Just a Dog Podcast

Nadine Burzler
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Just a Dog Podcast is a dog welfare podcast for dog guardians, dog professionals and anyone who wants to understand dogs better. Host Nadine Burzler talks to scientists, vets, behaviourists, breeders, trainers and rescuers about the beliefs we inherit about dogs, from breeding and training to rescue and everyday life, and asks what science knows and what anecdotal experience tells us about how dogs think and feel. Each episode looks at the gap between what we know about dogs and what we actually do, and what it would take to close that gap. New episodes every other Monday.

  1. Aug 29

    Dogs at work | What content creators can learn from Hollywood dog trainers | Julie Strang | Cue the Dogs

    Julie Strang is a Hollywood animal trainer and founder of Cue the Dogs. She has trained animals for film and television since 2000, including Dog, John Wick 3 and 4, Fallout, and Lioness, as well as more than 200 national ad campaigns. She now teaches guardians how to train their dogs for the camera and get paid for brand work. In this episode, we talk about how dogs get cast, who owns them, where they come from, what a day on set is like for them, how much rest they get, how they are trained, and what happens when a dog doesn't want to work. We also talk about what changes now that the same work is happening on phones at home. If you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes with dog actors in films and adverts, or whether it's fair on the dogs, this episode is for you. -- Julie Strang is based in Charleston, South Carolina, and lives with Lana Five, a Belgian Malinois she met on the set of Dog in 2020. Find Julie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cuethedogs/ New episodes of Just a Dog Podcast every second Monday. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justadogpodcast/ Substack: https://goofles.substack.com/subscribe If you would like to sponsor the podcast, please get in touch at hello@goofles.com

  2. Aug 13

    Animal rescue burnout | The signs of compassion fatigue rescue workers miss | Jessica Dolce

    Most people arrive in animal welfare believing that if they work hard enough they can save everybody. Jessica Dolce spent 20 years working with dogs, from dog walking in Philadelphia to animal sheltering in Maine, before her own burnout sent her looking for the language to describe what was happening to her. She now teaches that language for a living, as a Certified Compassion Fatigue and Grief Educator, an instructor in the Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida, and the person behind The Compassion in Balance Program. Her training sits on a Master of Science in Adult and Higher Education alongside certificates in pet loss support, QPR suicide gatekeeper training and mental health first aid, and the organisations she works with range from private rescues to the ASPCA, Animals Asia, Humane World, the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association and hundreds of animal shelters worldwide. Our conversation covers why the choice between looking after yourself and looking after the animals is a false one, what compassion fatigue actually is and why almost everyone uses the term slightly wrong, how moral injury builds quietly in shelter work, and what people who spend their days examining evidence of cruelty do to stay well enough to keep going. At home in the U.S. there are two dogs, Billy and Turtle, two cats, Hazel and Bear, and four naughty ducks. Links https://jessicadolce.comThe Compassion in Balance Program Building Compassionate Badassery Boundaries, self-studyCompassion Fatigue Strategies, starts 26 October 2026 Also mentioned: Jessica's Dogs in Need of Space project, Patricia McConnell's The Other End of the Leash, and Dr Jamie McNally's paper on moral injury in animal shelter workers.

  3. Jul 30

    Myths and best practice | What a rescue dog from abroad needs | Toby Craze | Craze Dog Training

    Toby Craze works with street dogs and with rescue dogs brought here from abroad. He traces what the trip from Romania or Thailand does to a dog, long before anyone talks about settling in. The conversation covers who checks a dog before they go on transport, what the first week looks like from the dog's side, and why the urge to walk them and show them the house can backfire. Toby runs Craze Dog Training in Cornwall and spent years as an adoptions coordinator at a rescue bringing dogs over from Romania. Connect with Toby Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok

  4. Jul 17

    The invisible injury | Why your dog's pain never shows up on a scan | Julia Robertson, Galen Myotherapy

