The Long Leash with James Jacobson

Angela Medlin is a design expert who designed products and directed creatives at brands like Nike, Adidas, Levi Strauss, and the North Face. But this self-described closet-entrepreneur always had side hustles … and in 2017 her dog, Wubbi, inspired her to start House Dogge, a collection of thoughtfully designed, sustainable, safe products for dogs AND their people.

There are literally thousands – tens of thousands – of steps every designer takes on the road from idea to product creation to market, and Medlin has thirty years of experience to light her way. She also has something else: fifty years of closely observing her own dogs, and her own self in relation to them.

Today Medlin joins us for a deep dive into the mindset behind her “overnight success” in her new business. She shares how taking Oprah’s advice to be authentic to herself and use intuition to guide her steps helped her at every step of her career … and to eventually draw the attention of Oprah’s Favorite Things. She also discusses the lonely experience of being a person of color in a field with fewer than 1% POC … and the way things have changed in recent years, as more Americans have come to appreciate the achievements of her and other BIPOC talents.

Medlin also reveals how her English Bulldog, Wubbi, taught her not only to care about carcinogen-free dog toys, but also how to greet new friends and how to choose the best spot in the room.

This thoughtful, absorbing, and clear conversation is, like Medlin’s toys and clothing, well-crafted, carefully considered, and refreshingly uncomplicated.

About Angela Medlin

Angela Medlin’s career experience as a professional product Designer and Director at brands that include Nike/ Jordan Brand, Adidas, Levi Strauss, The North Face, and other global companies lead her to this moment. She spent the majority of her career leading design teams in creating products that solve problems for the human consumer. Now, Medlin is using this same passion and extensive career experience to do the same for the canine consumers in House Dogge. The well being of dogs (and the people who love them) is prioritized in these nontoxic, sustainable, and beautiful products that address both consumers holistically. The brand has been featured in Oprah’s O magazine, Sunset, Better Homes & Gardens, Design Milk, and others. Consumers can purchase product on HouseDogge.com, dog boutiques, select home interior stores, and design specialty shops. Creating products that support dogs and their people is priority for the House Dogge Brand. The small batch collections continue to evolve prioritizing comfort, sustainability, and modern simplicity. In addition, Medlin is a creative mentor, serves as a design leader on multiple advisory boards, and is the Founder of the FAAS DESIGN COLLAB (www.faasdesigncollab.com) which provides creative and professional development to underrepresented creatives desiring to enter the product creation industry.

House Dogge website: https://www.housedogge.com/

House Dogge on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/housedogge/

House Dogge on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/housedogge/

FAAS Design Collab: www.faasdesigncollab.com

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Ward Serrill wore three-piece suits and thought it was normal to go without touch when his accounting firm sent him north to a small town in Alaska. In that wild place, however, he touched a wild force within himself, one that called him to go further.

Further up the river, into the wilderness, into the cold, into himself. And his companion on this years-long self-isolation experiment? A Labrador named Woody, the pick of the litter, the prize pup he wrangled out of the breeder’s hands.

Alone in a shack and finally confronting his childhood demons – his mother’s suicide attempt while pregnant with him, his father’s alcoholism and violence – Ward found himself relying on Woody for basic lessons about being human.

The dog, raised in a loving and positive environment, became a model for the man. Ward learned what companionship, touch, and authenticity can do to the heart.

Ward’s extraordinary story of emerging from the devastation of a terrible childhood by following the lead of a dog is captured in his extraordinary memoir, To Crack the World Open.

The award-winning documentary filmmaker joins us for a heart-to-heart conversation about love, dogs, healing, and how imagination can often conjure up our best self-therapy.

To Crack the World Open on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Crack-World-Open-Solitude-Alaska-ebook/dp/B08XZMFY7C

Ward Serrill’s website: https://wardserrill.com/

Production House website: https://woodycreekpictures.com/

Ward Serrill on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2024238/

Ward Serrill on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wardserrill/?hl=en

Ward Serrill on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ward.serrill

Ward Serill on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjCICnd1LaoPHNn9wNVXYuw

About Ward Serrill

Ward Serrill is the award-winning writer and director of The Heart of the Game, released by Miramax to wide critical acclaim as well as The Bowmakers. He has created more than ninety short films including Building One House with Robert Redford and Wild America with Sissy Spacek. His fourth feature, Dancing with the Dead: the Life and Times of Red Pine, is in production. Ward’s memoir, To Crack the World Open – Solitude, Alaska, and a Dog Named Woody is published by Girl Friday Books.

