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 which books we're reading (animal-related and more generally). Kind, humane, reward-based training methods only. Hosted by Zazie Todd PhD and Kristi Benson CTC of Companion Animal Psychology blog. Made in Canada.
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Données mises à jour le 28/10/2026
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This episode is in honour of two very special cats who are no longer with us: Kristi's cat Apricat and my cat Melina, both of whom passed this autumn. It's a reply of our conversation about cat husbandry that first aired in 2023. (And just so you know, the other cat mentioned in this episode, Harley, passed in 2024).
In this episode we chat about how to groom your cat and how to deal with mats, as well as how to trim your cat’s nails. We discuss the many reasons why it’s important not to “declaw” your cat and how it’s really like an amputation. Scratching is a natural behavior for cats and we talk about the kind of post to provide to keep your cat happy.
We also discuss the tricky topic of how to give meds to your cats, including pilling, towel-wrapping, and tricks to make meds easier. Along the way we share stories about our own cats and of course a few tips for dogs as well.
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.
Dr. Cliff Redford, known as the “Worldwide Vet,” has been passionate about animals since childhood. He joined Zazie and Kristi to talk about his adventures and his new book, Far and Wild.
We talked about:
How Dr. Cliff started volunteering as a veterinarian
Dr. Cliff shared some of the stories from the book, including of a monkey that he helped in India
The street cats of Athens
One-eyed Jack
Helping Ukrainians to take their pets with them when they fled at the start of Russia's war on Ukraine
What it's like working with a wide range of species
Writing about veterinary procedures for a general audience
What he's learned about the human-animal relationship
The book Dr. Cliff recommended is Cujo by Stephen King
Dr. Cliff Redford, known as the “Worldwide Vet,” has been passionate about animals since childhood. After graduating from Ontario Veterinary College in 1998, he opened Wellington Veterinary Hospital in Markham, Ontario, where he still practices today. Beyond domestic pets, Dr. Cliff volunteers globally, treating wildlife and working with local animal rescues.
Far and Wild: Adventures of the Worldwide Vet is just published and available wherever books are sold.
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 . She is also a northern anthropologist.
Being positive about positive reinforcement (when someone is wrong on the internet)
Kristi and Zazie chat about the need to be positive when talking about dog training and cat behaviour, and how they cope when someone is wrong on the internet.
We talked about:
The value of positive reinforcement, and gratitude for the positive reinforcement we get for the podcast
How to cope when someone is badly wrong on the internet and the post takes off
The idea of a DRI for ourselves: differential reinforcement of an incompatible behaviour
The idea of a revenge blog and how we have both written some of them
The value of likes, comments, and shares on social media and the difference they can make to the algorithm
The need to stay informed about science and the scientific process
Tamsin Pickeral's new book, The Invention of the Dog: 75 Breeds that Changed the World is a fascinating, touching, and beautifully illustrated account of where our beloved dogs come from. Tamsin joined Zazie and Kristi to chat about the book.
We talked about:
How the book came about, and what it was like selecting the artwork to be included in the book
Then we look at 3 very different breeds, starting with the history of the Shih Tzu
The history of the Bernese Mountain Dog
The history of the Yorkshire Terrier
How dog breeds became so different
Tamsin's favourite image from the book
Why dogs are so successful
The domestication of the dog
The depiction of dogs in art and how their appearance has changed over the years
And finally, we asked Tamsin to recommend a book to us
The Invention of the Dog: 75 Breeds that Changed the World is out now and available wherever books are sold.
The book that Tamsin recommended to us is Fairy Tale by Stephen King.
Tamsin Pickeral is an animal specialist and an art historian. She is an internationally published author who has written several acclaimed books on animal themes. Her new book, The Invention of the Dog, is just published and tells the true stories of some of our favourite dog breeds.
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 . She is also a northern anthropologist.
Great Writers and the Cats who Owned Them with Susannah Fullerton
The book Susannah recommended to us is Anne's Cradle: The Life and Works of Hanako Muraoka, Japanese Translate of Anne of Green Gables by Eri Muraoka and Cathy Hirano.
Susannah Fullerton is Sydney’s most highly regarded literary historian and lecturer. She is a leading authority on 19th and 20th-century writers with a special interest in Jane Austen. She brings to life the lives and writings of great writers with fascinating talks and in literary tours around the world. In 2017 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to literature.
She's the author of Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them, which is available wherever books are sold.
