Zazie and Kristi chat with Victoria Schade, dog trainer and author of delightful romcoms, about her upcoming book Unleashed Holiday.

We learn about the Puppy Bowl and Victoria's involvement in it as lead animal wrangler, and how she made the move to writing, first with nonfiction books about dog training and then to romcoms. We chat about how Victoria's books include real-life issues, and how she juggles the 'educator' and 'entertainer' hats.

Victoria’s upcoming book, Dog Friendly, will be released on September 17th. The main character is a vet, and Victoria tells us how she went about researching the life of a vet so that she could get the details right. Zazie and Kristi wonder if any of the dogs in Victoria's books are based on real animals that she has known, and get her tips for writing about dogs.

Then we ask about her book Unleashed Holiday. If you’re in the US you have the chance to win an advance reader copy of the book. Finally we chat about the books we're reading.

Enter the competition to win an advance reader copy of Unleashed Holiday here: https://www.facebook.com/companionanimalpsychology/posts/pfbid025Q1JP5mxZj3H53nb6jCuC7qsXYLtR2zCKcUV1npCPwLeF3tMKme7r815zauc9qrfl

You can watch some highlights from the Puppy Bowl here: https://youtu.be/aCIxotfhQ24

The books we're reading

Poppy in the Wild by Teresa J. Rhyne

Dog Friendly and Who Rescued Who, both by Victoria Schade

The Book of Silver Linings by Nan Fischer

About the co-hosts:

Kristi Benson is an honours graduate of 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 teaching and consultations. Kristi is on staff at the Academy for Dog Trainers, helping to shape the next generation of canine professionals. Kristi’s dogs are rescue sled dogs, mostly retired and thoroughly enjoying a good snooze in front of the woodstove.

Kristi Benson's website Facebook

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of 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 also has a column at Psychology Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and one cat.

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