Podcasts

The most recent hand-washing study mentioned at the end of this podcast was published in the Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management. In this study, the effect of hand-washing as a way to prevent the spread of methicillin-resistant Stapholococcus aureus (MRSA) in a hospital was studied. Over a 3-year period, hospital-transmitted cases of MRSA declined by a significant 49%, even though the number of patients admitted with the bacteria increased during that same period. However, in order to ensure compliance, the researchers had to develop what amounted to a hand-washing police force, individuals who would constantly remind the medical staff

In case you wondered how I resolved my dilemma… These are the evening primrose and the long-stemmed white flowers whose name I always forget the mallow and astilbe,   the last of the sweet William and flourishing Korean willow,   the last lupine, some newly blooming daylilies,   an unidentified insect, and the lawn.

There’s a Bamboo tale that goes with this podcast. Just as I was editing the last bit of it, he stepped on some combination of keys on the keyboard that put blue bands at the top and bottom of the sound track and itty-bitty arrows in it, plus caused it to do weird things when I clicked the cursor or hit control z in an attempt to undo the damage. In a panic about losing all that work, I did what I always do in a computer crisis, I called one of my sons, this time Jeremy. He had

I tried to get some pictures of those feline-canine interactions currently going on in my house that I could allow to generate fear if I chose to go that route. But as it turned out, many times as soon as the animals see the camera, they immediately stop what they’re doing. Instead, Frica freezes and shuts her eyes lest the dreaded flash goes off while the others scurrying toward me to see what I’m doing. In fact, these results are sufficiently consistent that I bet I could create an entire training program based on the timely use of a

If you read the blog about the new addition to my household, you probably guessed that a podcast about Bamboo was inevitable. As I write this, there’s dirt on the floor where he raced through a large plant on his way to the desk where he knocked over a picture before leaping onto an old piano roll cabinet where he knocked over a carved Russian monk on his way to window sill to see what was going on outside. Never a dull moment!    Bewitching………………..getting ready to bother and bamboozle

This is kind of a heavy podcast, but I think it’s important because it’s about something that can mean the difference between treatment success and failure: commitment. And no, this isn’t one of those “Blame the owner” rants. Instead, it’s about one way we can stop spinning our wheels and summon the commitment to get the job done right.

No, this isn’t about some dread new disease that attacks male dogs or cats without warning and causes them to go blind. On the contrary, this podcast is about a human affliction, but probably not the one you might have in mind. For whatever reason, BeeBee and Ollie thought this podcast would sound better with a background of jangling tags and general canine fooling around. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

If I had edited out all the parts of this podcast with dog-noises, there wouldn’t have been anything left.  In fact, the sight of the recorder now so reliably triggers BeeBee and Ollie to engage in raucous play, I’m thinking about getting a patent on this use and making millions. Until that lucky day when I can afford a pet-free recording studio, the barks, growls, grunts, jingling and all the other sounds associated with two young dogs tearing around the house oblivious to their detrimental effect on my recording career are doomed to remain. For those interested, the tall

No, this isn’t a podcast about the relationship between animal bellybuttons and the animal’s behavior or some such thing. This is a podcast about the two kinds of relationships people may have with animals: those that come from the outside in and those that come from the inside out. Confused? If so, hopefully the podcast with make this clear.

I decided a few visuals would help, but I had no desire to recreate the fiasco. Instead I took the following from the top of the slope which, I admit, make the it look pretty lame. This one is taken looking down on the tree with its killer bittersweet on the left. The bright green is early wild rosebush foliage: I admit it doesn’t look like much. Here’s a picture of the trailer from the top of the slope: And how it initially looked to me after my fall from grace: It’s amazing how little time it takes the

This week’s ruminations focus on the famous ethological statement, “To relate or not to relate, that is the question.” Well, not really famous because I just made it up. But the concept comes up so often in seminars and in my mentoring program, it might have a teenier weenie bit of fame in that world. If you want to read a write-up about the study that precipitated these thoughts you’ll find it here. Even though I don’t completely agree with the study (or the way the article presents it which I realize may not be the same), I do

