Animal Radio®

Foul Play At Westminster There are allegations that a dog was poisoned at the world's most famous dog show. PETA is even being questioned, as they have pronounced their hatred for breed shows like Westminster. We'll find out what's going on behind the scenes. Listen Now Animalwise Just how smart is your dog or cat? It turns out that scientific research says we've been underestimating the intelligence of a lot of animals. Take the earthworm for instance. Not only considered an animal, but able to make decisions. Virginia Morell explains why rat owners should tickle their rats. Listen Now Problem Chewing What can you do for the dog that chews on everything? This is one of the most common calls we get. It's actually a pretty simple problem to solve. Alan Kabel helps uncover the reasons dogs chew and how to re-direct their attention to more positive behaviors. Listen Now Charlie Sheen Buys Therapy Dog There's a 15-year-old Florida girl who didn't really know much about Charlie Sheen before this, but does now. The actor wired $10,000 to Teagan Marti and her family for a therapy dog to help rehabilitate from injuries sustained when she plummeted 100 feet from a Wisconsin amusement park ride. "I think they should name the dog Charlie," Sheen joked. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

Kenny Lee Lewis Guests Guitarist for the Steve Miller Band, Kenny Lee Lewis, kicks off their Summer tour with a stop at Animal Radio. Kenny shares his Central California home with Sophie, a dog he fell in love with after he promised his daughter a pup if she got good grades. Listen Now Preventing Cancer Dr. Gerald Post is back with basic things you can do to reduce the odds against your pet. If Cancer is detected and treated early, many of our pets have a great chance at a healthy outcome. Dr. Post has the lowdown on pesticides and your pet. Listen Now Handicapped Pig Gets Wheelchair When a patient brought a deformed pig into Dr. Len Lucero to be euthanized, the doctor couldn't do it. He ended up adopting Chris P. Bacon and creating a wheelchair out of a child's Erector toys. Now the pig is styling with his new wheels and inspiring Facebook followers worldwide. Listen Now Tick Season Explodes There is no doubt that this tick season is more populated than ever. With typical spot-on chemical treatments losing their efficacy, we're turning to alternatives for fighting those little buggers. WAHL's Pat Kopischkie has great ideas when it comes to tick control. Listen Now Leash Aggression Without even knowing it, we can be training our dog to be aggressive. The tool that we rely on to restrain our dog may actually be at the root of problems. Dr. Debbie has a cure for pulling and growling issues. "It's all about thinking like a dog." Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

Celebrating a Quarter-Century of Animal Radio Join us for a special celebration of America's favorite and longest-running pet show. Animal Radio looks back at the last 24 seasons with guest appearances by Actor Ed Asner, Dog Wig Maker Ruth Regina, The Monkees' Davy Jones, Comedian Paul Reiser, Actor Dick Van Patten, Singer Donny Osmond, and a final bow from Vladae The World Famous Russian Dog Wizard, Dog Trainer Alan Kabel, News Director Lori Brooks, Executive Producer Judy Francis, Groomer Joey Villani, Veterinarian Dr. Debbie and your host Hal Abrams. Listen Now If You Are Anxious, Your Dog May Be Feeling The Stress, Too Numerous studies have found that dogs and their owners can experience synchronized emotions and stress levels, especially during acutely stressful or exciting activities. A new study followed dogs and their owners to see how stress hormones in animals and humans changed over time. The results suggest that if the owner is stressed, then the dog is also likely to mirror that stress. The researchers then took hair samples from the dogs and their owners to test for the stress-related hormone cortisol, which can be detected in hair. They found that dog cortisol levels mirror the personality traits of their owners. Maybe even more interesting was that the owner's personality influenced the dog's cortisol level, rather than the dog's personality itself. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

Beatles Song For Dogs Sir Paul McCartney is confirming that one of the all-time best Beatles songs has a special sound included in the track that only your dog can hear. It has long been a rumor that dogs knew something about the song that humans didn't. Listen Now Dealing With Off-Leash Dogs It's the stuff of nightmares. You and your dog are enjoying a walk through the neighborhood when, all of a sudden, you spot an unaccompanied canine heading your way. It could turn into a bad scene even if your dog is socialized. Stephanie Colman, the manager of the "Puppy Department" at Guide Dogs of America, has the five things you need to do if you encounter an off-leash or stray dog. Listen Now Do Pets Slow Down Your Aging Process? After all the recent studies about pets keeping humans youthful, there is a new report out in the British Medical Journal that says having a pet doesn't seem to slow down your aging process after all. Listen Now Enrichment In The Home During Winter Cold weather usually means the kids and pets spend more time indoors. Less exercise and activity could result in unwanted behavior issues. Dr. E'Lise Christensen is a board-certified veterinary behaviorist. She'll share some great ideas for keeping your pets occupied and out of trouble. As far as the kids go, you're on your own. This is part of the Fear Free Expert Series. Listen Now Most Popular Pet Names for 2025 The Netflix series "Stranger Things" has some influence on the top pet names of 2025. "Eleven" is becoming commonplace among pet names, after the main character in the popular series. "Star Wars" names like Rey and Leia are up 70%. Listen Now Pet Food Sector Seeing Tremendous Growth Online U.S. researchers say most of the growth in the pet food sector is going to behemoths Amazon.com and Chewy.com (owned by PetSmart). Other trends include home-delivered and customized fresh foods. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

