The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology

By Zazie Todd PhD and Kristi Benson CTCEducation Arts Books Kids & Family Pets & Animals

The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology episodes

May 23, 2023 Understanding resource guarding in dogs and how to fix it with Lisa Skavienski
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Resource Guarding in Dogs
We talk with Lisa about what resource guarding is and the body language that you should look for to spot it. People often have an emotional response to resource guarding—it can be a shock if your dog growls at you—and we talk about why you shouldn’t punish the growl and how to deal with those completely normal feelings.
We discuss how to fix resource guarding issues and why aversive methods are not the answer. Kristi and Zazie both share stories about their own dogs’ resource guarding behaviour, and we also talk about how to prevent it in the first place.
Finally, we talk about the books we are reading right now.
Lisa Skavienski is the owner of Dog Educated in Rochester, NY, where she specializes in classes, workshops, and private consultation for dog owners. She is deeply invested in animal welfare, participating at the local community level, as well as holding a seat on the Pet Professional Guild’s Shelter and Rescue Committee. Lisa studied with behavior expert Jean Donaldson at the highly acclaimed Academy for Dog Trainers. She is also a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer and Fear free certified.
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The books:
Zazie Todd's Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and her upcoming book Shiver.
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong was the Animal Book Club’s choice for February and March.
The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (Global Icons Series) by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams with Gail Hudson.
The Roller Derby Blueprint by Scott Meyer.
Still I Cannot Save You by Kelly S. Thompson.
Read highlights of the chat here.
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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
50 min
May 11, 2023 The importance of kindness in dog training with Jane Wolff
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Kindness in dog training
We talk with Jane about the importance of kindness in dog training, both kindness to dogs and kindness to people. We begin by talking about the most important ways to be kind to dogs. Jane specializes in working with clients whose dogs have separation anxiety, and we also talk about how to help people deal with this tricky issue without leaving their dog alone for any longer than they are okay with.
We also chat about Jane’s social justice work, and how that informs her dog training too.
And in the final section we talk about the books we are reading right now.
About Jane Wolff:
Jane Wolff is the co-owner of Good Wolff Dog Training in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She specializes in treating separation anxiety and is a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT). She also graduated with honours from the Academy for Dog Trainers (CTC) and is certified through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers as a CPDT-KA. She has been working with dogs professionally since 2014 and loves working with dogs and their people.
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Fresh and Fearless: Basic Grooming Made Easy, the course by Jane available on Kristi's website.
Pet Pals Mutual Aid
Books
Wonderdog: The Science of Dogs and Their Unique Friendship with Humans by Jules Howard is the Animal Book Club’s choice for November.
Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon by Bronwen Dickey.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.
Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney.
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
48 min
May 05, 2023 The benefits of tricks training for dogs and cats with Erica Beckwith
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Training Tricks with Your Dog (and Cat)
Teaching tricks to your dog is fun and cute, and a great way to improve the human-animal bond. Plus, you get to show off how adorable your pet is.
Erica Beckwith is the talented tricks trainer behind A Matter of Manners Dog Training, where she does behaviour consults for dogs and cats and runs online classes to teach a variety of tricks including peekaboo, sit pretty, chorus line kicks, and how to take a selfie with your dog.
Kristi Benson and I spoke to Erica about why she loves teaching tricks, where she finds the motivation to spend time working on tricks with her dogs, and what her favourite tricks are. As well, we get some tips on how to train your dog so that you can get a better selfie with them, and the things to consider when teaching tricks to your cat.
In news, Kristi’s courses now have CEUs available and there are some new courses coming soon. And Zazie will be teaching Making Pets Happy: The Role of Positive Experiences in Good Animal Welfare for the IAABC Foundation.
Plus, of course, in the final section we share the books we are reading right now.
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: A Matter of Manners Facebook Instagram
The schedule of Erica’s online tricks classes is here .
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 .
Making pets happy: The role of positive experiences in good animal welfare. IAABC Foundation, 24 September 2022, 1:00-4:10pm PDT.
The free Companion Animal Psychology newsletter.
The books we chat about:
Bitch: On The Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke is the Animal Book Club choice. Learn more about the Animal Book Club .
I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark.
Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter (Author), Dave Stevenson (Illustrator)
The Cat Who Saved Books: A Novel by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai.
The books are available from all good bookstores and Companion Animal Psychology’s Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/animalbookclub
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
43 min
May 03, 2023 Pets' names: How we choose them, how we use them, and how to change them
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Episode 5 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation sees Zazie and Kristi talk about the names we give our pets. We chat about how we choose them, what makes a good name, how we use our pets' names, how to change a pet's name, and whether they know their own and each other's names.
As well, we talk about the books the book club is reading right now and our own choices of books we love. (There may be some spoilers in this discussion).
