Believe in Dog

Today we’re talking to renowned trainer Deb Jones, Ph.D., about Cooperative Care - the most important skills you’re (probably) not training your dog to do!  Also called Consent Care or Husbandry, I’m referring to the procedures needed to keep dogs healthy such as veterinary care and grooming.

If you’d rather get a root canal than take your dog to the vet or if you can’t trim your dog’s nails without needing a drink afterwards, then you won’t want to miss this conversation.

Deb is the author of the book Cooperative Care: Seven Steps to Stress-Free Husbandry  (aff. link). Her methods encourage our dogs to become willing partners in the training process rather than using heavy-handed or forceful practices that can damage our relationship with our dog and hurt their trust.

Deb shares with us what she learned from dolphin trainers that will help our dogs, what to do if you accidentally “quick” your dog while trimming their nails and how to handle those times when your dog needs immediate care to avoid causing a setback in your training and relationship. We’ll also hear the #1 most common skill that veterinarians wish Pet Parents trained their dogs to do!

While Deb’s former “day job” was as a Ph.D. Psychologist who taught in colleges, it’s fascinating how her work intertwined with her dog training passion. And as someone who’s been training dogs for 30+ years, Deb has so much insight to share about her experiences in the dog training world and the changes she’s witnessed in how we treat dogs as a society.

You can also find Deb teaching online training classes and in her Cooperative Care with Deb Jones Facebook Group.

Find links & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

It’s the Puppy Episode! 

I’ve always heard that the best way to set yourself & your dog up for success is by putting in 12 months of solid training with your puppy so you can reap the rewards for the next 12+ years (hopefully!) with your amazing dog.

So how do you best set up your new puppy for success – not just in your home but in the world too?  What is proper puppy socialization?  And what isn’t?

Kathy Callahan, CPDT-KA, has spent the past 10 years fostering 200+ puppies while attending dog training school in her free time -– so she knows a few things about puppies. Kathy believes that equal parts empathy and preparation are needed to successfully raising your puppy.

As the author of the book, Welcoming Your Puppy From Planet Dog – How to Go Beyond Training and Raise Your Best Friend, Kathy shares with us everything we need to before we bring one home.  From setting up your home to setting your expectations, Kathy’s book is not just a “how to” reference but a mindset guide as well. 

Kathy shares her insights with us on everything from the all-important potty training to juggling the Puppy Shots Dilemma.   We talk about how to build your puppy’s database of new people, places and things to set them up for their best life with you.

Find links & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

Did you know that the health decisions you make for your dog today will impact their long-term health?  including whether your dog could be at-risk developing Canine Cognitive Dysfunction aka canine dementia?

I learned that as many as 50% of dogs show signs of canine dementia in their lifetime – and these signs can show up as early as 5 years old for larger breed dogs!

Francine Barish-Stern learned all of this first-hand after her experiences with her dog, Shamrock.  She spent years trying to get a proper diagnosis for Shamrock that would explain both the physical changes and the behavioral changes she was seeing in her dog - and that diagnosis was Canine Cognitive Dysfunction. 

Now a Dog Mom advocate on a mission, Francine shares with us everything Pet Parents should know about treating and preventing canine dementia in our dogs.

After interviewing more than 50 experts – from veterinarians to researchers of human dementia and Alzheimer’s – Francine published a book to help Pet Parents called Shamrock’s Story: From Hurricane Katrina to Doggy Dementia & Alzheimer’s.

No matter how old – or young – your dog is, Francine shares with us what the experts say about the choices to make for your dog right now to help them live the longest, healthiest life possible.

Find links, photos & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

What do you think are the most common complaints our dogs have about us Pet Parents?  Animal Communicator Nancy Mello shares the two most common grievances she hears – and I definitely needed to hear this!

While some of us might be completely intrigued by the concept of animal communication, for Nancy Mello, her experience hasn’t been all love & light. 

Nancy describes herself as “not at all woo-woo.” She spent the first 30+ years of her life trying to repress her abilities and just live as a “normal” daughter, military spouse and mom. 

It’s only been a few years since Nancy finally made the decision to embrace her abilities.  And she has quickly made a name for herself having helped reunite 120+ lost pets with their families.

Nancy also shares with us what she’s learned from her End of Life sessions before a pet transitions.

You can listen in on Nancy’s animal communication sessions on her Creature Preacher podcast and follow her on Instagram and TikTok.

Find links & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

Is your dog always 100% confident? While Kelly Lee of Dogkind Training specializes in working with fearful dogs, her confidence building tips will help you build your dog’s confidence in any situation.

Kelly shares her top Do’s and Don’ts for increasing your dog’s confidence – whether it’s a brand-new situation or an experience you may need to reintroduce to your dog in a different way.  

My biggest takeaway is how to break down these experiences into tiny steps.  Dogkind Training’s website has amazing free resources for learning how to do this in various ways – from stairs to nail clippers.

We also learn the most common mistakes Kelly sees pet parents make when they first adopt a fearful or traumatized dog.  Kelly’s even developed an online training program, the Confidence Builders Club, to provide support for pet parents of fearful dogs.

As much as we all love snuggling our dogs, do we *really* know if our dog wants to be pet right now? What does consent mean as a pet parent?  I first learned of Kelly’s Petting Consent Test video from previous guest Ann King (Episode 87).

Kelly shares her thoughts on what petting consent means and how to tell if our dogs are enjoying our company as much as we think they do.

