Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Dog Talk ® (and Kitties Too!)

#1012B: Melina Jacques promotes some unusual and controversial ideas about the danger to people and the burden that dogs are to society in her book “What it Really Means to Love Dogs: a Cultural and Ethical Exploration,” which Tracie debates her about.

#1012A: Brock Alston's first novel “Jetson’s Journey” is a humdinger — a gripping emotional tale of a man whose life unravels and crashes — but Jetson, the dear empathetic dog by his side, carries the day.

#1011A: Tamsin Pickeral's book "The Invention of the Dog: 75 Breeds That Changed the World" gives a new perspective on how modern dog breeds resulted from a brief but intense period of selective breeding that began in the 1800s. She talks about how the dogs we now know and love came to be, from their beginnings in domestication across the world.

#1011B: Anna Heyward's memoir “Living With Freddie” describes in the most compassionate, kind, and patient terms what it's like to live with a dog with desperate separation anxiety — which certainly puts things in perspective for those with slightly clingy dogs. 

#1010B: Dr. Matt Brunke in Gaithersburg MD — who is board certified in veterinary sports medicine and in pain medicine — is rehab specialist for sports athletes, working dogs and aging dogs, often using the revolutionary joint injection Synovetin OA for long-lasting relief from arthritis. His most famous patient was Hurricane, the Secret Service dog who took down the intruder who breached the White House in 2014 when Barack Obama was President. The Belgian Malinois was medically retired from service in 2016 after sustaining injuries during that incident and Dr. Matt looked after him while he lived out the rest of his life to age 16 with his handler.

#1010A: One of the many service dog organizations to which RAWZ gives monetary support for training and placing service dogs is Patriot Service Dogs. Tracie was absolutely thrilled to be reunited with Brigadier General Scott Wiggins, who was featured with his magnificent dog Bear in one of the Service Dog Salute films in Tracie's NY Dog Film Festival. Bear came from Patriot Service Dogs and Scott talks about what the support from RAWZ means to an organization like Patriot Service Dogs and what dogs like Bear mean to veterans suffering from PTSD. 

#1009B: Michelle Lerner's memoir "A Series of Opinionated Animals" is a funny and touching testament to the limitless patience and generosity of one woman — and her husband — in a lifetime of giving a loving home to all manner of animals, with dogs being high on the list. 

#1009A: Dog trainer Laurel Saville has unique ideas about how we need to respect and honor what our dogs experience of life actually is, not how we want it to be. Her book “How to Live With a Dog: Stories and Solutions for Humans With Dog Problems and Dogs With Human Problems” is filled with wisdom, kindness and profound solutions to situations with dogs that could be solved if only we could slow down... stop trying to control and manage... and let the dog show us who he actually is.

#1008B: Lea Korsgaard — an award-winning journalist and author, cofounder and editor in chief of the digital Danish newspaper, Zetland —  talks about her wonderfully baffling book, "The Butterfly Season," which recounts how she got it in her head to try to find every one of the 64 species of Danish butterflies in one year... when she knew absolutely nothing about butterflies! An otherwise highly accomplished journalist, businesswoman and practical wife and mother, she is the embodiment of the word "Quixotic" —  "foolishly idealistic, romantic, or chasing an impossible dream." Her book and odyssey is an inspiration to those who might want to live out an idea, no matter how impractical.

#1008A: Sindhoor Pangal is a canine behavior consultant with a Master's in Anthrozoology from the University of Exeter. She researches India's free-living dogs in Bangalore, is a TEDx speaker and author of "Dog Knows." She recently published a peer-reviewed paper “The Open Palm Gesture in Human-Dog Communication,” which is her unique observation of how an open palm facing down towards a dog can calm, reassure and strengthen your bond with the dog. 

#1007A: Philosophy professor Mike Dacey's book “Seven Challenges for the Science of Animal Minds” examines the way some of the greatest "animal observers" may be misguided in their perspectives in looking at the "intelligence" and lived experience of non-human creatures. 

#1007B: Dr. Tracy Lord has her own holistic practice veterinary clinic that supports owners who want to lean into home-cooked diets as part of illness prevention and management of health. She cautions that people should use one of the balanced whole food diets like the ones offered on the IVI Blend website (privately owned by two veterinary nutritionists), along with the supplements they have blended for fully balanced nutrition and optimal health.

#1006A: Dr. Deb Zoran Texas A&M director of VET (Veterinary Emergency Team) which she also teaches to 4th year veterinary students — also serves on the FEMA Incident Support Team as a DVM specialist supporting the working canines deployed to national disasters.

