Dog Talk ® (and Kitties Too!)

#898A: Marianne Leone’s memoir, “Five Dog Epiphany: How a Quintet of Badass Bichons Retrieved Our Joy,” relays how a series of adopted little white dogs helped her recover from the death of her son.

 #898B: Joan Gratz, a pioneering film animator who won an Oscar in 1992 for Best Animated Film, is coming to NYC to see two of her innovative cat-centric films premiering at the 7th Annual NY Cat Film Festival October 15th. 

#897A: W. Bruce Cameron talks about “Ripley, Fire Station Five,” the newest title in his “Dogs With a Purpose” series for school age children — seeing the world from their point of view, along with the dog’s eye view, for which Cameron is famous.

#897B: Dr. Amy Pike, of the Animal Behavior Wellness Clinic outside Washington, D.C., talks about dogs who become thunderstorm phobic — ways to manage their environment and medications that can help calm the dogs, especially the oral gel Sileo — which works for Tracie’s trembling pooch, Wanda. 

#896A: Peter Abrahams is back with another dog-driven mystery novel in his renowned Chet & Bernie mystery series — as fun as ever!

#896B: Wendy Lyons Sunshine takes her knowledge about raising adopted children from difficult circumstances and applies it to meeting the challenges of bringing out the best in adopted dogs in her book “Tender Paws: How Science-Based Parenting Can Transform Our Relationship with Dogs.”

#896C: Erin Jones, author of “Constructing Canine Consent: Conceptualising and Adopting a Consent-focused Relationship with Dogs,” explains that a wagging tail doesn't necessarily mean a dog is happy — it’s up to us to distinguish their body language that says “No” or “Maybe no.” 

#895A: Director Les Owen discusses his short film “One Mind,” which celebrates the relationship between a veteran with PTSD and his specially trained service dog — one of the semi-finalists being considered for the new Service Dog Salute category of the upcoming 9th Annual NY Dog Film Festival, presented by Purina Dog Chow  

895B: Linda Kohanov, author of “The Tao of Equus,” describes a similar magic of communication we can have with dogs, and how we can transfer her principles of Wu Wei (not doing, not forcing, not striving) from our relationship with horses to that with dogs. 

#89A: Dr. Andy Roark is what Tracie calls a Physician Philosopher, dispensing humorous insights to other veterinarians (and the rest of us!), with a weekly blog Tracie eagerly anticipates for his musings into the joys and burdens of being human — like his recent one “No One Cares About Your Broccoli” that they discuss. (Tracie knows she has a lot of company in Andy’s fan club — his podcast “Cone of Shame” has had over one million listens!)

#894B: Anne Marie Farage-Smith’s book “How to Heal from Pet Loss and Different Forms of Grief” offers wisdom and support for coping with the often surprisingly powerful grief that accompanies the death of a pet.

#893A: The role of horses in warfare throughout history [Hitler’s war had only 10% mechanized equipment — the rest was horsepower] is but one of the many amazing facts in Timothy Winegard’s riveting historical narrative “The Horse — a Galloping History of Humanity,” that shows how horses have been central to the entire arc of human history. 

#893B: Dr. Carolynne Joone, reproductive veterinarian and professor at James Cook University in Australia, discusses being surprised by the results of her own study of neutered Rottweilers (3,085 intact and 4,100 neutered Rottweilers) which showed that when neutered before one year of age, males died about 18 months younger and females one year younger than those left intact. Tracie adds that early spay/neuter also increases the risk of obesity, cancer and ACL/CCL tears in any dog desexed before fully grown.

#892A: Erin Jones, author of “Constructing Canine Consent: Conceptualising and Adopting a Consent-focused Relationship with Dogs,” questions why we expect our dog to do something he doesn’t want to? Where is the mutual reciprocity in the relationship? Are we missing the chance to truly respect and communicate with them?

#892B: Melissa Stagnaro describes the fun of training for Search and Rescue competitions (vs. “real life” missions) that have different levels of competition, including one test that certifies you for “mission ready” qualification. Dogs [and people!] of all types and sizes can participate. Searchandrescuesport.org.

#891A: Wendall Thomas explains how a dormouse drives the story in her London-based mystery "Fogged Off,” while an endangered Tasmanian Tiger does the same in Australia in “Drowned Under.”

#891B: Hanna Mandelbaum, co-founder of Evermore pet food, is crowing because their company has made “chicken history” by receiving rare GAP 4 certification by exclusively using Mary’s Free-Range chicken — which are slow growth, heirloom birds raised on pasture (and happen to be the closest link to the Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaurs!) 

#890A: Jennifer Holland’s book “Dog Smart: Life-Changing Lessons in Canine Intelligence” takes a look at the “smartest of the smart” dogs who do extraordinary things for us with their natural abilities — and asks whether we shouldn’t be a little smarter in our dealings with them!

#890B: Sara Goldenthal is a professional jazz singer, composer and dedicated advocate for cats in shelters, who wrote lyrics and sang “Angels Surround You” (free on Spotify!) which has ambient music in the calming frequency of 528 Hz to soothe shelter cats.

#889A: Dr. Amy Attas talks about her memoir “Pets and the City: True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian” and how three decades of tending to the pets of the rich and famous in their fabulous apartments has made her deeply appreciate the human-animal bond.