About The Long Leash 

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Leo Trottier isn’t the first scientist to get interested in inter-species communication – he credits Charles Darwin as the first modern mind to recognize that animals are not “dumb beasts” but our intellectual cousins.

But this life-long animal lover has done more than most cognitive scientists and learning experts to confirm it, with his “talking buttons” that help pets communicate directly with their human partners.

It turns out that you’re not crazy to think that you and your dog are communicating nonverbally. It’s possible, in fact, for dogs to ask for their preferred treats (even when there is no button for it), make a plan for the future, talk about their dreams, and even express grief.

Today’s conversation is rich in fact and meaning and emotion, just like a dog’s mind is. In this fascinating discussion, an excellent science communicator explains how and why better inter-species conversations are important … not just for the personal lives of the animals involved, but for the broader collective good.

Our companion animals may lead lives of quiet frustration. By speaking with each other, could we alleviate the epidemic of human loneliness that medical professionals consider a huge risk factor? Reduce behavioural problems that result in huge levels of euthanasia for companion animals? Increase the empathy levels in humans for our own and other species?

Dog brains are not dramatically different than human brains … and yet, we feel surprise and delight when our dogs do something unexpected. Welcome to Leo Trottier’s world, where he and his teams give dogs (and other animals) the tools they need to connect with us.

Don’t be surprised if, in a year or two, you’re getting a text message from your dog.

See the video of the cat grieving their friend here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PetsWithButtons/comments/rr0fwq/pets_grieve_too_i_had_to_put_down_two_of_my_15/

FluentPet website: https://fluent.pet/

Tips, Tricks, Do’s and Don’ts from the community: https://www.theycantalk.org/

Forum where you can ask questions: https://how.theycantalk.org/c/home

The original talking buttons on CleverPet: https://clever.pet/

FluentPet on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fluentpet/

FluentPet on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FluentPet

FluentPet on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fluentpet

About Leo Trottier

Leo Trottier is a unique blend of cognitive scientist, software engineer, product designer, and entrepreneur. He is founder and CEO of CleverPet, a startup that uses smart hardware to teach pets automatically through advanced cognitive and behavioral science techniques. Leo is an alumnus of San Diego’s EvoNexus and the Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator (powered by Techstars). He has a degree from the cognitive science and A.I. program at the University of Toronto, and started CleverPet while a PhD candidate at UC San Diego. Before CleverPet, Leo ran Scholarpedia, Wikipedia’s academic equivalent, where he worked with Nobel Laureates to “wikify scholarly canons.”

About The Long Leash 

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Tracy Rosensteel, the entrepreneur behind Pooch Papers, got the idea for her product while walking her Frenchie, Indiana Jones, in New York City.

There they were, on every corner – garbage cans stuffed with single-use plastic bags filled with methane-emitting dog poop.

Not only was it stinky, it was very bad for the environment – and soon would be illegal, as single-use plastics are starting to banned in the U.S. Rosensteel, a super-savvy business woman, knew there was a better way to pick up poop.

And she was right. Her Pooch Papers are made from recycled paper, are completely biodegradable, and cut back on both methane and PFAS – those terrible micro-plastics that are polluting our soil and water.

In this wide-ranging and delightful conversation, Tracy talks about her work in the financial industry, her love for her dogs, and what it was really like to appear on Shark Tank and make her pitch.

About Tracy Rosensteel

A passionate entrepreneur, Tracy has spent the last twenty-five years launching businesses spanning industries from Wall Street to travel television shows, authoring children's books and her most recent endeavor, Pooch Paper. Made in the USA, Pooch Paper seeks to replace plastic doggie waste bags by offering a PFAS-free paper alternative to plastic, reducing microplastic, methane and plastic waste in landfills each year. 

An avid adventurer, Tracy has participated in such hobbies as piloting single-engine airplanes, fly-fishing, competing in single, four and eight-man rowing sculls and playing on an all-men's ice hockey team. Passionate about life, Tracy is very excited about giving back to our beautiful planet with Pooch Paper, paving a cleaner way one pup at a time!

https://www.poochpaper.com

https://www.instagram.com/poochpaper

https://www.facebook.com/poochpaper 

https://youtu.be/YTeZI9oy3DA

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-rosensteel-a61b256/

About The Long Leash 

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Want to learn more about dogs (and cats) without learning more about dogs (and cats)?