#1006B: K.T. Landon's “Abide” poetry collection won the 2025 Richard Snyder Prize and hearing her read from this collection of wonderfully, powerfully accessible poems will make it clear why she got that honor. 

#1005B: Mariclare Carey-Jones made the film “Pierre’s Tale” as a cautionary story of the terrible physical ailments the breed has as they have become so popular, hoping to spare others the pain and suffering her beloved Frenchie Pierre went through. 

#1005A: Margaret Mizushima's “Fighting Edge,” her 11th Timber Creek K-9 mystery, has Robo, the detection/apprehension dog, who is the star of the series, at the center of the action in this wonderfully complex set of mysteries.

#1004A: Nick Trumble talks about his delightful film "Giants of the Valley," premiering in the 11th Annual NY Dog Film Festival, about a fabulously eccentric English family who own 16 Irish Wolfhounds, along with a number of other dogs, and the joy they take in their pack.

#1004B: Katy Hansen of the NY ACC (the beneficiary of the NYC premiere of the NY Cat Film Festival Sept 26th) talks about all the great shelters the city has built (or is building) in the boroughs and how the many cat rescue groups flourish in their mission.

#1003A: Dr. Monica Tarantino, founder of the Senior Dog Veterinary Society, is putting on a day of virtual education and support to empower the parents of senior dogs and cats on September 12th and a deeper dive (with CE credits) for veterinarians on September 13th. Buy tickets at https://seniorpetcon.com/

#1003B: Filmmaker Francesco Valentinuzzi talks from Italy about why he made the documentary “Dumped,” to celebrate the unusual group of dog rescuers who save discarded and lost dogs in Las Vegas. It will be featured in the 11th Annual NY Dog Film Festival premiering in NYC Sunday September 27th at the Village East theater.

#1002B: Barcelonian filmmaker Tora Meder Bird crafted a film about a dog bringing a community together in “Diego” (premiering in the 11th Annual NY Dog Film Festival September 27th in NYC) and says she had “love heart eyes” for Diego the minute she saw him. 

#1002A: Brian Patrick Duggan talks about the historical background to his rollicking historical novel “Thunder in the Valley of the Queens,” with archaeologists and soldiers intersecting in Egypt during wartime — featuring a Saluki in a pivotal role.

#1001B:  Ethologist Marc Bekoff's newest book, “Love in Their Hearts,” explores the emotional lives of many different animals and, while it is aimed at young adults, all humans can appreciate and learn from it.

#1001A: Dr. Kendra Pope is an oncologist who also practices alternative medicine in helping pets and their people navigate cancer, with a special emphasis on how nutrition plays a part in maintaining a healthy immune system — especially a home-cooked diet balanced with IVI Blend. 

#1000A: Dr. Ernie Ward, whose own nonprofit the Association for the Prevention of Obesity in Pets has been raising awareness for decades about the harm to pets of being overweight, discusses the current interest in giving GLP-1 drugs to dogs and cats. 

#1000B: Victoria Shroff KC (Kings Counsel) is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics in the UK, who practices and teaches animal law in British Columbia, Canada, where they have changed the law locally so that companion animals are now legally more than property.

#999B: Sue Adams (a licensed veterinary technician at Ellevet Sciences in Maine, who supports veterinarians and dog owners calling for guidance on the right product and dose-by-weight for mobility and anxiety issues) talks about the life-changing positive effect their CBD has had on Tracie's 11-year-old Weimaraner, Wanda — who now runs and plays like someone half her age.

#999A: Dr. Shany Dror's research at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna has shown that the learning vocabulary of some extraordinary dogs who can learn the name of a vast number of different toys is like that of an 18-month-old toddler — plus they are good eavesdroppers and can learn the name of objects just from listening to two people talk!

#998A: Michael Bond's book “Animate: How Animals Shape the Human Mind” looks at the earliest depictions of the way animals affect human thinking in the cave paintings of Southern France, trying to understand Ice Age people through "visual paleo-psychology."

#998B: Dr. Juliane Brauer from the University of Jena in Germany led a team of researchers across every continent to study differences in relationships between people and their dogs — yet they found striking global universal similarities in that bond beyond our Western culture (countries which are academically referred to as “WEIRD” — Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic.)

#997A: Peggy Frezon’s book of support and wisdom “Goodbye to a Good Dog: Healing, Comfort, and the Hope of Heaven After the Loss of Your Dog” comes from years of adopting senior citizen Golden Retrievers and learning how to accept the Rainbow Bridge awaiting them.