Technically, in this podcast I continue to master the new recorder settings that will provide the best quality while enabling me to record while staying ahead of Ollie and BeeBee who still think the recorder means “Play time!!” In fact, Ollie apparently has made that connection so well that if I leave the recorder somewhere where he can get it, he will take it to the dog couch and shake it out of its case. I’m happy to report that the recorder suffered no negative effects from two episodes of this, and I learned to keep it in an

If cats and dog could drive, what kind of cars would they drive? Or if their furry little feet couldn’t reach the pedals, what kind of cars would they prefer to be driven around in? Well, if we look at what drives their behavior, there’s only one answer: the most energy-efficient one.

StClair’s crisper returns as do two of her stalkers, making it clear that she needs to brush up on her investigative skills. McCarthy?  Unpredictable as ever.

A quotation that showed up in a weekly news magazine caused my thoughts to meander down the path of management. What does it mean to manage an animal’s behavioral problem? Are there times when it’s OK and time’s when it isn’t? Is there a right way and wrong way to do it? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

As we say in animal behavior, there’s no such thing as the winner of a fight. The winner is merely the one who loses the least.

A few visuals so you can see the source of inspiration for this podcast. Here is Ollie with his ball: And with apologies to Martha Stewart, here he he is his ball on the aesthetically questionable dog chaise:   You can see how he’s started to dig up the denim cover, but has yet to pull the pillow down.

StClair learns a valuable lesson: It’s a really dumb move to get caught collecting evidence by a murderer. Such individuals tend to be rather testy and unpredictable under those circumstances.

Even though we tell ourselves it could have been worse, most people around here agree that it’s been a long and difficult winter. That plus my interest in nature makes me ultra-sensitive to even the most subtle signs that spring is truly on the way…

StClair makes a detour on her way to Journey’s End to solve some minor mysteries that had troubled her. Too bad she spent so much time doing this…

This podcast offers irrefutable proof that I get very grumpy when something unexpected regarding the human-companion animal relationship assaults me over the airwaves early in the morning. The result this time is a semi-rant on the long-term detrimental effect the media can have on our our dogs’ behavior. Let the listener beware 🙂

Nick Cooper sends StClair back to square one until a flash of insight that catapults Matty into the sink puts her back on track again.  At last she knows who killed her client.

  I received a voice recorder for my birthday and this podcast represents my first attempt to master the new improved technology. All is not perfect but this shouldn’t be any problem since none of my podcasts have ever been perfect. Below is a recent picture of my flexibly communicating dogs, from left to right, Frica, BeeBee , and Ollie. Because I took the picture and know these dogs, I can tell you what their body language communicates. Frica is wearing her “I would  rather die than be caught looking at you when that flash goes off” expression. BeeBee

StClair began investigating her canine suspects with the idea that this would reveal the guilty party.  Now it seems like she’s found the culprit, except for one unexpected detail…

I recorded this the day after Whit died, but chose not to post it for several weeks and even considered not publishing it at all. And yet the events were so Whit, it seemed to me that they comprised a final tribute to yet another amazing animal.

StClair and McCarthy play “True Confessions.” Or rather StClair pretty much tells all while McCarthy, as usual, holds something back.

Down with socialization? Have I lost my friggin’ mind? Well, that’s always a possibility. But I do think it’s time to rethink this concept because there’s so much confusion surrounding it.

Nothing quite like a night-time swim in a thunderstorm to get the blood flowing. Finally make it back to shore…and then things really go downhill.

Have you ever experienced what appeared to be several quite unrelated events, only to later realized that they all were linked by a greater theme? That’s what led to this podcast. I was involved in discussions with colleagues about two quite different projects as well as those with clients about their animals with equally different problems. Superficially none of these appeared to have anything in common. But as I thought about them as a group as well as individually, I realized that human beliefs about faith, placebos, and healing played an integral role in them all. Amazingly, the dogs

StClair makes another foray into breaking and entering, only to discover that some things are worse than being pursued by someone with a gun.