The Big Cat Is Back Actress and Animal Activist Tippi Hedren (The Birds - Shambala) returns to Animal Radio to talk about life living with Lions, Tigers and Ligers, oh my. She rescues tigers that were purchased as pets and outgrew their home. She's also forged legislation that outlaws exotic animals as pets. Animal Radio will hook you up with her autobiography, Tippi. Listen Now Turtle Doves Drives Up Cost The faltering U.S. economy may be responsible for the increasing costs of the 12 Days of Christmas. The price of two turtle-doves has jumped from $290 last year to $375. But the partridge in the pear tree, which has actually become cheaper, has offset the total cost. Listen Now Signs of Holiday Stress in Dogs The holidays can be stressful for everyone, both humans and our pets. While some dogs enjoy the increase in activity and new experiences that come with holidays, there are lots of others who are not fans of change and all the chaos that can come with it. Lori Brooks will help you recognize signs of stress in your pet, so you can remove them from dangerous situations and help them relax. Listen Now Rising Pet Health Care Costs Pet owners may shell out as much, or more, money for their pet's health care as they do for their own health care, and it's mostly because of pricey new technologies and more advanced treatment options. Healthy Paws Pet Insurance's most expensive insurance claim was for a 3-year-old female French Bulldog diagnosed with intervertebral disc disease, with a final bill of $44,296. Listen Now Parrot Only Witness In Murder Case Court proceedings are underway in Newaygo County, Michigan, where a preliminary hearing has been held for a woman accused of murdering her husband, and their parrot is the only apparent witness. The couple's pet, an African Gray parrot, apparently witnessed the shooting and began repeating words from the victim just moments before his death. The parrot has been recorded as saying, "Don't F*#&ing shoot." Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

Talk To Your Cat About Gun Safety Zachary Auburn is on the show to deliver an important message. He wants you to know how to talk to your cat about gun safety, abstinence, drugs, Satanism, and other dangers that threaten their nine lives. Zach believes we can make our cats - and America - great again. Listen Now Music for Cats Topping Charts A special music album created just for cats is being lapped up by humans too, and has topped two classical music charts on Amazon and iTunes. Despite being allergic to cats, American cellist David Teie released "Music for Cats," featuring five instrumental compositions, after raising more than $200,000 on Kickstarter. On the album, bird chirping accompanies his cello playing, along with purring noises based on his theory, which he researched for two years, that mammals have an intuitive response to sounds present in their early development. Listen Now Drive-Thru Restaurant For Dogs Bane and Vader are a couple of gentle, barrel-shaped bulldogs. They're also the namesakes of a unique new business in Easton, Pennsylvania, "Bane and Vader's Drive-Thru Restaurant," exclusively for dogs. Pull up and order a FreshPet meal with your choice of add-ins, including fruits, vegetables, eggs, and peanut butter. You might even want to take home some doggie ice cream for dessert. Their mom, 30-year-old Amanda Brown, left her job as a pharmaceutical sales representative, but she's back to work making what she calls Yappy Meals and Bow-Wow Bowls for motorists who want to treat the pooches to something special. Her idea came from a survey that found one in six restaurant drive-thru customers pick up something for a dog, too. While some restaurants offer special menu items for dogs, In-N-Out Burger has a special unseasoned Pup Patty served in a doggy bag, and Starbucks offers a small cup of whipped cream called a Puppuccino. Bane & Vader's is strictly for the dogs. It has no special menu items for humans. Listen Now Airport Hires Therapy Dogs With the crowds and the lines, flying can be stressful. So, the Albuquerque, New Mexico, airport has come up with a way to calm you down when you travel. More than a dozen therapy dogs are joining the thousands of passengers at the airport. One of them is known as "Turbo," and he loves people. He especially loves to lick guys with beards. Turbo is one of 15 certified therapy dogs and K-9 ambassadors now giving peace to stressed-out travelers. Thanks to the 70 volunteers who handle the dogs, the program will soon expand the number of therapy dogs. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

