The Healthy Dog Pod

Field Day have sponsored this season of The Healthy Dog Pod so we wanted to bring in Georgia from their team to pick our brains and chat about the amazing guests we have had on over the previous seven episodes. Each one brought something special and unique to the table so we unpacked our own thoughts and reflections on all of them and dove into what we believe to be the important take away moments. Field Day also announce their giveaway in this episode, so stay tuned to the end to learn more.

Mel Ritterman of Cooper and Kids is an accredited dog trainer, a certified Family Dog Mediator and a busy mum of three plus her beautiful golden retriever, Cooper. Mel specialises in creating safe, happy and positive relationships between babies, kids and dogs. In this episode we dive into the details of introducing a new puppy to the home when there are kids involved. We also talk all things kids and dogs in general, raising awareness around the importance of dog body language and healthy relationships within the household.

Simon, The Mutt Nutt is an accredited trainer based in the UK, working predominantly with aggression cases through rescue organisations among other areas of dog training. In this episode we talk about the stereotypes around aggression and how misunderstood it is. We dive into training methods and how outdated philosophies and practices like dominance theory and correction based methods stand in the way of progress in our industry.

Kim Brophey, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is an applied ethologist and owner of The Dog Door Behaviour Centre Asheville, NC. Kim's 20-year commitment to Family Dog Mediation® has been recognized both nationally and locally, awarded the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) Outstanding Trainer of the Year in 2009 and the Best Dog Trainer of WNC six years in a row. She has lectured and taught courses at colleges, universities, and conferences on canine behaviour, ethology, and welfare. Kim is a member of the International Society for Applied Ethology and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, and is a past board member of the International Association and Animal Behaviour Consultants and the Asheville Humane Society. Kim's trademarked Dog L.E.G.S.® model is a ground-breaking new system for dog lovers to truly understand their dogs' behaviour- distilling multiple scientific disciplines and established principles into a simple and accessible framework for pet dogs and their people like never before.

Andrew Hale of 'Train Positive, Dog Behaviour and Training', the home of The Dog Centred Care approach talks to us about the emotional experience of a dog. We consider what they might be going through when they are doing behaviours as well as their experience when we as trainers, handlers and caregivers try to change this behaviour.   Andy is a certified animal behaviourist, as well as holding a Bsc (Hons), he also holds various diplomas/advanced diplomas in animal and canine behaviour. Andy is an advocate for non conflict training methods and is a regular speaker at industry workshops, webinars and seminars.

Yvonne Hong, the founder of Pets of The Homeless opens up about the many different ways this organisation helps so many, why it is important and how the many ways we can contribute towards this great cause. This one pulled on our heartstrings more than any other episode this season, it even nearly got Ian to well up.

Tracy Irons is the co-founder of Australian Veterinary Behaviour Services and is a nationally accredited Delta Dog Behaviour Trainer and has presented hundreds of workshops to fellow professionals and dog owners to date. Tracy has been considered by Ian to have been a mentor and friend for a number of years now, and so it was a great pleasure to have her in to talk on the show. In this episode, we discuss how we to what is causing the unwanted behaviours our dogs are displaying, whether or not the behaviours are something that can be addressed through training alone or whether potentially we are looking at a medical issue. We then take a deep dive into why the assessment of the causes of the unwanted behaviour impact how we would approach changing the behaviour. This is a fantastic episode with insight into how pet professionals look at the individual cases in front of us and come to the decisions we do.

Nick Benger is the 'Expert Dog Trainer' on Amazon TV series 'The Pack', host of the podcast 'Dog Talk with Nick Benger' and professional dog trainer in the UK with his company Hound Plus. Nick has contributed a lot to our industry and in this episode he talks about the two areas that he is most passionate about, keeping the dog engaged with you and working with aggressive and reactive dogs. Nick is a seasoned professional and nicely breaks down some of the techniques he uses and teaches to his clients. We talk about why engagement is more important that working on recall and what the difference is in the first place. We also dive into different reasons our dogs might be aggressive or reactive and how the motivation behind the dogs behaviour will change the way we approach it as professionals.

Ian & Sophie talk about what people can look for in a good puppy school and why as well as what to avoid.

In this funny but educating episode, Dr. Cherlene Lee talks about the importance of maintaining anal gland health and how to do so.