A rundown of last week’s animal events, accompanied as usual by the dogs. Even though I would love to say that all that banging around resulted in them putting an addition on the back of my house while I was recording, in reality they were just playing. For reasons unknown–the days getting longer perhaps?–there was less vocalizing and a lot more plowing into things, including each other.

The plot thickens as StClair learns more about schutzhund and her canine suspects. Alas, some of it leads right back to her quasi-partner…

When you’re trying to hire a good burglar, who needs a lecture?  Why does McCarthy insist on complicating something so simple?

The cold still lingers, but this podcast does prove that it’s possible to ignore a dog fight as well as jangling dog tags. Actually, the dog fight wasn’t really a dog fight. It was just BeeBee doing her snarky thing and Frica telling her to stuff it up her tailless behind. A “New York Times” review of The Snoring Bird, Bernd Heinrich’s wonderful memoir, can be found here.

Now that she’s free to focus on her suspects again, StClair gets a crash course in canine body language.

No, I haven’t asked my reclusive twin brother to record this podcast for me. Nor am I considering a second career doing breathy phone calls or, more likely, entering frog croaking contests. I don’t have a twin of either sex and can’t think of any career aspirations that would make my current lower croaky voice an asset. I simply have a bad cold.

You would think that McCarthy would be eternally grateful when StClair finds his goat, but no. Well, maybe a little…

This is a sort of on-the-fly podcast in that I recorded it amidst the rush of getting ready to go to Orlando to speak at a veterinary conference. I can’t say that it’s not up to my usual high technical standards because my technical standards aren’t that high. Still there are some rough spots. For those who are interested, here’s a link to the article discussing the study I meandered around this week from a bond and animal behavioral point of view.

So where would you hide a very valuable goat once you found her? The answer seems so obvious to StClair, she can’t imagine why McCarthy doesn’t agree.

This podcast comes with one addition, one link, and an invitation for anyone who wants to accept it. The addition is the name of person to whom nature photographer and author Fritz Polking attributed the quote, “All the technology in the world can’t compensate for the inability to notice anything.” His name is Elliot Erwitt. Here’s the link to Fritz Pölking’s amazing work that sadly opens to a page announcing his death. But you’ll also find links to his portfolio, gallery, and books, including At the Pulse of Life, the one I received as a gift. Third, the invitation:

Having forgotten the primary rule of breaking and entering-don’t leave incriminating evidence behind-StClair meets the goatnapper head-on. Literally.

Some people listen to sports news programs and think about sports. I listen to them and think about rats, dogs, and people, and how we teach each other. What can I say? It seems logical to me.  🙂

This is the week I should do a podcast filled with all kinds of wonderful resolutions for pet owners, but the reality is that I’m so far behind this is the podcast I intended to do last week. Think of it as extending the holiday season… Here’s a link to an article about the study I mentioned.

Breaking and entering is a lot like eating peanuts. After you do it once, it’s hard to resist doing it again.  What’s that strange noise?  Could it be…

A few visuals to go along with this week’s podcast.  It’s difficult to get a good picture of the basement stairs because of their location. But these two pictures will give you come idea of their steepness. The first is of the stone structure that is about 7′ high, and the stairs to the left that end on a concrete pad. The second is a view of the area behind the structure. You can see the steepness of the stairs as well as the narrowness of the treads in the lower right.   Next are some pictures I took

Some days what you discover about those around you make brain-sucking aliens a viable explanation.

What do ice and thinking dogs have in common? Probably not much, but these are some thoughts on both that came to me during last week’s ice storm. You can find a discussion of the study I mentioned here. And here are some pictures I took after the storm ended. A view from the front and back doors:   A white pine that lost several big branches, and a close-up of the amount of ice on the needles.     My once lovely 4′ high ornamental grass with fluffy white plumes reduced to a sodden mass: And for those

Did anyone ever drag you into some scheme that was so hare-brained you just wanted to pound them? In this chapter, StClair gets her chance.

