Happy Dog Happy Human

In this episode, we explore neurodiversity in dogs and share our experiences of living with dogs whose behavior, sensory sensitivities, and training needs diverge from the "norm" of expected dog behavior. We also dig deeper into the term "neurodivergent" and examine the pro's and con's of using this term with dogs. Angela helps us find curiosity by accepting our dogs for who they are and Sharon shares the "Consensual Petting" Care Tip to help us give more autonomy to dogs when they interact with us.

In this episode, we explore our perceptions of what it means to be a “successful” dog guardian and how this impacts our mental health and our perceptions of our dogs’ behavior. We also answer the questions: Do dogs set goals? Do they feel proud when they accomplish something? And, How do they feel about failure? Angela opens up about her journey as Duchess’s guardian, and Sharon shares the Sniff Box tip, a low cost resource to enrich your dog’s days and support them in managing frustration.

In this episode, we explore how toxic positivity shows up in our relationships with dogs and contributes to actions like praising dogs for being “tolerant” of rough play and touch by children, and saying “are you going to get another one?” after a friend’s dog dies. We also challenge the idea that “a tired dog is a good dog”, honor the nuance involved in rehoming a dog, and identify ways to support each other better through dog death and difficult dog behavior.

In this episode, we explore how urgency shows up in our relationships with dogs. Angela helps us recognize how dogs seem to feel urgency when they are pulling toward something on the leash, and highlights how dogs also show us that resting is important. Sharon shares a story about how urgency comes up when providing hygiene care for Muggins, and then we learn from Muggins that pausing for a belly rub, a sniff, or to process our experiences can support our overall well being in really important ways.

In this episode we explore how binary thinking and perfectionism contribute to perceptions of the “ideal dog” and our tendencies to judge ourselves and others when our dogs are not behaving in the “ideal” way. We also celebrate that dogs are “anti-perfectionist” and discover what we can learn from them about self-acceptance and authenticity.

In this final episode of Season 1, we review what psychosis is and Angela helps us differentiate between this and schizophrenia. Then we explore the experience of psychosis in dogs, illuminating the phenomena of “fly catching syndrome” and “star gazing”, touch on the health-related side-effects of selective breeding, and Sharon shares about a behavior case that highlights the importance of ruling out underlying medical causes when assessing dog behavior.

In this episode, we explore self-awareness and pessimism and the idea of whether dogs are aware of themselves and capable of having an overall outlook on life. We also discuss similarities between depression and other medical conditions and the importance of ruling out pain or underlying medical diagnoses. And we explore strategies that can help dogs who may be depressed, such as engaging in sniffing, having choices, and the importance of considering medication.

In this episode we talk about the dog experience of grief, what this looks like in dogs, how we can help our dogs through grief, and we share stories about dogs we know who have grieved the death of their human or animal sibling, and stories from around the world of dogs who have demonstrated loyalty even after death.

In this episode we talk about the experiences of trauma and post-traumatic stress in dogs, what causes post-traumatic stress, how this relates to reactivity and sensory sensitivity, how our dogs’ trauma-related reactions and behaviors impact us, and some strategies to support us both.

In this episode we explore the dog experience of anxiety. We talk about what this looks like in our own dogs, Duchess and Muggins, how their anxiety impacts us, the environmental factors that contribute to dog anxiety, and strategies that we have found helpful.