Enrichment for the Real World
You've dedicated your life to helping animals- just like us.
Emily Strong was training praying mantids at 7.
Allie Bender was telling her neighbor to refill their bird feeder because the birds were hungry at 2.
You're an animal person; you get it.
We've always been animal people. We've been wanting to better animals' lives since forever, so we made a podcast for people like us.
Join Emily and Allie, the authors of Canine Enrichment for the Real World, for everything animal care- from meeting animals' needs to assessing goals to filling our own cups as caregivers and guardians.
Episodes
174 episodes
#173 - 5 Ways You’re F*cking Up Your Leash Reactivity Plan
Dealing with leash reactivity can really be a drag (only moderate pun intended 😂). Jokes aside, if you have a dog that does the whole barky, bitey, lungey thing on leash, to dogs, to people, or to the leaf that blew across the neighbor's roof, ...
#172 - If Treats Fixed Reactivity, You'd Be Done By Now
You bought the “good” treats, you know, the all-natural, human-grade, $14-a-bag ones. You've got the *perfect* dedicated pouch after hours of research. You’ve studied your protocol. Shoot, at this point, you could probably coach your friends th...
#171 - No, Not All Dogs Need Walks
You've been told your dog needs daily walks. We get it; everyone has. When you were a kid and wanted a dog, your guardians probably said something like, “Okay, but you have to make sure to feed, water, and walk them…” A...
#170 - Q&A: How to Multi-Pet Household
In this Q&A episode, Allie, Emily, and Ellen tackle the questions they hear most often from clients, mentees, and the internet: Should I get another pet? How do I treat my pets fairly when they all need different things? And how do I actual...
.png)
#169 - Kiki Yablon: Why Your Dog Won’t Settle When You’re Busy
This week we’re joined by Kiki Yablon, behavior analyst, dog trainer, KPA faculty member, and general bad a**. Kiki’s incredible skills of observation, communication, and implementation are honestly inspiring. If you’ve found yo...
#168 - Stop Waiting to Know the Right Thing. Here's How to Decide
You know that feeling where you're staring at what feels like a total dumpster fire, and you’re just… frozen? It’s not because you don't care or because you don't know anything. It’s because you're waiting to feel certain before taking action. ...
#167 - Are You Designing Plans for Your Dog... or for Your Anxiety?
Hey, hi, hello. Do you also fall into the pet parent spiral? Worrying that you aren’t a good pet parent, that your dog is suffering, and that you aren’t doing enough. After a two-hour planning session, you have a color-coded, 14-item document t...
.png)
#166 - Your Dog is Not Symptom Spreadsheet
Do you ever feel like you and your dog are on the Hot Mess Express together? The challenges just keep coming: leash reactivity, resource guarding, body-handling sensitivities, gut issues, sleep disruption all at once, and that’s just the dog’s ...
#165 - Juliana DeWillems: Set Your Dog Up to Succeed (Without Guilt)
Management is one of the most underused and misunderstood tools in dog training. KPA CTP and author Juliana DeWillems (she/her) joins Emily to reframe management (aka antecedent arrangement) not as a shortcut or bandaid, but as behavior science...
#164 - When Management Turns into Micromanagement
Is your dog’s management plan starting to feel more like a full-time job than a support system? In this episode, Emily and Tiffany break down the critical differences between strategic management and exhausting micromanagement. Whether you’re a...
#163 - Fears from Pets Past
Have you ever found yourself bracing for a repeat of everything that went wrong with a previous pet? In this episode, Emily and Veronica get real about how our experiences with past pets shape how we show up for the animals in our lives right n...
#162 - Choice, Control, Agency, and Predictability
You've heard the buzzwords: agency, choice, control, predictability. But if you've ever tried to implement all of them at once and you know it can feel like trying to juggle 100 balls. Emily and Allie break down why agency isn't a pass/fail eth...
#161 - The Difference Between Safety and Security
Have you ever watched your dog happily bolt toward a car, completely unbothered, while another dog trembles in a loving, calm home? Both dogs are caught in the gap between being safe and feeling safe, and it turns out that gap matters enormousl...
#160 - The Skill No Protocol Can Replace
Look. If memorizing protocols was the secret to being a great trainer, we'd all just hand out flashcards and call it a day. But that's not how this works, and deep down, you already know that.Emily (she/they) and Ellen (she/her) are gett...
#159 - When Your Training Isn’t Showing Results in Real Life
You nail a training session. Your dog is locked in, responding beautifully, and you feel that rare rush of “we’ve got this.” Then real life shows up and your dog looks at you like you’ve never met. Sound familiar? Here’s the thing: that moment ...
#158 - Why Dogs Need Skills, Not Just Feelings
There’s a quiet assumption that runs through a lot of behavior work: if we can just change how an animal feels about something, the problem will resolve. Counterconditioning is a powerful tool, and Emily and Allie aren’t here to take it away fr...
#157 - Haylee Heisel: Why Giving More Doesn’t Fix Resource Guarding
Resource guarding is one of those behaviors that gets treated like it’s one simple problem with one simple fix.Just add abundance.Just countercondition it.Just follow this protocol.Except… it’s not that simple.
#156 - Q&A: All About Resource Guarding
In this Q&A episode, we’re answering your questions about resource guarding. If you’ve ever lied awake at 2am thinking: “Is this normal?” “Am I overreacting?”“Did I cause this?” “Should...
#155 - Try It: Engaging Indoor Games for Pets
Do you ever feel like enrichment has turned into a second full-time job?Hours of prep. Fancy toys. Amazon carts. Storage bins. Guilt.In this episode, Emily walks you through three simple, adaptable foraging game categories that ta...
#154 - Dog Training Advice: Find What Works
You scroll.One trainer says never let your dog look at the trigger.Another says your dog has to look at the trigger.Both sound confident. Both sound science-y. Now you’re more confused than when you started.In this e...
#153 - Why Dogs React Suddenly: Trigger Stacking
Ever have one of those days where your dog absolutely loses their mind over something they handled fine yesterday, and you're left standing there like, “Cool, cool, cool, love this for us, what just happened?”That wasn’t ...
#152 - Advocating for Your Anxious Dog as an Anxious Human
Advocating for your dog sounds simple, but it sure isn’t always easy. Your heart races, your brain goes blank, and a stranger (or family member 🙃) is giving you unsolicited advice while your dog is already at threshold.In this episode, E...
#151 - Labels: Helpful or Harmful?
Labels are everywhere: reactive dog, bad pet parent, confident trainer, resilient learner. They’re meant to simplify things, and while they can be helpful, sometimes they do the opposite.In this episode, Emily and Ellen unpack h...
.png)
#150 - If You Aren’t Doing It, It's Not Doable
Hi, do you keep telling yourself, “I know what to do, I just need to actually do it?” Welcome. In this episode, Emily and Tiffany unpack a hard (and oddly relieving) truth: when something isn’t happening, it’s usually a design probl...
#149 - The Dangers of “Enrichment”
When we say The Dangers of “Enrichment”, the air quotes are doing a lot of work.In this episode, Emily and Ellen unpack how things labeled as enrichment can actually aggressively miss the mark. From the “more is better” mindset ...