This week’s podcast is about some practical things pets can teach us that make it easier to handle any stress related to the holidays or life in general. In it I mention two yoga poses, tree and plow. There are multiple versions of each of these poses, but these are the ones that I do with or without help from the resident quadrupeds.

StClair decides to engage in some serious breaking and entering to find that damned goat. Turns out there’s a lot more involved in this criminal endeavor than she’d thought…

At this time of year and especially this particular year, you hear a lot of people talking about stress so I figured I might as well, too. The two sources who contributed to my thought processes were, first, the DVD of Stress: Portrait of a Killer, a show that originally aired on PBS and contained fascinating information about the effects of stress on humans and primates. The second was David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. You can read a review of the book here.

Who wouldn’t have leaped at the opportunity to go through McCarthy’s papers given how uncommunicative he is? True, doing it so soon after StClair berates him for not trusting her is a bit inconsistent. But still…

Preparing for a seminar always has its little challenges, but getting death threats usually isn’t one of them.  And just where, exactly, is StClair’s supposed partner during all of this?

In spite of the fact that I am technologically challenged, I do like the way that links work on the Internet because this is the way my mind works. Rather than progressing in a predictable linear direction, a single word or image can cause it to jump in a whole new direction. This explains how I can start off talking about killer ferns and wind up pondering what our beliefs about pet love say about us. Lots of jangling dog tags and sloppy canine water-drinking noises this week in addition to a few audio hiccups, too. The dog part

It seems only natural that you could learn something useful about someone than from reading their professional writing. And that innocent chats with a postmaster and a pathologist couldn’t possibly lead to life of crime.  Funny how life never turns out the way you plan.

This started out as a podcast describing the mediocre-at-best history of Presidential dogs, but turned into something quite different by the end. Below is the video of Barney, President Bush’s dog, having the breakdown in communication with members of the press that I describe in the podcast.

It just figures, doesn’t it? Monica’s neighbors at the lake all smell as fishy as the lake’s natural inhabitants. And, nice as goats are, how could any goat be worth millions?

Local gossip reveals intriguing details about Monica’s neighbors, but a first meeting with the mysteriously credentialed, minimally communicative Chandler McCarthy isn’t nearly so rewarding.

Before I forget again, for those of you who live or have animal-loving friends in the Washington, DC area, the seminar next weekend is going to be a good one.  Be the first on your block to understand what those canine and feline behaviors really mean. Tell your friends. 🙂  For more information or to register, contact Debbie Winkler at deb@humanedomain.net or call her at  (410) 549-1135. *** This week’s podcast immortalizes the end of an era, and it seemed only right to include pictures to enhance your experience as you listen to this touching tribute. This is what

StClair confirms that Monica’s ruminant roomie is not your usual run-of-the-pasture goat, but it turns out she isn’t the only one who knows that.

A baggie of goat droppings, a piece of fur-covered tissue, a few blood-spattered petals: what more evidence could the police possibly need to realize that Harley didn’t kill Monica?

What could these two topics possibly have in common?  As it turns out, a lot more than you might think.

One minute everything is going great and the next, your new client’s very mangled and very dead body is discovered with her bloody dog standing over it. Boy, does that ever change things in a hurry!

Welcome to Chapter One of Beastly Business, my first behavoiral/bond mystery written for those who share my fascination of  animal behavior and the human-animal bond–from the very best to the very worst. This week we meet the somewhat reclusive and, to some, somewhat strange veterinary ethologist StClair Upton, her diminutive and timid new client Monica Sonco, and Monica’s dog, a brawny pitbull named Harley. We also get a few hints about the unusual the human-canine problem that will change all of their lives forever.