14-Year-Old Pet Product Inventor Brooke Martin is only 14, but she sounds more intelligent than many adults. She is also the inventor of a device that allows you to have visual contact between you and your dog using a tablet or mobile phone. It also dispenses treats. Brooke believes this is an answer to separation anxiety. Listen Now New Worm Threat Imagine a 6-inch worm coming out of your pet's skin. Sounds like something out of the latest horror movie. Unfortunately, it's a real new worm that poses a threat to your pets. Parasitologist Araceli Lucio-Forster explains this new discovery. Listen Now Buzzfeed Beastmaster What the heck is a Beastmaster? Jack Shepard is a self-proclaimed Beastmaster at the Buzzfeed website. He gets paid to surf "animal-related" fodder and make it go viral on the incredibly popular website. Listen Now My Bionic Pet Amputee Jennifer Robinson worked at a prosthetic manufacturer. Now she's showing off how artificial limbs are being used on dogs, cats, birds, and even sea life. She's a part of a PBS show called My Bionic Pet. Listen Now Dog Sells for $2,000,000 Only in China would a dog be sold to a 56-year-old property developer for a cool 2 mil. This isn't even the first time. The 200 lb. Tibetan Mastiff is treasured like the Panda in China. Some say it was all hype and that cash never actually changed hands. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

Using High-Tech To Find Homes Adi Pinhas is using facial recognition technology in his new iPhone app. You'll upload a picture of the pet you want, and it'll tell you all the adoptable animals that look like the original picture. The Verge Magazine uploaded a picture of Lady Gaga and got back an adoptable hamster. Listen Now Pets In The Classroom New research says kids learn better when their classroom has a pet. Even truancy is down. We all remember the class pet. And if you were lucky, the teacher let you take the guinea pigs home for the summer. Brent Weinmann of the Pet Care Trust is making sure all kids get an opportunity to have pets in their classroom. Listen Now Cure For Parvo? Researchers may have literally stumbled on a way to treat the usually fatal Parvo virus. It happened when a pharmaceutical was looking for a way to save flocks of geese that were mysteriously dying. They discovered an antibody that's harvested from the yokes of goose eggs that can stop the Parvo virus in as little as two days. Listen Now Calf Gets Prosthetic Back Legs Kitty Martin loves her calf so much that she's put more than $40,000 into rescuing the steer after its back legs were amputated because of frostbite. She's the Hero Person this week with a great story to tell about the human-bovine connection. Listen Now Sharing Your Bed With Your Pet Leads to Bad Sleep Quality If you have a cat or dog, chances are they sleep with you in bed. But new research says that sharing your bed with your pet can lead to bad sleep quality. Recently, at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, data was presented that showed at least 30% of pet owners say their pets wake them up at least once per night. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

Boy's Mission To Pet A Million Dogs Gideon Kidd has a goal to pet a million dogs for his pet project. So far, the young boy has pet more than 750 dogs. He's chronicled his journey on social media, garnering over 200,000 followers. He'll tell us how it's going since we last spoke to him. Listen Now Please Don't Repo Fido - Lawmakers Ban Pet Leasing Puppies sold in pet stores, most of which are sourced from puppy mills, are often accompanied by soaring sticker prices. To make the puppies appear more affordable, private lending companies are offering leasing plans. Miss a payment and they can repossess your pup. Bill Ketzer, from ASPCA Government Relations, is asking lawmakers to end this predatory practice. Listen Now Millennials Choose Pets Over Children Millennials are less likely to become parents of "human children" because they are instead focusing on their pets. Apparently, 44% of millennials are unsure if they want to have children, but their rate of pet ownership continues to rise. These animals are acting as a substitute for children, according to psychology professor Jean Twenge. This generation is half as likely to be married than the generations preceding it. Listen Now Convicted Deer Poacher Ordered to Watch Bambi Every Month For a Year A Missouri judge has ordered a convicted deer poacher to watch Bambi at least once a month during the year he will be spending in jail. The man is actually one of four family members implicated in a three-year hunting operation that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of deer. The prosecutor said the family mainly stalked their prey at night, killing the deer and taking their heads and antlers, and then they abandoned the carcasses. The state's Department of Conservation called it a thrill and kill sport for the men. By the way, the one-year jail sentence was initially suspended in favor of a two-year probationary period. But the guy who now has to watch Bambi quickly violated the terms of his probation, leading the Judge to reinstate the original one-year sentence with the additional Bambi twist. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

