The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology

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This episode is in honour of two very special cats who are no longer with us: Kristi's cat Apricat and my cat Melina, both of whom passed this autumn. It's a replay of our conversation about cat husbandry that first aired in 2023. (The other cat mentioned in this episode, Harley, passed in 2024).

In this episode we chat about how to groom your cat and how to deal with mats, as well as how to trim your cat’s nails. We discuss the many reasons why it’s important not to “declaw” your cat and how it’s really like an amputation. Scratching is a natural behavior for cats and we talk about the kind of post to provide to keep your cat happy.

We also discuss the tricky topic of how to give meds to your cats, including pilling, towel-wrapping, and tricks to make meds easier. Along the way we share stories about our own cats and of course a few tips for dogs as well.

At the end we chat about the books we’re reading. 

Useful links:-

Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy by Zazie Todd is available from all good bookstores.

All of the books mentioned in the episode are available from my Amazon store. 

The Paw Project: Cats’ paws need their claws https://pawproject.org/

BC’s 2018 ban on declawing cats was good news for cats, study shows

What kind of scratching post do cats prefer?

Caring for a diabetic cat gets easier with time, study shows

How to give your cat an insulin injection (iCatCare) 

How to train your cat to use an asthma inhaler

Teach any cat AeroKat (iCatCare) 

How to clip your cat’s claws (iCatCare) 

Two people giving a cat a pill (iCatCare) 

Medicating tips and tricks (Fundamentally Feline) 

Comfort cats in a towel wrap (Dr. Sophia Yin) 

Fresh and Fearless: Basic Grooming Made Easy (Kristi Benson)

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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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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Dr. Cliff Redford, known as the “Worldwide Vet,” has been passionate about animals since childhood. He joined Zazie and Kristi to talk about his adventures and his new book, Far and Wild.

We talked about:

• How Dr. Cliff started volunteering as a veterinarian
• Dr. Cliff shared some of the stories from the book, including of a monkey that he helped in India
• The street cats of Athens
• One-eyed Jack
• Helping Ukrainians to take their pets with them when they fled at the start of Russia's war on Ukraine
• What it's like working with a wide range of species
• Writing about veterinary procedures for a general audience
• What he's learned about the human-animal relationship
• The book Dr. Cliff recommended is Cujo by Stephen King

Dr. Cliff Redford, known as the “Worldwide Vet,” has been passionate about animals since childhood. After graduating from Ontario Veterinary College in 1998, he opened Wellington Veterinary Hospital in Markham, Ontario, where he still practices today. Beyond domestic pets, Dr. Cliff volunteers globally, treating wildlife and working with local animal rescues.

Far and Wild: Adventures of the Worldwide Vet is just published and available wherever books are sold.

The Far and Wild website: https://farandwild.ca/

Dr. Cliff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcliffworldwidevet/

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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Kristi and Zazie chat about the need to be positive when talking about dog training and cat behaviour, and how they cope when someone is wrong on the internet.

We talked about:

• The value of positive reinforcement, and gratitude for the positive reinforcement we get for the podcast
• How to cope when someone is badly wrong on the internet and the post takes off
• The idea of a DRI for ourselves: differential reinforcement of an incompatible behaviour 
• The idea of a revenge blog and how we have both written some of them
• The value of likes, comments, and shares on social media and the difference they can make to the algorithm
• The need to stay informed about science and the scientific process

Also mentioned in this show:

• Ep65 on bothsidesism https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/19661849
• Ep61 How to evaluate the scientific research on dogs and cats https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/19388459
• Kristi's blog post on good alternatives to e-fencing: https://www.kristibenson.com/blog/2019/11/4/good-alternatives-to-e-fencing-dog-training-experts-weigh-in
• Zazie's blog post on science communication: To promote positive reinforcement on dog training, teach, engage, and amplify https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2019/06/to-promote-positive-reinforcement-dog.html
• Zazie's post on why it's dogs' happiness, not obedience, that counts: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/fellow-creatures/202004/why-dogs-happiness-not-obedience-is-what-counts

The books we recommend in this episode are:

• Memorial Park by Louisa Scarr
• Starter Dog: My Path to Joy, Belonging, and Loving this World by Rona Maynard

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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Tamsin Pickeral's new book, The Invention of the Dog: 75 Breeds that Changed the World is a fascinating, touching, and beautifully illustrated account of where our beloved dogs come from. Tamsin joined Zazie and Kristi to chat about the book.

