journalist Gail Eisnitz talks about her new memoir “Out of Sight: An Undercover Investigator's Fight for Animal Rights and Her Own Survival,” which is an expose of how inhumanely animals are slaughtered and the health consequences to people doing the slaughter as well as to consumers, suggesting that supporting the Humane Farming Association (https://www.hfa.org/) is one way to raise your voice for a better system.

#934A: Janet Scott explains how she and her husband, Jim, founded the renowned pet food company Wellness, which they had to walk away from, but were able to re-emerge with a new super premium high meat pet food — RAWZ — which astoundingly gives 100% of their profits to non-profit dog organizations with a total donated so far of $33.75 million.

#934B: Christina Couch wrote “Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brained Birds, and More Animals With Magnificent Minds” for MIT Kids Press, specifically for geeky kids like she says she once was herself — although curious adults will equally love learning about the brains of many non-human creatures.

#933A: Renowned New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss talks about his book “You Can Never Die - a Graphic Memoir,” which celebrates his 17-year love of his dog Penny — often-depicted in his drawings — discussing his deep grief over her death in the context of his complex, fascinating life, seen in magnificently drawn and hand-written journal entries in the book.

#933B: Holly Molinaro talks about having just received her PhD from Arizona State University, at the Canine Science Collaboratory, where she studied dog owners’ perception (and misperception) of dog feelings and body language.

#932A: Kyra Sundance’s updated book “The Dog Tricks & Training Workbook: a Step-by-Step Interactive Curriculum to Engage, Challenge and Bond with Your Dog” shows us all the things we could do for fun with our dogs, as well as point out all we have to be grateful for.

#932B: Harry Eckman, internationally known animal welfare advocate, discusses population control of dogs and acts worldwide to protect them and the people they live amongst.

#931A: Annie Phenix (author of Positive Training for Reactive & Aggressive Dogs) discusses the horrible phenomenon in England of dogs with the moniker American XL Bully (a “breed’ not recognized as such in the U.S.), a type of dog which is now banned in the UK because of maulings of people by these massive powerful dog.

#931B: Dr. Ernie Ward’s own non-profit — the  Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP) discusses the importance of using non-shaming vocabulary when speaking about overweight pets; and that veterinarians unconsciously have a bias (as do doctors in human medicine) towards patients that “have obesity” — which is a clinical condition requiring medical intervention.

#930A: Brandy Kuentzel talks about her Ease Pet Vet (winner of an Innovation prize at the VMX veterinary conference) a platform that gives pet owners and their own veterinarians access to one of the hard-to-reach Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorist doctors to get a treatment plan for their dog's or cat’s behavior issues. 

#930B: Tanya Guerrero (who now lives on a hillside outside Manila in a home constructed of shipping containers with her husband, their daughter and a clowder of cats) reads from her Brooklyn-based novel “Cat’s People,”  the heroine of which is a stray cat who works to bring disconnected people together.

#929A: NYC cat behaviorist Stephen Quandt (Cat BehaviorHelp.com) talks about how he was part of a delegation many years ago to help manage and study the 1,000 dogs left behind when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986. What has become of them? 

#929B: Suzanne Rogers, co-director of the non-profit Human Behaviour Change for Animals, talks about the book she edited: "Canine Behaviour in Mind: Applying Behavioural Science to Our Lives with Dogs.” 

#928A: Federico Rossano — Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UCSD — conducted an international study of people using the "buttons" to communicate with their dogs — and took a lot of professional flak for doing the study, and the conclusion that the dogs do seem to be "saying" something, despite Tracie's unwavering skepticism about the whole concept!

#928B: Fred Levy wrote and took the photos for his book “Black Dogs - Stories of Love and Friendship,” because of the “black dog syndrome” at shelters — where they get overlooked and euthanized at a higher rate — and explains why it is hard to photograph a black dog.

#927A: Cara Giaimo discusses her book “Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World’s Living Wonders” and how she managed to collect such a cornucopia of information and beautiful images about flora and fauna around the world.

#926B: Emma Grigg — who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, focused on Companion Animal Behavior and Comparative Biomedical Sciences — discusses her book “The Science Behind a Happy Dog.”

#926A: Kristyn Vitale (of www.maueyes.com, Cat Behavior, Science & Training) has been studying cat sociability — how much is influenced by how social the humans are towards the cats?

#926B: Adam Spencer explains how www.Furlanthropy.org is the first not-for-profit platform for crowd funding to help with veterinary costs, eliminating fake appeals, making sure it is a legitimate fundraiser so the money raised goes directly to the vet, and providing charitable tax receipts for donors.  

#925A: Shelley Fraser Mickle's memoir “Itching to Love” explores why she and her dog developed such a deep bond.

#925B: Elinor Karlsson (who holds the Chair in Biomedical Research Genomics and Computational Biology at University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and is Director of Vertebrate Genomics at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT) talks about her big "citizen science" project called Darwin’s Dogs — with Darwin's Cats soon to follow.

#924A: Annie Phenix, author of “Positive Training for Aggressive and Reactive Dogs” discusses dangerous dogs bred for aggression, who are then encouraged on that path by dangerous owners, like the college professor who wrote a book unapologetically describing how he used his students to practice his obedience skills with his vicious German Shepherd who wanted to “attack to kill.”

