(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist talk about Dawn's approach to measuring how full-filled we are in life using a sort of emotional meter system. She represents this in coloured liquids in test tubes in a test tube rack. The idea is that we may struggle to feel fulfilled or even happy in life if one or more of the meters is too low. Dawn defines these meters as:

We need to be aware that:

a. We have a meter that is not full enough

b. We can find a way of filling it

c. It is not realistic to expect one person e.g. a partner, to fill all our meters. We are responsible for spotting that they are low

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist talk about Dawn's unique approach to therapy, including how the sessions actually work and how a client can measure success and progress.

We also begin to talk abut addictions, OCD, and patterns and habits. This is continued in our next podcast episode.

And of course, it wouldn't be complete without meandering into other subjects - in this case A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) and Chat GPT (Jess's new best friend)

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist talk about spoon theory. What is it and does it apply to dogs?

What does being anxious really mean? Maybe we should talk about "not feeling safe" rather than feeling anxious.

As usual, we meander through a whole bunch of topics which means I can't remember what we talked about!

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist celebrate a year of doing podcasts by talking about a whole heap of random stuff (dog and human stuff obviously!)

This episode includes:

Lots more discussion on Fixed Actions including

We also talk about some of the new and shiny things we have upcoming...

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist are joined by Angela Jeen who is a practitioner of zoopharmacognosy - the science of animal self-medication derived from the roots zoo (“animal”), pharma (“drug”), and gnosy (“knowing”).

We explore how animals seem to know what nutrients they need, and how we need to give them choices rather than choose for them. We also talk about how humans don't seem to know what nutrients they need (unless they are pregnant!). Lots of chat around horses and dogs, and a little bit around humans.

🎉 With this episode we celebrate 1 year since our first Therapy Tails podcast Episode 🎉

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist reminisce about a year of working together and the achievement of completing nearly 1 podcast a week! Woop Woop! 

We go on to discuss our current topic of interest - Instinctive (Fixed Action patterns) versus learned behaviour and how that actually works in the brain. Dawn has been listening to Robert Sapolsky, author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, as he delivers lectures to Stanford University students so we have lots of new ideas to discuss. 

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist discuss the difference between changing behaviour in a dog (constant repetition of the more desirable behaviour) and changing behaviour in a person (rewiring the brain through conversation). I think we answer the cliffhanger from the last podcast where we talk about the concept of changing behaviour with no backsies!

We talk about feeling hopeless when you want to help everyone, and how to outwit your circumstances so that you can deal with feeling overwhelmed more effectively

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist discuss pathways and brain rewiring again - it's a favourite subject of ours. We talk about the different approaches to dog trainining - positive only, force free, balanced, and if one size can fit all. 

We talk about pattern interrupts and how the same process works in dogs and humans. First interrupt the pathway (existing behaviour) and then create a different pathway (new behaviour). We can use tapping for this in humans and Dawn explains how. We can use haptics like and ecollar to do this with dogs. 

This leads to the inevitable conversation about punishment vs praise. 

Finally we talk about "one session" interventions for dogs and humans. Can they really work? 

Warning - we leave you with a cliffhanger at the end and you'll have to listn to the next episode to learn more. 

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist discus lots of dog stuff. In fact if you don't have a dog and are not interested in dogs, you may want to skip this one!

Jess has a good old whinge about German Shepherds

We discuss Dawn's theory on why you need to be a shiny thing, and how to go about it

Why can it be a problem for dogs to be on lead, when they are fine off it?

And finally... How to choose a trainer ( also applies to therapist!!

(please note these episodes are recorded chats in Starbucks so may have more background noise than a usual podcast)

 Dawn Walton, a human therapist, and Jess Probst, a dog behaviourist discuss empathy and language. This is really good one for anyone who has to communicate with another human (who doesn't?)!  

We talk about the power of language and and how it can be used for good (to help people change) or badly (manipulation)

What is empathy? Where does it come from and what is its purpose? Do dogs have empathy? Should they?