Dog Talk ® (and Kitties Too!)

#901B: Veterinary behaviorist Dr. Amy Pike of the Animal Behavior Wellness Clinic in Maryland talks about the ways you can help calm a thunderstorm-phobic dog, including a new anxiety medication called Sileo.

#901A: Peggy Gavan’s book “The Bravest Pets of Gotham: Tales of Four-Legged Firefighters of Old New York” is a wonderful window on the animals that used to be essential to firehouses in the late 1800s — and to the men who populated them.

#900B: Mustapha Khan, an Emmy-Award winning director and Brooklyn College Film School professor, talks about his film “Freddie Bear’s Lovely Day,” set to Bill Withers iconic tune, which he will be there to see in person at the 9th Annual NY Dog Film Festival premiering in NYC October 24th. 

#900A: Carol Borden of Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs explains how dogs can distinguish the chemical components of emotions, particularly the scent of PTSD for which they can be trained as service dogs — about which her organization made a film for the Purina Dog Chow Service Dog Salute category of the upcoming NY Dog Film Festival.

#899B: Cathryn Michon’s gorgeously illustrated prose poem book “i’m still here - a dog’s purpose forever” is a panacea for those of us who have lost a dog, with the assurance that while we still miss that dog so much, s/he never really left us. It is a most comforting, rewarding, uplifting, adorable, funny book.

#899A: Jessica Pierce’s newest books focusing on dogs — “Dogpedia” a Brief Compendium of Canine Curiosities” — is a cornucopia of carefully curated topics, encyclopedia-style, that will delight and surprise even the most well-versed dog lovers. 

 #898B: Joan Gratz, a pioneering film animator who won an Oscar in 1992 for Best Animated Film, is coming to NYC to see two of her innovative cat-centric films premiering at the 7th Annual NY Cat Film Festival October 15th. 

#898A: Marianne Leone’s memoir, “Five Dog Epiphany: How a Quintet of Badass Bichons Retrieved Our Joy,” relays how a series of adopted little white dogs helped her recover from the death of her son.

#897B: Dr. Amy Pike, of the Animal Behavior Wellness Clinic outside Washington, D.C., talks about dogs who become thunderstorm phobic — ways to manage their environment and medications that can help calm the dogs, especially the oral gel Sileo — which works for Tracie’s trembling pooch, Wanda. 

#897A: W. Bruce Cameron talks about “Ripley, Fire Station Five,” the newest title in his “Dogs With a Purpose” series for school age children — seeing the world from their point of view, along with the dog’s eye view, for which Cameron is famous.