We talk about the real world of conservation dogs and the fictional world of FBI dogs and conservation canines with Jen J. Danna, who writes under the name Sara Driscoll. Deadly Trade is the latest FBI K-9 mystery from author Sara Driscoll. K-9 handler Meg Jennings can never walk away from her job, even amid her Hawaiian Islands honeymoon, where she and her search-and-rescue black Lab encounter a double threat from wildlife poachers and Mother Nature.

We talked about:

• The work of conservation dogs and what they do on the Hawaiian islands
• Why Sara was inspired to write about conservation canines in Deadly Trade
• How to write about dogs as characters in their own right
• The kind of training that Hawk, the FBI canine, and the conservation dogs in the book would go through in real life
• How the dogs influence the success of the mission
• How Hawk picks up on things his handler, Meg, can't
• Why Sara chose to write about endangered birds
• What it's like writing with a co-author
• And as always, we ask for a book recommendation!

Deadly Trade is published on 28th October 2025 and is available from all good bookstores.

Sara Driscoll is the pen name of Jen J. Danna, coauthor of the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries and author of the FBI K-9 Mysteries and NYPD Negotiators series. After over 30 years in infectious diseases research, Jen hung up her lab coat to concentrate on her real love—writing “exceptional” thrillers (Publishers Weekly). She is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada and lives with her husband and four rescued cats outside of Toronto, Ontario. 

Learn more about Sara Driscoll on her websites, saradriscollauthor.com and https://jenjdanna.com/.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Away to Me by Patricia McConnell PhD will be published in February 2026 and is available for pre-order now
• You can hear Patricia McConnell talking about the book at 2024's Bark! Fest, which is available as a previous episode of this podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/16149739
• Learn about the work of historical scent detection dogs in an episode with Kim Cooper and Cat Warren https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/17384889 
• The Hawaiian crow is the ‘Alalā. Learn about the ‘Alalā project https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/alalaproject/ 

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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.

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Demand barking is a type of barking that dogs do to get something they want, like a treat, toy, or attention. It happens because we've previously (accidentally) rewarded them for it. So what should you do if your dog is demand barking?

In this episode, we talk about:

• How dogs bark for different reasons, including watchdog barking and barking due to fear
• What demand barking is
• Why the phrase "demand barking" is actually a bit of a misnomer
• We give examples of demand barking, including when Zazie's dog Pepper does this
• We share ideas and tips for what to do about it
• Kristi talks about why she set up a course on this and what's included
• And finally we talk about the books we're reading.

The books we recommend in this episode are:

• Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die by Korttany Finn and Jacquie Purcell
• Junie: A Novel by Chelene Knight

Also mentioned in this episode:

• The episode on harmonious multidog households and resource guarding in dogs https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/17835523
• The episode on how to help your reactive or fearful dog https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/17695165
• The Hogan's Alley Society https://www.hogansalleysociety.org/

Learn more about Kristi Benson and her courses: https://www.kristibenson.com/

Learn more about Zazie Todd: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/p/home.html

Get Zazie's books from all good bookstores or here: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/p/books.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.

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Dog sports are fun activities for you and your dog, but with so many to choose from, it can feel daunting to get started. We demystify dog sports with trainer Ayoka Bubar, a Rally Obedience judge who has taught (and tried) many different sports. She shares the details and tells us how to match sports to dogs.

We talked about:

• Why Ayoka loves dog sports
• Why dog sports are good for dogs
• We get examples: rally o, tricks training, barn hunt, and carting
• Which kinds of dogs and people these sports are best for
• The best place to start if someone is interested in trying a dog sport
• The role of a dog's breed in choosing a dog sport
• Which dog sports are suitable for reactive and fearful dogs
• What Ayoka has learned from doing so many different dog sports
• The kind of community that is found amongst dog sports people
• And as always, we get a book recommendation

Ayoka chose Atomic Habits by James Clear as her book choice.

Ayoka Bubar is an approved judge for the Canadian Association of Rally Obedience and she never passes up an opportunity to try a new sport with her Rottweilers. She has trained or trialed in Flyball, Agility, Tracking, Trick Titling, Herding, Rally Obedience, Mondioring, IGP, and Scentwork, so she is the perfect person to tell us about dog sports. As well, Ayoka believes that dog training should be fun for dogs and their humans, which we love to hear. And she likes to use positive reinforcement techniques to help handlers communicate more effectively with their dogs.

Learn more and get details of classes at https://ayokabubar.com/

Ayoka on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ayoka.bubar

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theogrottendog/ 

Also mentioned in this episode:

Bark! The Science of Making Your Dog Happy by Zazie Todd. Available wherever books are sold. 

Tricks classes by Erica Beckwith of A Matter of Manners Dog Training https://www.amatterofmannersdogtraining.com/

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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.

