UNLEASHED (at work & home) with Colleen Pelar

Victoria Gideon teaches people how to train their dogs to hunt culinary truffles, and she opens every class by telling students the truffle isn't the point. Listen in as she explains what is, and why the trust that matters most runs from your dog to you. Her road to this work took more turns than most, and she's found that every stop gave her something she still draws on as a trainer. If you've ever felt judged for doing things your own way, Victoria's thoughts on permission may land closer to home than you expect.

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Jamie Thompson, a social worker and owner of Grow and Connect Therapy, has spent her career supporting people, including that special group of people who love animals with complex behavioral or medical needs. Drawing on her own experience caring for a reactive dog through his final years, Jamie explores anticipatory grief, the guilt and shame that follow a pet's death, and Thich Nhat Hanh's five remembrances as a way of staying present with a beloved animal. She and Colleen also talk about why animal welfare workers deserve recognition as first responders, and how human welfare and animal welfare are impossible to separate.

https://colleenpelar.com/172-jamie-thompson-lcsw

Sami Griffin, owner of Wise Whiskers Training, specializes in fear, anxiety, and aggression cases in cats and dogs — often with clients who are queer and/or neurodivergent and haven't always felt supported by other trainers. In this conversation, Sami traces their path from veterinary technician and shelter foster coordinator to running their own practice, and talks about "loving curiosity" (a concept they borrowed from philosopher Maria Lugones), locus of control, and why they stopped trying to "fix" things and started just helping.

https://colleenpelar.com/171-sami-griffin-kpa-ctp-cbcc-ka

Allie Bender, co-owner of Pet Harmony Training and co-author of Canine Enrichment for the Real World, has spent twenty years untangling complex animal behavior cases — and along the way, discovered that the human on the other end of the leash matters just as much as the dog. In this conversation, Allie traces her path from an animal-obsessed thirteen-year-old to a business owner mentoring other professionals, and shares what shifted when she stopped assuming there's one right answer. She and Colleen dig into critical thinking, mentorship, and why community, not more credentials, might be what the industry actually needs.

https://colleenpelar.com/170-allie-bender-cdbc

Eileen Anderson resists easy labels—she’s a dog writer, a passionate amateur, and the person most likely to tell you that the product promising your dog silence during a thunderstorm is working against physics. In this conversation, Eileen shares how a difficult dog pulled her out of a doctoral program and into behavior science, why most sound-dampening products can’t deliver what they promise, and how the simple reframe—your dog is not giving you a hard time, your dog is having a hard time—changed everything about how she understood the animals in her care. A generous, curious, and occasionally myth-busting conversation about dogs, sound, and the people who love them.

https://colleenpelar.com/169-eileen-anderson-mm-ms

Debbie Sheridan has spent her career helping people understand fearful dogs—and unlearning the idea that "obedience" is the goal. As the owner of Debbie's for Dogs, a certified end-of-life doula for companion animals, and a dog bite prevention educator, Debbie brings warmth, directness, and a deep respect for what dogs are actually communicating. In this conversation, she talks about the message on her favorite sweatshirt ("celebrate the growl"), why she asks clients to replace "sit" with "wait," and how kindness isn't just a philosophy, but a practice she traces back to sixth grade.

https://colleenpelar.com/168-debbie-sheridan-uw-aab

Liz Clarke spent decades zigzagging through careers — nursing, witness care, celebrity coaching, travel — before a week in Bulgaria stretched into three months and a street dog named Kathleen changed the direction of her life. Now the founder of Kathleen's Paws, Liz supports animal rescuers and expats in Bulgaria through advocacy, education, and the kind of behind-the-scenes work that frontline rescuers rarely have time to do themselves. In this conversation, she talks about following the signals her body knew before her brain caught up, learning to hold regret loosely, and why she believes animal welfare workers deserve to be recognized — and supported — the way other frontline services are.

https://colleenpelar.com/167-liz-clarke

Jenny Roberts has spent years doing the invisible work that holds a veterinary practice together. As a customer service representative (CSR) at Partners Animal Hospital of Asheville, she's the person who answers the call when someone's pet might be in crisis, who notices the doctor hasn't called back, who makes sure the schedule doesn't quietly implode. In this conversation, Jenny talks about what the CSR role actually involves, why she fell into it by accident and fell in love with it by surprise, and what she's learned about meeting people — and herself — where they are. She also shares the phrase that guides her work with clients: everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

https://colleenpelar.com/166-jenny-roberts

Valerie Bogie spent sixteen years training animals in zoos and aquariums before a convergence of burnout, a cross-country move, and a chance connection led her to veterinary social work. Now she splits her week between animal behavior consulting at a board-certified behaviorist practice and her own business supporting veterinary and pet professionals navigating caregiver burden. In this conversation, Valerie and Colleen explore what happens when the same attunement that makes someone an exceptional animal trainer gets applied to the humans in the room — and why pet professionals may already know more about human behavior than they think.

https://colleenpelar.com/165-valerie-bogie-mssw-vsw-ffcp

Holden Svirsky came to animal behavior sideways — through a layoff, a shelter volunteer shift, and the slow realization that what she'd studied about human learning applied just as well to dogs. Now a behavior consultant and longtime shelter professional, she chairs the Pet Professional Guild's Shelter and Rescue Committee and thinks carefully about what sustains people in this work over the long haul. In this conversation, she talks about connection as a genuine antidote to feeling out of control, why "the vibes were off" is a perfectly valid observation, and what a fortune cookie about sailing taught her about troubleshooting — and about not mistaking a rough patch for a failure.

https://colleenpelar.com/164-k-holden-svirsky-ctc-csat