No, this isn’t a morose podcast. Just some thoughts related Whit’s surgery and recovery and my emotions’ effect on it. One thing that occurred to me after-the-fact is that I used the word “crate” which might be confusing to some. The term is now used to refer to those small enclosures that were designed to transport dogs and cats, usually by plane. Originally these were called dog or cat carriers, but then soft enclosures were added to the line-up and given the same name.  To avoid confusion, the original carriers were then referred to as crates. This is a

This was a difficult podcast for me because I don’t like to rant and it is extremely difficult for me not to do so when I mentally link these three subjects. One good thing is that it’s hard to put much energy into ranting when you’re trying to stay away from dogs with clinking tags and the surprisingly loud noise of such tags clanking on a stainless steel water bowl. Sometimes I’m not sure what’s worse: the pet-related noise or the sound of me huffing and puffing trying to get away from it.This podcast would have been longer if

What do denial, squash, and the the human-animal bond have in common? Find out in this podcast. But before you do, check out these pictures. Can you tell a squash from a melon?

In the process of recording this podcast just about everything that could do wrong did: multiple thunderstorms that caused power outages, animals stir-crazy from being stuck inside so often thanks to the lousy weather, and the discovery that the speech center of my brain is apparently sensitive to humidity. What else could explain the tongue-tripping errors?   I would have started over for the gazillioneth time, but the weather was getting worse. So here it is in all its stormy, animal-laden, tongue-twisted glory. In the podcast I mention two great books, the Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson and

This podcast is about a study I consider a virtual Rosetta Stone relative to understanding the relationship between physiology, behavior, and domestication: the Russian Farm Fox Study. While recording it, I managed to stay out of range of the playing dogs most of the time and edited out most of the “ums” and breathiness that occurred when I tried to outrun or outsmart them. I’m beginning to get the feeling that they’ve made the connection between my using the voice recorder and canine party time. Simultaneously I was trying to outrun a storm because I didn’t think crashing thunder

This week my podcasting career suffered a double assault that left bloody, but unbowed. With apologies to William Ernest Henley’s Invictus (which I had to memorize in the 11th grade), It matters not how strewn with animals the path, How filled with incomprehensible terminology the emails, I eventually will be the master of my podcasting fate. I eventually will become the captain of my podcasting soul.

Did you ever support some animal-related practice that you and almost everyone else thought was fantastic, the bee’s knees as we used to say in the old days, only to question the wisdom of it later? As we have more access to more information faster, such doubts seem to crop up more often. Then the question becomes, what are we going to do when that happens?

I continue to master the technological aspects of podcasting with more or less success. But a report on Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton’s historic unifying visit to my little town of Unity, NH last week seemed like something that would cause people to overlook my electronic limitations, so enthralled would they be in the story of the dogs’ and my first foray into national politics. Well, our sort of first foray…

Join me as I make my first foray into podcasting, share my angst as I come to grips with imperfection, and learn about some of the characters you’ll be hearing in the weeks ahead–whether I want them to comment or not!

First, I want to thank all of you who listened to Getting Fixed and look forward to you comments, either in the blog or personal email to me. For those who asked, a complete recording of the theme song for the book, Irritations into Pearls by Jeff Firestone is available for your listening enjoyment here. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll find it. When Jeff gave me a CD of his compositions, this is the one that immediately struck me reflecting the tone of the story and its characters. When I asked him what’s its

Bonus Download! The Making of Getting Fixed Discover more about the book, plus share the adventures of a techno-klutz as she makes her first foray into the world of audio book recording surrounded by a collection of domestic and not so domestic animals.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

Getting Fixed is a free audio book about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here to learn more about the story.

For those facing a very long winter, I’ve serialized the novel, Getting Fixed, and will be making a new chapter available very week for the next 21 weeks. Getting Fixed is a story about how the way we relate to animals affects our lives, sometimes in most unexpected ways, and sometimes whether we want it to or not. Listen to the latest chapter below or click here learn to more about the story.

I’ve been working on a series of mysteries that portrays animals and the human-companion animal bond more realistically for years, so I’m very excited about finally mastering technology enough to offer the first one on-line. Enjoy! Book Description Even if they don’t know her personally, everyone in Summerset, NH knows that StClair Upton loves animals. But when StClair meets Monica Sonco and her pit bull, Harley, the veterinarian’s semi-reclusive, animal-loving world begins to wobble wildly on its axis. Monica obviously loves Harley, and it’s obvious that the dog is devoted to her, but the relationship is wrong. All wrong.