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The benefits of having more than one dog and what you should do to ensure everyone gets along. We talk about:

• How having another dog in the home can be beneficial for a dog
• How it can cause issues
• Disagreements between dogs are normal, just like people disagree
• What kind of disagreement is okay
• The mistake many people make which makes things worse
• How to make sure resources aren't a source of stress
• How to deal with dog fights and break them up
• Management can be life-saving for multi-dog homes
• On the fly training for polite interactions
• And as always, we recommend some books

The books recommended in this episode are:

How to P*** Off Men: 109 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego by Kyle Prue

Birds of Coastal British Columbia by Nancy Baron and John Acorn

This episode topic was suggested by a listener. If you have ideas for things you'd like us to talk about, let us know!

Send us a text to say hello!

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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.

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Content warning: Suicidal ideation comes up in this conversation. Help is available. In Canada or the US, call or text 988 for the suicide crisis helpline. In the UK, the Samaritans are on 116 123. 

When a cute puppy turns into a terrible teen, many people struggle. Tina Spring of Sit Happens joins us to talk about adolescent canines and how she helps people with their teenage dog in a place where many pups miss out on puppy class. Tina is also the smart, funny, and kind host of Your Family Dog podcast.

We talked about:

• the importance of puppy class and how to socialize your puppy
• why Tina offers an adolescent puppy class
• the issues that people have as their puppy becomes a teen
• the importance of food treats and seeing things through your puppy's eyes
• what Tina says when people are struggling with their adolescent dog
• similarities between parenting teenage puppies and teenage humans
• burnout and trauma in dog training
• Your Family Dog podcast and how Tina got involved

Zazie Todd and Marc Bekoff on Your Family Dog 

Zazie on YFD to talk about anxious dogs  and happy dogs 

The Beast Keepers by Julie Fudge Smith 

Colleen Pelar https://colleenpelar.com/

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell.

The full show notes and transcript are available here: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2025/09/teenage-dogs-and-what-to-do-about-them.html

Tina Spring started training dogs as a child in 1979 in 4H. Her love of dogs and of teaching led her to a career working with dogs and families. She published her first book, 90 Days to the Perfect Puppy, in 2005 and it’s now part of her online puppy rearing program that bears the same name. She is the owner of Sit Happens Dog Training & Behavior, LLC in Athens, Georgia, where she does in person and online consults and specializes in fear and aggression and the special relationships between kids & dogs. She’s also the co-host of the Your Family Dog podcast, which is a really fun and excellent podcast.

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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.

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If a dog is reactive, fearful, or anxious, often the dog is struggling--and so is their person. We share tips to help you to help your fearful dog, from the first chapter of Zazie's book Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog. Bark! is out now in paperback and available wherever books are sold.

Get Bark!: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/p/books.html 

We talked about:

• How important it is to recognize the signs of stress in dogs
• Your priority is to help your dog feel safe
• Pick a food your dog really loves that you can use to teach them to like the thing they are scared of
• The kinds of food that are best
• How to be prepared and make sure you have those tasty treats to hand
• How to bridge and fridge
• The importance of finding activities that both you and your dog love
• Kristi and Zazie each share a story of a time something unexpected happened and they had treats to hand
• And finally we talked about the books we're reading.

The books we mention in this episode:

• The Beaverton podcast (okay, it's a podcast!)
• The Home Cookbook, 125th anniversary edition
• Otter by Jackie Morris

Also mentioned is a study on how people spot signs of stress in dogs interacting with children. You can read about it here: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2017/05/people-mistakenly-think-anxious-dogs.html

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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.

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What's a veterinarian's view on dog training methods? And if your pet is terrified of going to the vet, how can they help? We find out from an amazing veterinarian, Dr. Adrian Walton of Dewdney Animal Hospital in Maple Ridge, BC.

We talked about:

• Dr. Walton’s position on dog training methods, and his experience of so-called “balanced” trainers
• How he trained sealions at the Toronto Zoo with a whistle and a bucket of fish
• How a large lizard ended up at his clinic and what his technician taught the Nile monitor to do
• How we know that lizards can count
• The difference that medication can make for pets who are scared at the vet
• How pain can affect pets’ behaviour
• What it’s like working with exotic animals
• The best pet to get for your kid
• And Dr. Walton recommends the books he’s been reading

The books:

• Invertebrate Medicine by Gregory A Lewbart
• Boat Camping in Haida Gwaii by Neil Frazer

Dr. Adrian Walton is the owner of Dewdney Animal Hospital in Maple Ridge, BC. He’s a graduate of University of Guelph and has degrees in Marine Biology from Dalhousie University and a Masters Degree from Simon Fraser University. Prior to moving to Maple Ridge he was an emergency veterinarian in Seattle. His area of interest is exotic animal medicine and spends a lot of his spare time helping abandoned and neglected reptiles and exotics find forever homes.

Website: https://dewdneyvet.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dewdneyvet/

See the videos of the lizard and its training on Youtube here https://youtu.be/LD75UntRMwI?t=789 (and again at 19.25). The lizard video is courtesy of Dr. Adrian Walton.

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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.

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Writers talk about what brings them hope for the human-dog, human-cat, and human-animal bond.