We talked about:

• How the book came about, and what it was like selecting the artwork to be included in the book
• Then we look at 3 very different breeds, starting with the history of the Shih Tzu
• The history of the Bernese Mountain Dog
• The history of the Yorkshire Terrier
• How dog breeds became so different
• Tamsin's favourite image from the book
• Why dogs are so successful
• The domestication of the dog
• The depiction of dogs in art and how their appearance has changed over the years
• And finally, we asked Tamsin to recommend a book to us

The Invention of the Dog: 75 Breeds that Changed the World is out now and available wherever books are sold.

The book that Tamsin recommended to us is Fairy Tale by Stephen King.

Tamsin Pickeral is an animal specialist and an art historian. She is an internationally published author who has written several acclaimed books on animal themes. Her new book, The Invention of the Dog, is just published and tells the true stories of some of our favourite dog breeds.

Learn more about Tamsin at https://tamsinpickeral.com/

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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Zazie and Kristi chat with Susannah Fullerton about her delightful book, Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them.

We talk about:

• whether there is a special affiliation between writers and cats
• how Susannah chose the writers to include in the book
• some famous cats, including Hodge, who was a very fine cat indeed
• Daffy, the cat who knew Anne of Green Gables before anyone else
• why TS Eliot doesn't get a whole chapter despite inspiring the musical Cats
• Dorothy L Sayers' cat Blitz
• what the writers' accounts of their cats tell us about how the human-feline relationship has changed over the years
• we get some of Susannah's favourite titbits from the book and ask which is her favourite cat
• we learn about Susannah's upcoming book, Great Writers and the Dogs Who Loved Them
• and finally we ask what she's been reading

You can see examples of Edward Lear's drawings of his cat Foss in this post on Susannah's website: https://susannahfullerton.com.au/literary-pets-foss-the-cat/

The book Susannah recommended to us is Anne's Cradle: The Life and Works of Hanako Muraoka, Japanese Translate of Anne of Green Gables by Eri Muraoka and Cathy Hirano.

Susannah Fullerton is Sydney’s most highly regarded literary historian and lecturer. She is a leading authority on 19th and 20th-century writers with a special interest in Jane Austen. She brings to life the lives and writings of great writers with fascinating talks and in literary tours around the world. In 2017 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to literature.

She's the author of Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them, which is available wherever books are sold.

Learn more and sign up for her newsletter at https://susannahfullerton.com.au/

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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Zazie and Kristi chat about what we can do to better advocate for reward-based dog training methods, and some common things that people get wrong.

We talk about:

• The podcast Kristi heard by Rachel Gilmore and why it made her want to talk about this topic
• Why reward-based dog training methods are better for dogs and their people
• Bothsidesism, and how portraying the use of aversive methods as normal and just another side of the argument is potentially damaging
• How we can use a truth sandwich to counter myths about dog training
• What the Overton window is and how it relates to conversations about dog training methods
• Treviño's degrees of acceptance and how positive reinforcement dog training went from radical to sensible to popular

If you want to listen to some truth sandwiches about dog training and cat behaviour, check out episode 3 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/12778186

The books we recommended in this episode are:

• By Strength We Are Still Here by Crystal Gail Fraser
• Pugs and Kisses by Farrah Rochon

You can listen to Farrah Rochon talk about Pugs and Kisses in the romance panel at Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers, where she's joined by Julie Howarth (New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe) and Nicola Knight (Washed Up). Save your spot here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5917869995632/WN_svRTPtHARD-_BrgsmER6WA

And check out all of the Bark! Fest panels at https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/p/home.html

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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Marc Bekoff, PhD, joins Zazie and Kristi to talk about his new book Love in Their Hearts, his work (and upcoming book) with Jane Goodall, and what it's like studying canids.

We talked about:

• Why Marc and his co-author Jeff Campbell wrote Love In Their Hearts
• The time Marc's dog Jethro rescued a baby bunny, and stories of the grizzly bear known as 399
• The importance of naming animals
• Marc's research on dogs, wolves, coyotes, and foxes, and how his work replaced theories of dominance leading to the dissolution of litters in the wild
• How animals tell stories
• Marc's work with Jane Goodall, how he first heard of her, and how she influenced his work
• The educator's kit that goes with Love In Their Hearts and how it can inspire hope and activism in young readers

The book Marc recommended is Knowing Wonder: An Elephant Story by Merrill Sapp illustrated by Gareth Hooks. You can read Marc's interview with Merrill Sapp here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/202412/an-elephants-world-from-the-mind-and-heart-of-a-matriarch

Love In Their Hearts: A Celebration of Animal Emotions and a Guide to Compassionate Action is by Marc Bekoff and Jeff Campbell.

Every Elephant Has a Name by Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff illustrated by Gavin Scott will be published on Feb 8, 2027.

