Ruff Around The Edges

Send a text Would you categorize stress as a negative emotion? Are you willing to feel it?  What do you do when something stressful happens on a walk?  The answer to that question might already give you the answer to the first two questions. Do you compound your stress with anger at the dog guardian of the out-of-control dog accosting yours? Or do you blame yourself for having gotten yourself and/...

Send a text UK veterinarian Grace and I talk about her Romanian Rescue dog Piper and how being the guardian of a challenging dog has impacted her work as a veterinarian. What were the advantages she had, being a vet already, in dealing with her dog? We also talk about all the terms and certifications being thrown around that relate to animal behavior and training. Are there vet behaviorists in the...

Send a text Are you going after the wrong goal ? Is your goal to be able to trust your dog? Is your goal to not want to be afraid of something bad happening to your dog or because of your dog? Is your goal to be able to have relaxed non-training dog walks? Or is it to be able to be calm under all circumstances? You might be chasing after the wrong thing. You wouldn't tell someone who's b...

Send a text After she had gotten several shoutouts on the podcast already, it was about time I interview the one and only Marissa Martino of Paws and Reward herself. Or rather, I got lucky enough to have her on the show. If I were you, I would listen to this show twice. There are so many gems in there. Listen to it once, just to absorb what Marissa is saying, and then listen again and ask yourself...

Send a text If you agonize over decisions , research purchases to death before buying, and weigh the pros and cons seemingly endlessly, then this is the episode for you. There’s a reason your brain does this. It’s trying to be kind to you. And its kindness often hurts more than it helps. All is not lost though. We’re not at the mercy of our brains. We actually have a say in things, which is what I...

Send a text You’ve heard of decompression walks, letting your dog enjoy nature and sniff away from the hustle and bustle of urban life. How about a 1600-mile decompression walk ? Luna (Marijke) and Werewolf (Scott) hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (2650 miles)  for their honeymoon and after clearing the desert section in Southern California, their dog SupDog (“real” name Balu) joined them for the rem...

Send a text This episode is all about how staying curious can help your dog, your relationships, and yourself. It was triggered by a conversation I had with a friend who wanted to know why I didn't use Caesar Milan's training style, because it seemed to be working for her. My conversation with her once more drove home the point I always try to make, which is that curiosity is the best an...

Send a text Megan and I talk about all things complex dogs: - Labels and when to use them. Is Luna, reactive, aggressive, complex, or "simply" a dog dealing with health issues? -What are her health issues? What's causing her extreme pica and food indiscrimination? -Is pica a cause or symptom of Luna's anxiety? -What's behind her resource guarding of her own vomit? And what...

Send a text Being perfectionistic is a badge we often wear with pride, but perfectionism mostly doesn't serve us. It doesn't serve us if we're learning new languages and it doesn't serve us when we are training our dogs . Have you ever refrained from saying something or asking a question because you didn't know how to word it quite right? Do you know you would make more pr...

Send a text TRIGGER WARNING: behavioral euthanasia There are so many different ways I could have titled this episode. The title could have said: on dealing with haters and threats, or on processing grief, or on the power of friendship and love from both friends and strangers, or on paying it forward and helping others by sharing their story. Logan, like so many of us, got way more than they signed...

Send a text Do you sometimes feel yourself end up living in a place of regret about things you wish you had done differently for and with your dog? Are you extra hard on yourself for having made mistakes? Do you go to the place of what ifs a lot? Then this episode is for you. I talk about what regret is and most importantly about the thought error you are probably making when it comes to what spec...

Send a text What do most guardians of our podcast dogs have in common? They go down the dog training rabbit hole, learning all there is to learn about dogs and dog training. At some point most of them have the thought:  “I might as well become a dog trainer now!” Sara is no different. We talk about that, but also about the importance of communication in her journey with Kiwi, a desert mix, as Duba...