Find links & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

Have you ever wondered if we’re [accidentally] making our dogs’ anxiety worse? 

Alex Peacock – a dog trainer who specializes in working with anxious dogs – is going help us answer this question and understand why anxious people and anxious dogs seem to attract each other.

Alex works with pet parents of anxious dogs through a comprehensive program he designed.  He’ll share with us the three pillars of his program and give us powerful tips for any pet parent dealing with an anxious dog. 

Alex also advises us on how to choose the best dog trainer to help with your dog’s anxiety.

But what if we could stop dog anxiety before it even starts?  Alex shares the one BIG thing pet parents can do to avoid dog anxiety in the first place.

Alex also reveals that he was inspired to be a dog trainer from a young age after watching THAT celebrity dog training tv show.  (But don’t worry, Alex’s training methods are nothing like that!)

Find links & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

Our dogs are always talking to us … but are we listening?   I believe that learning our dogs’ body language is one of THE most important aspects of being a pet parent.

So thank goodness for Lili Chin’s work translating Doggie Language for us humans. In fact, if you follow anything dog-related on social media, you’re probably familiar with Lili’s illustrations and artwork.

Lili never anticipated that adopting Boogie, the Boston Terrier, would impact her life and career in so many ways.  She also hadn’t anticipated Boogie nearly getting her evicted after biting her apartment building manager!

After a few disappointing experiences with other trainers, Lili was introduced to positive force-free training methods and learned to understand what Boogie was communicating all along.

Dog trainers and other professionals soon began commissioning Lili’s artwork to share important messages for pet parents.  From Dog Body Language to Your Dog’s Emotional Cup, Lili’s work is shared far & wide on social media impacting pet parents daily.

Get the Doggie Language book for your collection HERE. (Aff. link)

Find links and show notes at:

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Oncotect: With 1 in 3 dogs being diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, Oncotect is the first at-home screening test that Pet Parents can purchase to get peace of mind.  Get 15% off when you use the code: BELIEVEINDOG

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

Have you – or someone you know – ever struggled with a challenging dog?  Where you’ve tried everything from trainers to vets to behaviorists, but life with the dog is still a daily struggle – whether fear, reactivity or feeling like the dog runs the house instead of the humans.

If any of this sounds familiar, then you won’t want to miss this episode.

After struggling for 5 years with her own dog, Maya, Souha met a series of life-changing teachers and mentors.  These experiences led her to develop a philosophy to heal the relationship and strengthen the bond we have with our troubled dogs.

Souha explains to us her 3-stage method that she calls the Way of Life Method. This system is like hitting the “reset” button on your relationship with your dog – at any age and no matter how long your dog has been part of the family.

Souha’s Way of Life is a methodical approach to adjusting the expectations we have for our dogs and involves re-establishing our life and our home in a structured way that sets our dogs up for success.  This is a completely force-free and non-aversive methodology.

In Souha’s book, The Way of Life Method, she provides daily schedules, exercises and bonding activities intended to create the connection with your dog that you’ve always wanted but didn’t think was possible.

Find links & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Oncotect: With 1 in 3 dogs being diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, Oncotect is the first at-home screening test that Pet Parents can purchase to get peace of mind.  Get 15% off when you use the code: BELIEVEINDOG

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

Dog Mom Confession: Sometimes it’s stressful adopting a new dog!    

Have you ever heard of the 3-3-3 Rule?  This advice gives Pet Parents an expectation of what to expect 3 Days, 3 Weeks and 3 Months after bringing a new dog home.

Today’s guest Ann King is the dog trainer who has popularized the 3-3-3 Rule for the shelter & rescue community.

Ann is also the creator of the Rescue SMART framework. SMART is an acronym for Ann’s five steps to successfully introducing and integrating a new dog to your home:

• Structure

Ann will share what each of these components means and how to implement the SMART framework in your home. Ann will also tell us how she developed the framework – including all the mistakes she made along the way.  

We’ll also learn the most common mistakes that Pet Parents make when introducing a new dog to their home and the easy ways to fix or prevent these.

Share this episode with your shelter and rescue friends!  Rescue SMART is a totally free resource that includes videos and PDF downloads to help anyone introducing a new dog to their home.

Find links & show notes at:

Get your free checklist: Join Erin the Dog Mom's email list to receive the 12 Changes in Your Dog to Never Ignore checklist.

Teef: The easiest way to improve your dog’s dental health is with a spoonful of Teef powder in their water.  Save 20% on your Teef orders when you use the code: ADM.

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.

Is your dog as happy as you think? Are there scientifically proven ways to make your dog happy?

Dr. Zazie Todd shines light on these questions in her book Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy.

This is a re-broadcast of Episode 9, which originally aired March 9, 2020.

Zazie Todd did not grow up with pets, while on her way to becoming an accomplished social psychologist. When she & her husband adopted 2 dogs within 6 weeks from their local humane society, Zazie used her psychology and research background to make sure she was doing the “right” things for her dogs.

As she began looking into the burgeoning field of canine science and what we are learning about dogs, Zazie shared her findings by starting her blog, Companion Animal Psychology.

If you’ve ever wondered if your dog is as happy as you hope, or if you are making the right decisions for your dog, Zazie shares all that she’s learned in her book Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy.

Find links & show notes at:

Support this podcast, subscribe on your favorite app and leave a rating or review.