Scott talks to us about the things to consider when employing a dog walker, how he puts emphasis on socialising and the dog's having a good experience rather than simply walking, dog park etiquette, safety in the car while traveling and his book "Friends For All Seasons" available here: http://www.thelittlepawspack.com.au/book/friends-for-all-seasons

How we play with our dogs and allow our dogs to play with others can set the foundations for their communication skills. Dog play is a conversation, not solely fun fun fun. As non-verbal communicators they speak and listen to body language acutely and understanding what they're saying and knowing how to interact with them healthily can go a long way to building their social skills and relationships.

Dominique is one of the best trainers we know, having worked with dog behaviour for many years now she has become a valuable source of knowledge and support to both of us and in this episode shares her insights into dog training with all of us.    

Check out the Christmas Jumpers on these clowns. In this episode, we discuss the seasonal issues that crop up at this time of year.

We are often working with dogs and owners that are under stress and want to avoid causing more as well as help them overcome it. We believe that educating the owner has more sustainable results than trying to 'fix' the dog and so we wanted to give you all an insight into what a training session with one of us might look like.

Jocelyn shares her wealth of experience in training people on how to train dogs with an emphasis in this episode on puppy training and teaching classes.

Two sisters Kylie and Denise founded The Doggie Bakery. They create natural and hand-baked dog snacks made with quality ingredients and talk to us about what they do and their experience in the industry and the importance of feeding our dogs quality products.

Dr. Amanda Cole and Dr. Heather Chi from Vet Behaviour Team here in Sydney bring their experience, knowledge, and clarity into understanding dog behaviour.

Nikki Stevens runs Sydney Dog Training and shares her story on how she got into dog training in the first place, how her love of understanding behaviour developed along the way and her insights into dog training and behaviour in general.

Anna founded Lyka pet food, a direct to consumer, human-grade dog food company and in this episode, she opens up about why she started up Lyka in the first place and what she has seen in the dog food industry along the way.

Iyona has worked as part of the Bondi Behaviourist team since 2016, she also works with Aussie Mobile Vet. She sits down with us in this episode to talk about her experiences working in the industry.

Michael McTeigue, the founder of SavourLife and Adopt A Dog Au comes in to give his insight into the world of rescue dogs in Australia. For a long time, Michael has been helping rescue dogs across Australia, working with shelters and even setting up Adopt a Dog, a national company that facilitates dogs getting adopted and in this episode he shares his experiences.

Harry's health has been a concern from an early age and it has affected his behaviour and has required a combined effort of training and management from Sophie and Ian with the help of veterinarians. Rachel speaks openly about the toll it has taken on her and her partners' health and the realities of pet ownership when it doesn't go exactly to plan.

We want to create positive experiences and simply normalise the world they live in so that they are less sensitive to their surroundings and yet we see two common extremes when it comes to taking our dogs out in public.Creating fear through correction or hyperactivity with no boundaries. Both will set the dog up to fail in the long run.

Socialising seems to go wrong with our dogs because nobody seems to actually know what it is. This is a look into what we see people often do when socialising and offer up some simple and effective alternatives.

Sydney Dogs and Cats Homework tirelessly in helping animals, working with councils. This raw and honest talk opens up about the realities of working within this environment and the animals that come in and out of their doors.

Peter Sharp from Tame & Wild Studio has come in to talk to us about the new book Sydney Dogs & Cats Home have coming out “Lost but Found”

When we are handling and trying to resolve unwanted behaviours in our dogs, the first thing we must figure out is if it is a training problem or a behaviour issue.

A look into how the dog's brain works and how understanding it affects the way we train our dogs.

Dominance is one of the most widely used but miss understood terms when it comes to our dogs, this episode discusses where it came from, the impact not understanding it has had and how dogs actually do form social groups.  

Founder of Aussie Mobile Vet giving us her insight into the mobile veterinary world and filming for the new series Bondi Vet Coast to Coast. 

Dr Matt Muir, a integrative and holistic vet of All Natural Vet Care here in Sydney has joined us in the studio to talk about the microbiome in the gut and the gut - brain axis. The relationship between gut and mental health are so closely linked and the more we look after this the better we can look after our dogs.

A look into how our understanding of how they think has affected our language towards them, how we perceive their intentions and our relationships with our dogs. 

Ian & Sophie are passionate about dog behaviour and health. This episode is an insight into who they are, what they do and why they've created The Healthy Dog Pod.