Imagine falling in love with two abandoned 5 weeks old street dog puppies whilst abroad in Nicaragua. The second you lay eyes on them you know you’re in trouble because you’re not going to give these dogs up.
So you crowdfund in pre-crowdfunding days to get the money together to bring these dogs to the Netherlands. Once they get there you find out, that the vet abroad provided you with falsified papers and you lose your now-teenage dogs to 4 months of quarantine.
After that, there’s inter-household fighting, the heartbreak of rehoming one of the siblings, and trying to find the best way to help your heart dog deal with the anxiety of living in the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam.
On a scale of 0 to 10 how would you rate…
This is when Lou, like so many dogs on this podcast, turns Karolina’s life upside down. She puts Karolina on a completely new life path directed toward animal welfare.
Listen to Karolina talk about the importance of vet checks, nutrition, and taking a holistic approach to animal wellbeing.
Included in her story is how she learned like all of us that not everyone who has had dogs for longer than we have knows more about them, and be gobsmacked like I was about her use of a simple mental 0-10 reactivity scale as a way to track Lou’s improvement.
Lou’s a 2-3 on that scale now most days and loves man-trailing and dog-trailing.
Links
The Facebook Group Karolina co-moderates with her friends (highly recommended for its positive non-judgemental vibe):
I want to turn half of the quotes in this episode into memes.
Like, how learning how to do agility with a border collie is like learning to drive in a Lamborghini.
Meet Tara Stillwell and her dogs Eva, the red and white border collie, Curry, the sable border collie and Duke the mini-Aussie.
Tara has put a ton of effort into reflecting on how her dogs have affected all the relationships in her life. How the expectations we put on ourselves and our dog can trip either of us up.
Most importantly though, she shares so many insights that have helped her embrace life with her dogs again.
We talk about dealing with the guilt she had about not knowing what everyone who’s had multiple dogs before must surely have already known.
Here’s one thought Tara gave to combat that guilt. You can try it on yourself and see if it serves you:
Nobody says: “Let me get a messed up dog so that I can then modify their behavior!”
Isn’t that the truth?
Other dog guardians
She also mentions importantly how she has adapted her thoughts about what other dog guardians are supposed to do or not do. She doesn’t expect them to be able to recall their dogs for example. Can you imagine what that’s like? If you drop that expectation and instead feel compassion for the other guardians?
Podcasts mentioned & links
And of course we talk about some of her and my favorite podcasts and trainers that have already gotten multiple shoutouts on this podcast as well:
Sarah Stremming of the Cognitive Canine and
Marissa Martino of Paws and Reward
And then also, Kim Brophy(CLICK HERE for her website), who I didn’t know yet but who has some amazing stuff out there dealing with dog ethology. She uses the LEGS (Learning, Environment, Genetics & Self) model (CLICK HERE to sign up for her course and/or get a free preview) to account for a lot of why dogs (and us humans too) are the way they and we are.
In short, it’s not all in how you raise them. That is something I believe all of us dealing with guilt around what we believe are our insufficient training skills should take to heart.
Watch Kim’s insightful TED talk on “The Problem with Treating Dogs Like a Pet” here:
Hannah and left to right: Iris, Keller, Capri and Domino
I loved talking to Hannah on the podcast. She has so much experience both as the owner/guardian of a reactive dog and as a dog walker and trainer.
We discuss her move from rural Alabama to urban Richmond, Virginia. This involved shifting from the Alabama mindset of “Hey, I think it’s kinda cool you alerted me to the delivery guy, cause we are out in the middle of nowhere” (ok, I exaggerate but you get my point) to the Virginia mindset of “Mweahhhh, it might not be so great for the neighbours should that happen every time”.
Keller hanging out with her best friend Sally (left)
In Virginia, Hannah started working for the Richmond SPCA which sounds like an awesome organisation, leading the way to jobs as a dog walker and trainer.
She has worked with lots of reactive dog clients and we discuss all that is involved in “handling encounters with other dogs and their owners”, how you can get into the “you don’t owe anyone an explanation” mindset (fake it till you make it) and much much more.
Backpacking trip for Keller… carrying her own food like a boss.
Who can resist you when you’re staring like this Tucker?
Forrest’s story is an absolutely lovely one and different from most of the stories so far.
Forrest and his wife did not hire any trainer to help them with Tucker, but relied a lot on their own observations of him, figuring out what worked and what didn’t along the way.
Tsu, the yang to Tucker’s yin.
Absolutely not an easy feat when you consider having to rely on dog parks (gasp!) for exercising an anxious dog together with a dog sister (Tsu), that is the polar opposite of him. No, she’s not a golden retriever people :-), but she sure sounds like one.
Penelope, whom Tucker luckily gets along with
Sniffing it out!
I loved hearing how Forrest managed to find a way to balance the needs of both his very different dogs.
Buckle up for a long podcast episode. Listen to it in two sittings if you wish, because there’s lots of good stuff in here.
In this episode we get to know all about Summer, a Singapore Special as rescue dogs are called in the island city-state.
Joanne gives us a little background info on what it is like to live in Singapore, and what the policies are in place when it comes to stray dogs. She gives us a feel of the general public’s awareness and perception of dogs so we have some more background to understand Summer’s journey.
A two-dog attack on Summer during one of her fear periods left both her and Joanne rattled. Nonetheless, all seemed relatively fine in the beginning, until when it wasn’t anymore.
Biiiiig smile…
She has done a lot of reflection and we discuss for example what we would now look for when selecting a dog. How some of the process and thought work that goes into selecting an appropriate breed can also still apply when trying to find your rescue dog match.
We talk about the time when she hilariously ? still thought about getting a second dog.
Joanne and her husband moved to Washington state right at the start of the pandemic. So naturally, we talk about the differences between life in Singapore and the US, and how people in the US seem to have a little more dog awareness.
Joanne also talks about the kindness of strangers and how much she appreciates meeting those humans who are considerate of her and Summer’s needs.
She explains the ongoing work she’s doing with Summer in the USA including BAT training.
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Marissa Martino’s book: 