Send a text If the podcast resonates with you and you want to dig a little deeper, coaching is the tool to help you cope better with stressful situations, makes you more confident and daring, and all around feel better. Schedule a free consult to see if it's for you here: https://calendly.com/kajsavanoverbeekcoaching/consult

Send a text If the podcast resonates with you and you want to dig a little deeper, coaching is the tool to help you cope better with stressful situations, makes you more confident and daring, and all around feel better. Schedule a free consult to see if it's for you here: https://calendly.com/kajsavanoverbeekcoaching/consult

Send a text Weaponized incompetence, had you heard of it?  Until recently I  had honestly never heard the term. It’s when someone pretends to be really bad at something in order to not be able to do it, like training or walking the dog… In this episode, I examine how mindset plays into that. Can incompetence be a weapon if we choose to not let it be? https://kajsavanoverbeek.com/bonus-episode-010-...

Send a text Imagine living in New York City with an anxious dog. I was pretty curious as to that experience and so when I found Lauren and Stella on Instagram,  asked them to come on the podcast, and were there stories to tell.   First of all we talk about how Lauren ended up choosing Stella, who is a she when she had set out to adopt a male dog. This had everything to do with Sammy her previous d...

Send a text There’s nothing more maddening than working off of a recipe that doesn’t properly specify the ingredients, or their quantities. It’s like when someone tells you to add a “dollop” of something and you wonder: Big dollop? Small dollop? Teaspoon full? Ladle? Internally you. are screaming for someone to please just give you an exact measurement already! We want the same when it comes to ou...

Send a text Very fittingly. I learned about Jay, whose a canine author, blogger and freelance Writer, and her dog Finn through a piece of her writing. It was an article that Jay wrote for Dogs Today a while ago, but that still makes the rounds among guardians of challenging dogs. What she wrote resonates deeply with most of us. You can read the full article here: https://dogstodaymagazine.co.uk/20...

Send a text In this episode, I address the concept of passing stress down the leash to your dog and all of its variants. I ask you to question what's the chicken and what's the egg ? Which came first ? Your stress or the dog's behavior? Is your stress the result of your dog lunging or the cause ? What does worrying about your stress, sensitivity or emotionality do for you? Does it m...

Send a text Do you have to deal with comments from others when you’re out and about with your (challenging) dog? Do you get remarks on working with food rewards? Made fun of for “rewarding” your dog for lunging or barking?   Imagine going through that and getting snide remarks about your sexuality thrown into the mix. Like how of course it’s the dyke who brings a rug for their dog to relax on at a...

Send a text If you’re someone who comes home from a dog walk to then classify it as good, bad, great, a disaster, or only a step shy of Valhalla , then you want to listen to this episode. Consider that it is actually you who makes your dog walks “bad” or “good”. And I say that very lovingly. Because it’s good news. Awareness is everything.  I explain some strategies you can follow to help you feel...

Send a text I loved this interview with Jennifer. Talking with her I understand 100% how she manages to work with all of her canine companions (and their people) so well. We talk about how she went from IT specialist to having a dog walking service and how she hasn’t regretted it at all. She talks about what it is like to foster dogs (and mentions that all of you who have adopted a dog from foster...

Send a text Sometimes we imagine that doing our utmost for our dogs has to feel like we are making a real effort. In other words, it has to feel hard . But does it really have to? Are we stressing ourselves out unnecessarily? Is it simply because we are not used to the fact that doing our best can feel like smooth sailing too? That’s what this episode is about. If the podcast resonates with you an...

Send a text Trigger Warning: behavioral euthanasia   This episode is full of amazement, wonder, celebration, grief, sadness, guilt, love and I want to say almost any and all of the emotions from all over the spectrum.   It’s long and unedited because a story like that of Meaghan and Sunny, which unfortunately does not have a happy end, needs to be told in full.  As you listen to the episode you’ll...

Send a text If the podcast resonates with you and you want to dig a little deeper, coaching is the tool to help you cope better with stressful situations, makes you more confident and daring, and all around feel better. Schedule a free consult to see if it's for you here: https://calendly.com/kajsavanoverbeekcoaching/consult