Dog training methods: How to advocate for dogs (and why bothsidesism doesn't help)
By Strength We Are Still Here by Crystal Gail Fraser
Pugs and Kisses by Farrah Rochon
You can listen to Farrah Rochon talk about Pugs and Kisses in the romance panel at Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers, where she's joined by Julie Howarth (New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe) and Nicola Knight (Washed Up). Save your spot here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5917869995632/WN_svRTPtHARD-_BrgsmER6WA
Marc Bekoff, PhD, joins Zazie and Kristi to talk about his new book Love in Their Hearts, his work (and upcoming book) with Jane Goodall, and what it's like studying canids.
We talked about:
Why Marc and his co-author Jeff Campbell wrote Love In Their Hearts
The time Marc's dog Jethro rescued a baby bunny, and stories of the grizzly bear known as 399
The importance of naming animals
Marc's research on dogs, wolves, coyotes, and foxes, and how his work replaced theories of dominance leading to the dissolution of litters in the wild
How animals tell stories
Marc's work with Jane Goodall, how he first heard of her, and how she influenced his work
The educator's kit that goes with Love In Their Hearts and how it can inspire hope and activism in young readers
How can we set and maintain standards for dog training and animal behaviour? Zazie and Kristi are joined by Fiona Cooke, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council to learn all about their important work in the UK, and what anyone can do if they want to make a difference.
We talked about:
What the ABTC does
Why it's so important to follow a compassionate, non-punitive approach in training and animal behaviour
The wide range of organizations who are part of the ABTC (and how they represent people who work with dogs, cats, horses, and exotics)
The benefits of being on the ABTC register for practitioners in the UK, and how the public can use it to find a good trainer or behaviourist
We get a sneak peek of what the ABTC is working on right now
The importance of collaboration and how people can increase awareness of the ABTC and support their work
We get Fiona's tips on what people can do to make a difference
And finally we find out what Fiona's been reading, which turns out to include an instruction booklet for building a wardrobe!
The books Fiona recommends are The Secret Hour by Mick Herron and also his Slough House series, of which the first is Slow Horses.
The Animal Behaviour and Training Council sets and maintains standards of knowledge and practical skills needed to be an animal trainer, training instructor or animal behaviour therapist and maintains the national Register of appropriately assessed practitioners.
ABTC members include major animal welfare charities, organisations concerned with human-animal interactions, educational institutions and membership organisations for practitioners. The Council represents the training and behaviour sector to the public and to governments.
Zazie and Kristi chat with scientist Dr. Catherine Reeve about her research to find out whether dogs change their behaviour when their owner is pregnant and if they can use their noses to detect when someone is stressed.
We talked about:
The survey that investigated whether women think their dog's behaviour changed when they were pregnant
The kinds of dogs that were most likely to show changes
How the scientists got scent samples from people who were stressed
The books Catherine recommended are The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry and The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica.
Also mentioned: Earlier episodes on surveys and understanding research (Ep61), and on dogs and scent work (Ep56 with Melissa McCue-McGrath; Ep 46 with Bonnie Hartney; Ep35 with Kim Cooper and Cat Warren).
Dr. Catherine Reeve is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Mount Saint Vincent University. She has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Dalhousie University. She’s interested in applied canine behaviour, canine cognition, especially olfaction, and human-animal interaction. And she’s the head trainer at Epic Tails Canine Adventures in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
University website:
How to evaluate the scientific research on dogs and cats: A guide
New research on dogs and cats helps us to understand them better and give them better lives. But how do we know if the research is any good, and what about our feelings about the results? Zazie and Kristi chat about how to evaluate the science.
We talk about:
Taking an ethical stance on dogs and cats that recognizes that they are sentient beings
How it can be tricky to assess research if you're not trained as a scientist
The research on training methods shows risks to using aversives and that it's much better to only use reward-based training methods
Why we look for more than one study to teach us something
We consider different types of research, including the value of questionnaire studies and of experiments
What a meta-analysis is
How it can feel emotional if you don't like the results of a particular study
People's willingness to take part in research
A re-evaluation of a classic study on spanking children that is relevant to the discussion
And finally we talk about the books we're reading
The books we recommend this time are:
People, Places, Things by Chuck Palahniuk
New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe by Julie Haworth
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 . She is also a northern anthropologist.
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 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 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.
Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has won many awards for his research and writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society. He writes regularly for Psychology Today and has published more than thirty books, including The Emotional Lives of Animals and numerous scientific and popular essays. Visit marcbekoff.com to learn more.
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.
Fiona Cooke is Chair of the ABTC Board of Trustees. She is Head of Specialist Services (vet, behaviour, training and research) at Woodgreen Pets Charity. Her PhD focused on the role of local government in the implementation and enforcement of animal welfare legislation. She is a lecturer in law and runs an animal behaviour company working with complex behavioural issues of dogs and cats. Fiona is a full member of the APBC and FABC as well as an ABTC registered CAB.
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 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.
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