This is a bonus episode featuring Patricia McConnell PhD, Jean Donaldson, Marc Bekoff PhD, and all of the writers who took part in Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers. Together they share their insights on what is cause for hope. Bark! Fest celebrated the launch of my book Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, which is out now.

A few years back, I heard one of my favourite authors speak at an online literary festival. Amin Maalouf is a member of the Academie Francaise and the author of novels including Samarkand and The Rock of Tanios. He said, “I think the duty of a writer is to have lucidity and hope. If you spread despair, it’s best not to speak at all.” So that's what made me think to ask this question of everyone.

You can find recordings of the full panel discussions in our back catalogue.

The authors and their books:

Patricia B. McConnell: The Education of Will and The Other End of the Leash.

Jean Donaldson: The Culture Clash.

Zazie Todd PhD: Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog.  

Marc Bekoff, PhD: Dogs Demystified and The Emotional Lives of Animals.

Cat Warren: What the Dog Knows.  

Alexis Devine: I Am Bunny.  

Teresa J. Rhyne: Poppy in the Wild. 

Lili Chin: Kitty Language.

Mikel Delgado PhD: Play With Your Cat! .

Lucy Hoile: the book your cat wishes you would read.  

Pilley Bianchi: For the Love of Dog, illustrated by Calum Heath.

Wendy Lyons Sunshine: Tender Paws.

Carri Westgarth PhD: The Happy Dog Owner.  

Antony Johnston: The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead.

Louisa Scarr: Gallows Wood.  

Philipp Schott DVM: Eleven Huskies: A Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery.  

Sarah Chauncey: P.S. I Love You More Than Tuna, illustrated by Francis Tremblay.  

Sassafras Patterdale (Lowrey): Claw This Journal.

Rachel Wells: Alfie the Christmas Cat.  

E.B. Bartels: Good Grief.

Rev. Sarah A. Bowen: Sacred Sendoffs.

Karen Fine DVM: The Other Family Doctor.  

Kristi Benson.

Finding hope in dog training and animal behaviour (Psych Today) https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/fellow-creatures/202103/finding-hope-in-dog-training-and-animal-behavior

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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.

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As we take a summer break, we're replaying this fun and fantastic interview with Erica Beckwith of A Matter of Manners dog training about the benefits of tricks training for dogs and cats.

We talked about:

• the benefits of tricks training
• how tricks training can help you love your pet even more
• how Erica got into training tricks
• Erica's favourite tricks to teach others in classes
• tips on how to take a selfie with your dog
• how to find the right reinforcement for your cat, and the right way to deliver that reinforcement

This episode was first published in 2022.

About Erica Beckwith: Erica Beckwith of A Matter of Manners Dog Training in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Erica is an amazing positive reinforcement trainer who first got into dogs as a volunteer at Busan Abandoned Pet Sanctuary in South Korea. After moving back to America, Erica studied at the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers where she got her CTC. Erica is also a CBCC-KA and a Fear Free certified professional. Erica loves cats too, and earlier this year she graduated with a certificate in Advanced Feline behaviour for Cat Professionals with Distinction from International Cat Care.

Website: https://www.amatterofmannersdogtraining.com/ 

See Erica’s dogs (including Ruckus and the trumpet) in the video Yes Sir, That’s My Baby from The Academy for Dog Trainers.  

Kristi Benson’s website and courses: http://www.kristibenson.com/

Zazie Todd's book Purr includes a training plan to teach your cat to go into their carrier and to teach them to sit pretty. Purr, Wag, and Bark! are available wherever books are sold.

Send us a text to say hello!

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.

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Dogs have incredible noses, and can trained to search for the scent of human remains, bringing closure to those who are grieving and the opportunity to memorialize. As well as recent remains, they can also search for historic remains. We're joined by two experts in the field, Kim Cooper of Ottawa Valley Search and Rescue, and Cat Warren, author of the NYT-bestseller What the Dog Knows, to learn more about these dogs and the work that they do.

We talk about:

• How Kim and Cat got started in working with human remains detection dogs and how the dogs are trained
• Historic human remains detection dogs
• How these dogs can help with searches at the sites of former residential schools in Canada
• The emotional side of a search from the handler's perspective and the skills a handler needs to work with communities
• Working with communities and the role of oral history in historical searches
• What type of dog is best suited to this work (breed, personality, size, etc.)
• And finally, we talk about the books we're reading

The books we recommend:

• The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods
• Native Nations: A Millenium in North America by Kathleen DuVal
• Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula Le Guin
• Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures by Katherine Rundell

Also mentioned:

• The work in Croatia is described in this article by Cat Warren https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/dog-archaeology-ancient-human-remains-bones-croatia-a9522776.html
• Cat Warren at Bark! Fest (with Marc Bekoff and Zazie Todd) https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/16276537

Cat Warren's books are What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World, and the Young Reader's Edition of What the Dog Knows. They are available wherever books are sold.

Learn more about Kim Cooper on the Ottawa Valley Search and Rescue Dog Association website: https://www.ovsarda.on.ca/

Learn more about Cat Warren: https://

Send us a text to say hello!

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.

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