Pick up an Amy Shojai thriller. She’s written several, and while they are gripping narratives, they’re also entertaining ways to learn about animal psychology.

Her September and Shadow novels in particular are informed by decades of experience writing non-fiction pet books and helping clients as a certified animal behavior consultant (CABC).

In this wide-ranging and entertaining conversation, Shojai explains how her constant self-reinvention helps her career, how her dog overcame her resistance to adopting during the pandemic, how the rise of the internet made new stories and storytelling possible, and why dogs are people with fur … and cats are space aliens.

About Amy Shojai

Amy Shojai is a certified animal behavior consultant, and the award-winning author of 35+ dog (and cat) care books. She also writes the pet-centric thriller series featuring an animal behaviorist and her PTSD service dog. 

[email protected] 

https://www.SHOJAI.COM 

https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/redwood-labs/showpage/uploads/images/1c028183ee1b491499ced1ec8f70d1dd.jpg 

Author 

https://www.twitter.com/amyshojai 

https://www.instagram.com/amyshojai 

https://www.facebook.com/amyshojai.cabc 

https://www.youtube.com/amyshojai-cabc 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyshojai/ 

https://www.pinterest.com/amyshojai 

https://www.tiktok.com/@amyshojai_cabc 

https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Shojai/e/B000APBYV4 

About The Long Leash 

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Jenna Mahan has seen a few things in her fifteen years as a registered veterinary technician and her ten years in Claims at Embrace Pet Insurance.

She joins us today for a sometimes hilarious, uncensored, no BS story session. She’s been in on some of the weirdest dog-related stories we’ve ever heard, from a bulldog whose vomit smelled like wine (but wasn’t) to finding a cat in the most unexpected place you can imagine.

Along the way she has tons of advice about hazards our pets face during the holiday season and how to avoid them … from strangling Christmas lights to tinsel to pancreatitis problems.

She also offers advice about how to evaluate your own pet insurance needs and touches on the business of pet insurance itself, and how the “wide open market” in the U.S., where only 2% of pet owners have it, is attracting opportunists.

An enlightening and entertaining conversation with a woman who has dedicated her career to helping people in crisis help their pets.

About Jenna Mahan

After 15 years working as a registered veterinary technician, Jenna joined Embrace as a claims adjuster in 2011. Jenna was promoted to lead, then manager, and was made Director of Claims and Chief Underwriter in 2017, leading a team of nearly 50 Embracers. Jenna is responsible for implementing time-saving system changes and advancements that get Embrace policyholders’ claims processed quickly and efficiently. Jenna began her career with an associate degree in Applied Science in Veterinary Technology and went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Theater from Bowling Green State University. She has five Embraced fur-kids — dogs Hazel, Lou, and Charlie; and cats Quinn and Harry. 

https://www.embracepetinsurance.com/ 

About The Long Leash 

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David Bessler thinks the traditional veterinary medical practice, with its separate treatment rooms, closed surgeries and recovery areas, and hard-to-reach veterinarians is not just outdated, but broken.

With nearly two decades of emergency veterinary medicine under his belt, and public education work at the Museum of Natural History and appearances on Sesame Street, he asserts a modern practice is oriented to people, service-based, open, and transparent. Decisions are shared, and authoritarian attitudes are abandoned.

His first Veterinary Emergency Group practice tested his ideas … and they worked. There are now 27 Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG) locations, with more in the works.

Focusing exclusively on veterinary emergency medicine, each practice is completely transparent to the customers. For example: When you arrive, there is no paperwork … because your dog needs help NOW, not after you fill out a form; When you call with a medical question, you get an answer from a veterinarian … not a nurse or a receptionist; When you are waiting for attention for your dog’s torn toenail, and it takes a while to get it, you are relaxed and understanding … because you see the heroic efforts the veterinarians and staff are making on behalf of other animals.

Why do you see it? Because you’re all in one big treatment area. There is no “back room” in VEG hospitals. It’s all one open triage floor.

And because animal lovers all share an essential love and goodness, you may even feel called to help another person’s dog or cat that may be in more serious jeopardy than yours is … and you’ll feel great about it.