Pet cats know their fellow cats' names, study shows (Psychology Today)
Our heroes by Jean Donaldson and Kristi Benson (The Academy for Dog Trainers)
Books:
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy by Zazie Todd
Plenty in Life is Free: Reflections on Dogs, Training and Finding Grace by Kathy Sdao
Happiness: A Novel by Aminatta Forna
Heroes Month is taking place at the Academy for Dog Trainers in June 2022. (On Facebook)
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
35 min
May 03, 2023 What's changed for pets--and what still needs to change with Jean Donaldson
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The Pawsitive Post In Conversation Ep 4 with special guest Jean Donaldson. #CAP10.
Zazie and Kristi are joined by Jean Donaldson, one of the world's top dog trainers, founder of the Academy for Dog Trainers, and author of Culture Clash. Zazie, Kristi, and Jean talk about what's changed for dogs over the last ten years: the move to reward-based dog training methods, increased enrichment, better education of pet guardians, and fear free veterinary care. As well, they talk about the changes they would still like to see happen.
They also talk about Dog Training 101, a 24-lesson course that Jean wrote for The Great Courses, and what students can expect from The Academy for Dog Trainers.
In the final section, they share the books they are reading right now.
Academy for Dog Trainers: https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/
The Great Courses: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/ (put 'dog' in the search bar and Dog Training 101 will come up)
Kristi Benson: http://www.kristibenson.com/
Companion Animal Psychology: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/
Books:
Life's Edge: The Search for What it Means to Be Alive by Carl Zimmer
The Anglo Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400-1066 by Marc Morris
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel
Alfabet/Alphabet: A Memoir of a First Language by Sadiqa de Meijer
Companion Animal Psychology's Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/animalbookclub
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
48 min
May 03, 2023 How to counter misinformation about dogs and cats with truth sandwiches
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we talk about countering misinformation about dogs and cats with truth sandwiches. We run through some myths about dog training and cat behaviour, talk about why they are wrong, and figure out some truth sandwiches to help correct the misinformation.
We consider:
why it’s wrong to take a dominance approach to dog training
why we should use positive reinforcement rather than punishment in dog training
the myth that dogs should just fit into our lives
and why cats need to scratch.
We also talk about the (then) upcoming Management Month at the Academy for Dog Trainers, which is all about celebrating how you can sometimes use management instead of training to solve dog behaviour issues. As part of Companion Animal Psychology’s tenth anniversary celebrations, you can come to Reading Cats and Dogs: A Conversation with Lili Chin, Sassafras Lowrey, and Zazie Todd. The three authors will be reading from their books (Doggie Language, Chew This Journal, and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy) and in conversation with Kristi Benson.
Plus, in our regular slot at the end of the conversation, Kristi and I talk about the books we’re reading right now.
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
45 min
May 03, 2023 Good habits and resolutions for dog and cat guardians and writers
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We talk about New Year's Resolutions, habits that are a good idea for pet guardians, helping dogs and cats cope with winter, grooming dogs and cats, writing habits, and what we're reading right now.
The books mentioned:
A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of dogs in a World Without Humans by Jessice Pierce and Marc Bekoff
The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It by W. Chris Winter
How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
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
36 min
May 02, 2023 Genius dogs and talking dogs
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We chat about the Genius Dog Challenge, where scientists are finding dogs who know a lot of words, and Stella the dog who learned to use buttons to communicate. We also talk about the words and behaviours our own dogs and cats know--and the behaviours we think are important for every pet to know.
Kristi tells us about her courses for people who need help with their dog jumping up or housetraining.
And finally we chat about the books we're reading.
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
43 min
May 02, 2023 Introduction to The Pawsitive Post in Conversation
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Meet Zazie Todd and Kristi Benson, the hosts of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation, as they chat about dogs and cats.
This podcast is for anyone who wants to learn more about how to have a better relationship with their dog or cat. We'll focus on dog and cat behaviour and training. Whether you are a dog person or a cat person, there will be something for you to enjoy.
We chat about how we first met via The Academy for Dog Trainers and the expertise that we bring to this topic, as well as what to expect from future episodes. Everything we do is infused by a few core principles. Reward-based training methods are effective and better for dog and cat welfare. Management is often a part of the solution for behaviour issues. And enrichment helps to ensure that we're meeting our dogs' and cats' needs.
Towards the end of each show we will be sharing the books we're reading, as well as the book choices of the Animal Book Club, which can be about dogs, cats, or other animals--including humans. When we have special guests, they will also share with us what they are reading. The book recommendations can be any kind of book--not just nonfiction, but fiction, poetry, graphic novels... whichever books we happen to love.
You can learn more about Zazie at https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/ (which is also where you'll find the show notes) and about Kristi (including her online courses) at http://www.kristibenson.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
12 min

About The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology

From the publisher's feed

The show about how to have a better relationship with your dog or cat. Get tips on dog training, dog behaviour, cat behaviour and training, learn about the science on dogs and cats, and find out…