The Pawsitive Post in Conversation by Companion Animal Psychology

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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 replay of our conversation about cat husbandry that first aired in 2023. (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.
At the end we chat about the books we’re reading. 
Useful links:-
Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy by Zazie Todd is available from all good bookstores.
All of the books mentioned in the episode are available from my Amazon store. 
The Paw Project: Cats’ paws need their claws https://pawproject.org/
BC’s 2018 ban on declawing cats was good news for cats, study shows
What kind of scratching post do cats prefer?
Caring for a diabetic cat gets easier with time, study shows
How to give your cat an insulin injection (iCatCare) 
How to train your cat to use an asthma inhaler
Teach any cat AeroKat (iCatCare) 
How to clip your cat’s claws (iCatCare) 
Two people giving a cat a pill (iCatCare) 
Medicating tips and tricks (Fundamentally Feline) 
Comfort cats in a towel wrap (Dr. Sophia Yin) 
Fresh and Fearless: Basic Grooming Made Easy (Kristi Benson)
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About the co-hosts:
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's website  Facebook  

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. 
Instagram  BlueSky

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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.
The Far and Wild website: https://farandwild.ca/
Dr. Cliff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcliffworldwidevet/
Support the show
About the co-hosts:
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's website  Facebook  

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. 
Instagram  BlueSky

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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
Also mentioned in this show:
Ep65 on bothsidesism https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/19661849
Ep61 How to evaluate the scientific research on dogs and cats https://www.buzzsprout.com/2183505/episodes/19388459
Kristi's blog post on good alternatives to e-fencing: https://www.kristibenson.com/blog/2019/11/4/good-alternatives-to-e-fencing-dog-training-experts-weigh-in
Zazie's blog post on science communication: To promote positive reinforcement on dog training, teach, engage, and amplify https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2019/06/to-promote-positive-reinforcement-dog.html
Zazie's post on why it's dogs' happiness, not obedience, that counts: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/fellow-creatures/202004/why-dogs-happiness-not-obedience-is-what-counts
The books we recommend in this episode are:
Memorial Park by Louisa Scarr
Starter Dog: My Path to Joy, Belonging, and Loving this World by Rona Maynard
Support the show
About the co-hosts:
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's website  Facebook  

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. 
Instagram  BlueSky

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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.
Learn more about Tamsin at https://tamsinpickeral.com/
Support the show
About the co-hosts:
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's website  Facebook  

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. 
Instagram  BlueSky

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Zazie and Kristi chat with Susannah Fullerton about her delightful book, Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them.
We talk about:
whether there is a special affiliation between writers and cats
how Susannah chose the writers to include in the book
some famous cats, including Hodge, who was a very fine cat indeed
Daffy, the cat who knew Anne of Green Gables before anyone else
why TS Eliot doesn't get a whole chapter despite inspiring the musical Cats
Dorothy L Sayers' cat Blitz
what the writers' accounts of their cats tell us about how the human-feline relationship has changed over the years
we get some of Susannah's favourite titbits from the book and ask which is her favourite cat
we learn about Susannah's upcoming book, Great Writers and the Dogs Who Loved Them
and finally we ask what she's been reading

You can see examples of Edward Lear's drawings of his cat Foss in this post on Susannah's website: https://susannahfullerton.com.au/literary-pets-foss-the-cat/
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.
Learn more and sign up for her newsletter at https://susannahfullerton.com.au/
Support the show
About the co-hosts:
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's website  Facebook  

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, and has a column at Psychology Today. She lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, a dog and a cat. 
Instagram  BlueSky