#997B: Jennifer Palencia — the Director of Operations at the Penn Club of New York — has a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales, skills she has put to good use home-cooking for her little Chi-Chi Freida, who now gets a truly balanced healthy diet with the addition of IVI blend, formulated by two veterinarians renowned for their nutrition wisdom, who support home cooking.

#996B: Dr. Jennifer Fletcher Eckenrode, a canine rehabilitation veterinarian at her own Paws in Motion clinic in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, discusses her extensive expertise in pain management and rehabilitation, in particular her firsthand experience treating her own dog, Murray, with Synovetin OA, which is supposed to give relief from joint pain for up to a year — and lasted 22 months on Murray!

#996A: Deni Elliott’s memoir “Catching Sight: How a Guide Dog Helped Me See Myself” is a touching saga of someone losing her sight, fighting against it, then discovering how Guiding Eyes For the Blind dogs change their peoples’ lives on the inside and outside.

#995A: Dr. Dino Martins speaks from Kenya about his book “Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites,” and his extraordinary life discovering these creatures and more around the world.

#995B: Dr. Heather Davis explains how hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) was previously untreatable in cats until they developed Felycin®-CA1, the first weekly therapy developed for cats with this heart problem affects one-third of senior cats. 

#994B: Dr. Erin Troy is a Certified Veterinary Pain Practitioner, who has many tools in her toolbox to lessen or even cure canine pain. The one-time Synovetin OA injection is her gold standard when it is appropriate for a dog with joint issues, but she has many other ways for people and their vets to lessen pain in dogs. 

#994A: Hanna Mandelbaum, the co-founder and owner of Evermore frozen cooked dog food explains how special Mary’s turkey is and how they came up with a delicious, nutritious way to use the organ meats of the turkey they use to become Evermorsels treats.

#993B: Dr. Michelle Dulake discusses the holistic supplements she has created at Fera Pets to help your dog through the shivers and trembles of July fireworks and the thunder and lightning of summer storms.

#993A: Dog trainer Melissa McCue McGrath discusses her book “Misadventures of the World’s Okayest Dog Trainer,” which is intended to guide other dog trainers through sticky situations, but at the same time illuminates for the rest of us the variety of funny and intense canine personalities and issues. 

#992A: Scott Simon’s charming memoir “Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known” looks back at his life with a succession of funny and tender recollections of the animals who have shared his journey.

#992B: Tracie welcomes veterinarians Joe Wakshlag and Justin Shmalberg — renowned for their knowledge about nutrition and the company they created, Integrative Veterinary Innovations, that gives simple recipes to use with their IVI Blend to naturally balance home-prepared diets.

#991A: Camille Perri talks about her new novel, “Social Animals,” and what she discovered about the people and their pooches in dog parks through her own experience as a first time "puppy mama" during Covid.

#991B: Dr. Angela Lennox has so many letters after her name they barely fit on a page! She is triple board certified — in addition to her DVM she has DABVP (Avian Practice), DABVP (Exotic Companion Mammal Practice) and DECZM (Small Mammal Medicine). She owns the Avian and Exotic Vet Clinic in Indianapolis and when she isn't looking after the non-traditional pets, she’s doing pro bono work in wildlife rehabilitation with her non-profit called Rewilding Indiana. 

#990B: Janet Scott discusses how she and her husband Jim founded the pet food industry’s first truly “natural” food decades ago — so when they returned with a new company, Rawz, after both their sons had devastating accidents, they decided to give 100% of their profits to charities! They wanted top shelf preparation for their premium ingredients — and thus their kibble is “air dried.”

#990A: Thomas W. Laqueur talks about how he gathered the magnificent images of dogs in art in his beautiful book “The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History,” which gives a sweeping view of how closely the two species have been connected across time.

#989B: Dr. Maggie Placer, the Science Program Manager for EveryCat Health Foundation, discusses how their nonprofit financed a study of the genetic changes in tumors from 500 cats in five countries. Scientists found similarities in human breast cancer, suggesting this research might become a building block in treating people.

#989A: Rick McIntyre talks about a lifetime of being the most prolific watcher of wildlife in National Parks — from grizzlies to moose to wolves, for which he is most well known, as he describes in his memoir “My Life With Wolves: How I Became the Storyteller for the Yellowstone Packs.” 

#988A: Greger Larson, Director of the Paleogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network in the School of Archaeology at Oxford University, discusses recent discoveries about how much earlier humans lived alongside dogs, and how that changes scientific understanding of how and when wolves diverged into ancient dogs.

#988B: Hannah Palcic adopts special needs dogs and makes it seem not all that difficult, relating it to being a type I diabetic herself and how you can accommodate gracefully to physical challenges.