#924B: Michael Schneider founded and flies the plane for Pilots to the Rescue, flying dogs and cats to new homes, along with social media influencers onboard to keep “telling the story” because keeping a nonprofit financially healthy depends on engaging with an audience — “Sell the sizzle, not the steak” as his father taught him and he hopes shelters will do.

#923A: Marc Bekoff talks about the many ways dogs can use tools to achieve their goals, not unlike chimpanzees studied by his colleague, Jane Goodall, and described under “tool behavior” in his book “Dogs Demystified: An A to Z Guide to All Things Canine.” 

#923B: Cara Achterberg started a non-profit called “Who Will Let the Dogs Out” and has written a book of that title about the challenges facing animal shelters in the South, with innovative solutions to solve the geographic challenges around unwanted dogs.

#922A: Sarah Gentry’s German Shepherd “Besa” won the ACE Award from the AKC in the “Search & Rescue Dog” category because she is a rare multipurpose search & rescue dog certified in human remains searches both on land and in water, live persons searches through area search and trailing, and is the first dog in the USA to test and receive USPCA Human Scent/Human Trafficking certification.

#922BA: Dr. Christopher Little in Scotland talks about his book “The Dog Care Handbook — Things I Wish My Vet Had Told Me” and how after forty years in practice he hopes people will communicate and collaborate better with their dog’s veterinarian and that his book will help.

#921A: Jessica Pierce — the author of “Who’s a Good Dog? and How to Be a Better Human” and “Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets” discusses the need for dog owners to recognize the harm of a “profound level of constraint” and asks “When did ‘crating’ become a verb? And an acceptable way to manage a dog’s life?”

#921B: Jill Dempsey needed a seeing-eye guide dog and a seizure alert dog and got both with her black Standard Poodle Kissable Katie, who has helped her get back out in the world — to the point that Katie also stands by her side at Western reenactments, including the Cowboy Fast Draw competition (that Jill actually won in 2017, despite being nearly blind!) 

#920A: Dr. Treyton Diggs talks about the honor of being the WKC’s Veterinarian of the Year in 2024 and the added privilege now of being the first Westminster Kennel Club Resident Vet, and how he hopes to inspire children — especially children of color — to reach for the stars in their own lives.

#920B: Allison LaField and her Old English Sheepdog Wallace won an AKC ACE award in the “Therapy Dog” category, not just because they volunteer at Brook Army Medical Center and the Natatorium where the military veteran community and amputees swim — but because Wallace jumped in to save Allison’s life when she accidentally fell to the bottom of her own pool at home. 

#919A: Dr Doug Mader talks about the sea turtles that are “cold stunned” in the waters of Cape Cod and flown by volunteer pilots down to The Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys to be rehabilitated.

#919B: Winner of the AKC ACE Award in the “Uniformed Services K-9” division, Lt. John Haning of the Claremont Oklahoma Sheriff’s department talks about his Labrador Retriever Rosco, who works on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and is on the Homeland Security Investigation Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Task Force — finding the hidden electronic devices which will put the perpetrators of these crimes behind bars. Rosco is also a family dog who sleeps with Haning’s 13-year-old daughter, who pampers him with “spa days” she chronicles on Tik Tok.

#918A: Dr. Rick LeCouteur and Tracie discuss the history of pet foods formulated to help manage medical conditions but are often based on less-than-optimal ingredients for long term use — for which they were not intended anyway.  

#918B: Dr. Renee Schmid — senior veterinary toxicologist at the Pet Poison Helpline — discusses the many instances when pets ingest something they should not, which is where their specialized service comes in, to support the owner, the vet and the specialty hospital if they need to go there. 

#917A: Don Sturz, who is President of the Westminster Kennel Club [which has put on America’s most prestigious dog show every February for 149 years!] discusses what it takes to become a Best in Show judge at Westminster Dog Show — as he was in 2022, and how to make that decision. He talks about the three dogs who share his life currently, only one of whom has the “It Factor" to be a show dog — his champion Pekingese Fiona.

#917B: Vanessa Woods, co-author with her husband Brian Hare of the delightful book “Puppy Kindergarten: The New Science of Raising a Great Dog,” immersed herself in the litters of service dog puppies from Canine Companions that they raised and studied — bringing them to life on the page as individuals you come to know and love — funny, annoying, delightful and sometimes baffling. 

#916A: In his book “Puppy Kindergarten: the New Science of Raising a Great Dog,” co-authored with his wife, Vanessa Woods, Brian Hare talks about how they helped to raise potential service dogs at their Canine Cognition lab at Duke University in order to discover how early a puppy will reveal his/her proclivity for becoming a successful service dog. They also ask the question of whether the way “regular people” raise their own puppies is good enough...or is there something more we should be doing?

#916B: A philosophical discussion about how much sacrifice we “should” make for our pets. Tracie asks whether Dr. Doug’s desire to stay in Florida to keep his Tortoise Taxi going, outweighs the safety benefits of moving away from extreme weather with his wife and animal entourage to Oregon where the tortoises would have to live in an indoor herpetarium.