That’s all part of the point. Bessler and his partner, David Glattstein, have created a very different breed of veterinary medical practice, one that caters directly to human nature and appeals to our greatest ideals.

In this wide-ranging conversation with the charismatic and whipsmart David Bessler, we find out why he thinks that people are good, and why he tries so hard to create openness, togetherness, heroic efforts, and meaningful moments.

Also: why puns are an important part of his business’ culture.

About David Bessler

Dr. David Bessler has been a career emergency veterinarian since 2003. He spent time caring for reptiles at the Bronx Zoo, teaches “Veterinary Science” to elementary school children at the American Museum of Natural History and was even featured as Dr. Dave, teaching kids on Sesame Street.

Dr. Bessler has a vision to revolutionize emergency veterinary medicine through a holistic, radically open experience for the caregiver, customer and patient. In 2014, he purchased his first emergency vet hospital, which allowed him to bring his vision to life.

Today VEG (Veterinary Emergency Group) has 27 ERs for pets in 10 states, treats over three hundred thousand pet emergencies each year, and boasts the highest NPS in the veterinary industry.

Veterinary Emergency Group

See Dr. Dave on Sesame Street: https://youtu.be/z4P2cDXq2N4

Find a location near you: Veterinary Emergency Group Locations

Veterinary Emergency Group on Facebook

@veterinary_emergency_group on Instagram

About The Long Leash 

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When USAID worker Jess Stone fell in love with her fellow international aid worker now-husband Greg, she knew she would spend a lifetime on two wheels.

Greg was an inveterate, unrepentantly passionate motorcycle enthusiast, and Jess was a city girl who didn’t even drive stick.

But they loved each other, so they bought motorcycles in Liberia so Greg could teach her to ride. He turned out to be a less-than-patient teacher – but a great road partner.

Back in the states, they rode all over the continent and down to South America, stopping in Guatemala along the way and falling in love with the highlands, the people, and the culture.

Years later, Greg got a job with a Guatemalan nonprofit that provides microfinances for indigenous women. Once settled in Panajachel on a lake surrounded by three volcanoes, Jess finally realized her lifelong dream and got a dog.

Visiting a litter of German Shepherd pups, Jess took Greg’s sage advice to “pick the dog who picks you,” and Moxie joined their family. Moxie’s high energy told Jess she would be up for their epic motorcycle adventures … but her weight eliminated any of the current options for riding with them.

To keep her bike and their rides lightweight and supple, Jess and Greg created a new type of motorcycle dog carrier: a frame that is custom-made to fit the bike and dog in question, is lightweight, and totally secure. It’s called the K9 Moto Cockpit.

Creating the cockpit led to creating a company to make them for other moto folks, and pretty soon, GoRuffly.com was born. The company makes everything locally, including the cockpit, but also high quality, finely crafted adventuring dog gear. Jess and Greg built their company to make sure employees are well paid and safe. Most work from home, so they can also care for their families.

Meanwhile Jess, Greg, and Moxie continue to come up with new ideas and new ways to make a difference. What’s next? Raising funds for Girl Up, a nonprofit that helps girls all around the world become leaders in their local community.

The goal: raise $100,000 with a motorcycle trip around the world that will be chronicled on their YouTube channel. Along the way they will visit Girl Up clubs and 10% of all gear purchases from GoRuffly will go to their fundraiser.

About Jess Stone

Jess Stone has spent years helping people in the developing world, whether by working overseas with USAID, starting an ethically made outdoor dog gear company, or riding around the world to raise funds and awareness for Girl Up, a nonprofit that develops leadership skills in girls in all 50 states and 130 countries. Along with her husband and fellow aid worker, Greg, Stone is creator of the K9 Moto Cockpit, a unique way to carry your dog on your motorcycle.

https://goruffly.com/world-adventure

https://www.goruffly.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/Ruffly

https://www.instagram.com/goruffly/

https://www.facebook.com/goruffly

https://girlup.org/

About The Long Leash 

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You know that person at work who has a new idea every five minutes? Who says at least once a meeting, “I was thinking about it, and why don’t we…?”

That’s Ed Jamison. But he’s not some tech entrepreneur – he’s an expert in animal welfare with decades of government experience, and now the Director of Operation Kindness in Carrollton, Texas.