Marc Bekoff will be at Bark! Fest to talk about Love In Their Hearts on Sep 23, joining Alison Pearce Stevens (Detective Dogs). Sign up here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1317856369316/WN_QnjJGASbSvyWmpRL-mp1lQ

Find out more about Bark! Fest and sign up for the other events at companionanimalpsychology.com

Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has won many awards for his research and writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society. He writes regularly for Psychology Today and has published more than thirty books, including The Emotional Lives of Animals and numerous scientific and popular essays. Visit marcbekoff.com to learn more.

Find Marc's Psych Today blog here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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How can we set and maintain standards for dog training and animal behaviour? Zazie and Kristi are joined by Fiona Cooke, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council to learn all about their important work in the UK, and what anyone can do if they want to make a difference.

We talked about:

• What the ABTC does
• Why it's so important to follow a compassionate, non-punitive approach in training and animal behaviour
• The wide range of organizations who are part of the ABTC (and how they represent people who work with dogs, cats, horses, and exotics)
• The benefits of being on the ABTC register for practitioners in the UK, and how the public can use it to find a good trainer or behaviourist
• We get a sneak peek of what the ABTC is working on right now
• The importance of collaboration and how people can increase awareness of the ABTC and support their work
• We get Fiona's tips on what people can do to make a difference
• And finally we find out what Fiona's been reading, which turns out to include an instruction booklet for building a wardrobe!

The books Fiona recommends are The Secret Hour by Mick Herron and also his Slough House series, of which the first is Slow Horses.

The Animal Behaviour and Training Council sets and maintains standards of knowledge and practical skills needed to be an animal trainer, training instructor or animal behaviour therapist and maintains the national Register of appropriately assessed practitioners.

ABTC members include major animal welfare charities, organisations concerned with human-animal interactions, educational institutions and membership organisations for practitioners. The Council represents the training and behaviour sector to the public and to governments.

Visit the ABTC website: https://abtc.org.uk/

Sponsor the ABTC: https://abtc.org.uk/sponsors/

ABTC merch: https://shop.abtc.org.uk/

Fiona Cooke is Chair of the ABTC Board of Trustees. She is Head of Specialist Services (vet, behaviour, training and research) at Woodgreen Pets Charity. Her PhD focused on the role of local government in the implementation and enforcement of animal welfare legislation. She is a lecturer in law and runs an animal behaviour company working with complex behavioural issues of dogs and cats. Fiona is a full member of the APBC and FABC as well as an ABTC registered CAB.

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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Zazie and Kristi chat with scientist Dr. Catherine Reeve about her research to find out whether dogs change their behaviour when their owner is pregnant and if they can use their noses to detect when someone is stressed.

We talked about:

• The survey that investigated whether women think their dog's behaviour changed when they were pregnant
• The kinds of dogs that were most likely to show changes
• How the scientists got scent samples from people who were stressed
• The training to teach dogs to alert to the scent
• How well the dogs did at the task
• The implications for ordinary dog guardians

The papers we talked about are:

• Dog owners’ perceptions of their dog’s behaviour during pregnancy https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2025.2502241
• Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274143

The books Catherine recommended are The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry and The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica.

Also mentioned: Earlier episodes on surveys and understanding research (Ep61), and on dogs and scent work (Ep56 with Melissa McCue-McGrath; Ep 46 with Bonnie Hartney; Ep35 with Kim Cooper and Cat Warren).

Dr. Catherine Reeve is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Mount Saint Vincent University. She has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Dalhousie University. She’s interested in applied canine behaviour, canine cognition, especially olfaction, and human-animal interaction. And she’s the head trainer at Epic Tails Canine Adventures in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

University website: https://www.msvu.ca/academics/bachelor-of-science-bsc/psychology/faculty-and-staff/dr-catherine-reeve/

Epic Tails Canine Adventures: https://epic-tails.ca/

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky 

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New research on dogs and cats helps us to understand them better and give them better lives. But how do we know if the research is any good, and what about our feelings about the results? Zazie and Kristi chat about how to evaluate the science.

We talk about:

• Taking an ethical stance on dogs and cats that recognizes that they are sentient beings
• How it can be tricky to assess research if you're not trained as a scientist
• The research on training methods shows risks to using aversives and that it's much better to only use reward-based training methods
• Why we look for more than one study to teach us something
• We consider different types of research, including the value of questionnaire studies and of experiments
• What a meta-analysis is
• How it can feel emotional if you don't like the results of a particular study
• People's willingness to take part in research
• A re-evaluation of a classic study on spanking children that is relevant to the discussion
• And finally we talk about the books we're reading

The books we recommend this time are:

• People, Places, Things by Chuck Palahniuk
• New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe by Julie Haworth

Also mentioned is Zazie's post about a literature review on dog training methods: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2017/04/new-literature-review-recommends-reward.html

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. 

Instagram  BlueSky