The Dog Park Phenomenon Boston Globe TV Critic (a great gig if you can get it), Matthew Gilbert, investigates the dynamics of dog parks. He didn't like dogs. In fact, he was afraid of them until his spouse introduced him to a dog that would forever change his view. Matt shares stories about the nutty fellow canine-lovers at his dog park. Listen Now Flea Wars Animal Radio Vets Dr. Marty Becker and Dr. Debbie are armed with flea-ridding tactics. Did you know that there are over a dozen different kinds of fleas? There's a difference between "cat" fleas and "dog" fleas. Most importantly, how do we get rid of them for good? We've got answers. Listen Now Muffin's Halo Our Hero Person this week invented a bumper, or better described as a 'halo,' that protects blind dogs from bumping into furniture and other obstacles. Sylvie Bordeaux was tired of seeing her blind dog bash into stuff. With needle and thread in hand, she created a genius product that is helping vision-impaired pups from being discarded at shelters. Listen Now New Uses For Unwanted Fur Now, a national organization called Born Free USA has come up with a fantastic idea. It collected unwanted furs and sent them to wildlife rehab centers in Texas. California and Missouri, where they were cut into small pieces and used for orphaned babies and injured animals to snuggle in. Listen Now Declawing Is Major Surgery The American Veterinary Medical Association has amended its policy to clarify that declawing is a major surgery that should only be performed as a last resort to prevent destructive clawing, but it stopped short of suggesting a ban on it. The new policy stresses the importance of educating cat guardians about normal feline scratching behavior, alternatives to declawing, and that declawing is actually the amputation of the first digit of the cat's toes. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

An Emasculating Rooster When Brian McGrory moved in with his girlfriend, he also moved in with a Rooster that did not like him. If Brian were to "make it work," he would have to learn a lot about how to befriend a foul with ruffled feathers. He joins us and we have copies of his best-selling book, "Buddy, How A Rooster Made Me A Family Man." Listen Now Does Your Dog Know You? I Mean, Really Know You? A certain bark, a certain posture, a certain look. Your dog can tell a lot about you. They know when you're being unfair-to some extent. Researchers found that when dogs saw other dogs getting treats for a trick they'd been performing unrewarded, the uncompensated dogs became visibly distressed. It can even lead to depression. Listen Now I Don't Brush, Why Should Fluffy? Home dental care is one of the best ways to help keep your pet's teeth and gums healthy. And unlike us, not brushing could be fatal for your pet. Start as early as possible in your furry friend's life so he or she will become accustomed to having the mouth handled. Use a moistened, soft, pet or child's toothbrush, finger toothbrush, gauze around a finger, or even a cotton swab. Stay away from human toothpaste....unless your pet has learned to spit afterwards. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

Staying Together For The Pets Many pet owners treat their pets as if they were their own children, whether it be a dog, cat, turtle, or gerbil. For these owners, the pet is an integral part of the family. But owner beware, the pet that you love and cherish can easily be taken away from you in an instant if you are involved in a nasty divorce. Divorce Attorney Silvana Roso has the information you should know. Listen Now How Many Cats Do You Own? Residents in Wellington, Kansas, now have a limit on the number of their feline friends. As of January 1st, households in Wellington can only have a total of four cats. In order to cut down on the number of homeless cats, the town has also required that newly adopted cats be spayed or neutered. Listen Now Taking Great Pictures of Your Pet The Pawtographer Robert Semrow has a thing for taking cool pics with pets. In fact, he makes a living dressing up dogs (and cats) for photo shoots. He has tips to make it easier to photograph your furry-friend. Listen Now Read more about this week's show.

America's Pet Obesity Problem Obesity is troubling about 3 out of every 5 pets. This week, we're tackling this problem with stories, tips, and tricks to keep your pet healthy and happy. You'll hear about the kitty that ate McDonald's every day, an inventor that created a cat-treadmill, and a 77 lb. Dachshund. Listen Now Top Behavioral Problem Separation Anxiety not only tops the list of dog behavior problems, but it's most often brought on by the dog's owner or guardian without knowing it. Alan Kabel has sure-fire ways to teach an old dog new tricks. Listen Now Dogs Going Postal Dogs go postal in Los Angeles more than any other U.S. city. The U.S. Postal Service released its rankings of the best and worst cities for dog attacks on mail carriers. Los Angeles recorded 69 incidents last year. San Antonio and Seattle round out the top three worst cities. Wichita, Kansas, is the safest city with just 20 attacks. Almost six thousand postal workers were attacked by dogs. Listen Now Worm Season With Mosquito season comes an increase in parasitic worms that could ultimately be fatal. Joey Villani tells you how to keep the skeeters away, and Dr. Joel Ehrenzweig tells listeners about over-the-counter products that are safe for your pets, but put a damper in any worm's day. Listen Now Dogs Good For Our Hearts The American Heart Association (AHA) has declared that pets, especially dogs, are good for a person's heart. Further proof that dogs are among the best friends a person could have. Dr. Glenn N. Levine, director of Baylor University's cardiac care unit, says, "Pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is probably associated with a decreased risk of heart disease." Listen Now Plus, the Animal Radio Dream Team answers questions about your pet. Read more about this week's show.