Ed joins us today to explain how he has used data to help governments revamp their animal control programs into animal welfare programs. He’s got a huge catalog of dog stories dating back decades to his days as a newbie Animal Warden in Ohio, where he convinced his bemused supervisors to try new methods to old problems by staying on budget. Or his time as Chief Animal Control Officer in Cleveland, where he rebranded both the agency (to Animal Welfare and Control) and the negative reputation of the city’s rescue pittie population to the very cool City Dogs.

Whether taking dogs out for jogs to leverage their need for exercise into positive marketing for pittbulls, showing up at any dog-friendly business with super awesome rescues, lowering euthanasia rates in Dallas (where he served as Director of Dallas Animal Services), starting a pet food bank for people in need, to literally saving lives – dog AND human – by reducing loose dogs on the street, Ed has been searching for leverage in animal welfare.

Stepping into the directorship of Operation Kindness makes Ed’s work, for the first time, non-governmental. Now that he has private support and funding for his big ideas, he’s able to help the already-pioneering 501c3 to help even more people. As the pandemic rages, he’s got the animals in mind – because as he points out, behind every animal in need, there is a human in need, too.

About Ed Jamison

Ed Jamison became CEO of Operation Kindness in March of 2021. Previously, Ed was Chief Animal Control Officer for the City of Cleveland. He then served as the Director of Dallas Animal Services (DAS), where he led a staff of more than 200 employees, rebuilt the volunteer base, and instituted new, progressive programming. The “Dallas 90” campaign was designed to help create a community where all people and animals are safe, treated with respect, and have access to the resources needed to thrive. Ed’s policies and programs have been copied all over the country. He is currently the President of Texas Unites, Vice President of the National Animal Care & Control Association, and Board Member for the Association of Animal Welfare Advancement and Shelter Animals Count. Ed’s love for animals means that he also has many pets at home, including a few foster fails. His pets include his dogs (Gurble and Esme), cats (Bertram, Deliah, Riley, Weston, Nestor, Merwin, Scrappy, and Kiwi), goldfish (Iragoo), cows (Cookie, Sprout, and Oliver), and miniature donkeys (Fern and Evie).

https://www.operationkindness.org/

https://twitter.com/opkindness

https://www.instagram.com/operationkindness/

https://www.facebook.com/OperationKindness/

https://www.youtube.com/user/OpKindness

https://www.linkedin.com/company/operation-kindness

https://www.tiktok.com/@operationkindness

About The Long Leash 

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Many folks assume that shelter dogs have something wrong with them, and that’s why they are there. But it’s not true.

Some shelter dogs are there only because their owners died without making provisions for their care … and no one stepped up to take them in.

With almost a million dogs euthanized every year in U.S. shelters, that’s a LOT of beloved family members who lose their parent, then get sent to a shelter, are not adopted (because they are too old, or have a pre-existing illness) … and are euthanized.

Kim Bressant-Kibwe, former Trusts & Estates Counsel for the ASPCA, joins us to have a frank and enlightening discussion about what exactly should be done now – today – to protect our pets in an unfortunate future.

According to the latest estimates, about 57% of U.S. households include at least one pet. And yet, only 20-25% of Americans have wills in place … and few of those have provisions in place for their beloved animal family members.

Bressant-Kibwe gives tips on whether to use a will or a trust, how specific your trust should be, how to interrogate a trusts and estate lawyer to determine if they will be able to protect your darling, why microchipping helps prevent fraud, and more.

Her overall message is forceful and convincing: we should be having hard conversations with ourselves and our trusted loved ones today, to protect our furbabies tomorrow.

About Kim Bressant-Kibwe

As the Trusts & Estates Counsel for the ASPCA from 1999 to 2016, Bressant-Kibwe was responsible for the administration of all charitable gifts directed to the ASPCA from national and international donors via their wills, trusts and estates. A Cornell undergrad who went to Georgetown for law school, she’s a passionate animal lover and tireless advocate for their welfare.

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/pet-planning/pet-trust-primer

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/pet-trusts.html

https://legacy.humanesociety.org/documents/h/humane-society-of-the-united-states/pets_in_wills_factsheet.pdf

https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/estate-planning-for-animal-lovers-pet-trusts-101

https://www.akcchf.org/how-to-help/donate/planned-giving/pet-trusts.html

About The Long Leash 

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