    In the mid 1990s, Julia Robertson had a 6 month old Labrador who couldn't lift his head. Nothing showed up on the imaging, nobody could name the problem, and she was told the kindest thing left was to put him to sleep. Then a vet came out, took one look and said he'd hurt his neck. Julia started asking him to lift his head for a biscuit, and within a week he could do it on his own. The injury had been real the whole time, sitting in the muscle and fascia that no scan shows. She founded Galen Myotherapy in 2002 and has treated thousands of dogs since, and plenty of them arrive with a label already attached: difficult, stubborn, anxious. When a dog's discomfort can't be seen, the change it causes gets read as behaviour. And when there's nothing on a screen to point at, the first person likely to notice is whoever lives with the dog. So this conversation is mostly about how to notice. Julia goes through what an old photo of your dog standing side on will show you about the body you look at every day, the 1 centimetre that decides whether a harness is bearable, and what a trot on the lead lets a sore leg hide. She treats dogs who can't be touched, and dogs with a bite history, without holding them still, letting them move away any time they want to. That's the same principle that underpins the question she'd like more of us to ask: What does my dog want? Find Julia and Galen MyotherapyWebsite | Instagram | Facebook Just a Dog PodcastInstagram | Substack | Facebook | TikTok

  5. Jul 9

    Knowing their normal | The power of observing your dog(s) | Jo Middleton

    Your dog can't tell you when something's wrong, so they rely on you to notice. The person who lives with a dog knows their normal in a way no vet or trainer ever could, because you're the one who sees them every day. That everyday knowledge is easy to underestimate, right up until the moment it matters. Jo Middleton found that out with her own dog, when 2 vets told her everything was fine and she wasn't convinced. This conversation is about the power of observing the dog in front of you, what a calm dog might be masking, and why the closest eye on a dog is usually the most reliable one. Jo is the principal of the International School for Canine Psychology & Behaviour, and she runs Canine Principles, where more than 20,000 students have enrolled. She also leads the International Institute for Canine Ethics, an assessing organisation for the ABTC. She's spent 25 years in the dog world, much of it in rescue, working with dogs whose normal nobody knew yet. Courses mentioned in this episode: L3 Diploma in PAWS™ Dog Rescue Mental Health Support ISCP Free Course - Bite Size Canine Communication

  6. Jun 29

    Love isn't enough | What really shapes a rescue dog's behaviour | Trish McMillan

    A puppy who only ever knew kindness grew into the most dangerous dog Trish McMillan has ever lived with. His story, and that of a dogfighting survivor who turned out gentle, sit at the heart of why a rescue dog is never a blank slate, and what the dog pays when we get that wrong. The conversation covers rescue dogs and behaviour, how shelters decide which dogs are safe to rehome, the real weight of behavioural euthanasia, and why a harder caseload can be a sign of progress. Trish has spent over 30 years in shelters, rescues, and welfare work, focused on the dogs whose behaviour is most difficult, complex, or unsafe, and on supporting the people responsible for their care. More from Trish McMillan:https://www.trishmcmillan.com/https://www.shelterbehaviorhub.com/ (Shelter Behavior Hub)https://www.instinctdogtraining.com/personnel/trish-mcmillan/ Journal article: The perils of placing marginal dogs

  7. Jun 22

    Running isn't racing | Does a greyhound love to run or race?

    A greyhound loves to run. Running across a field and racing around an oval track aren't the same thing, and greyhound racing depends on us not noticing the difference. Nadine talks to three people working to end the sport about what it looks like from the dog's side: the falls, the kennel hours, the breeding, and what happens to a greyhound who stops winning. They trace how one country after another has banned dog racing, and why Britain, 100 years on, has not. Norb runs Shut Down Campaigns, Isobel campaigns with Animal Aid, and Emily Lawrence campaigns with the League Against Cruel Sports. On 25 July 2026, they march in London, a century to the week after Britain's first greyhound race, to end greyhound racing for good. Links mentioned in this episode: League Against Cruel Sports report: https://www.league.org.uk/media/filer_public/c5/5c/c55c246b-78d9-4205-bddb-10f8f2ef445c/uk_report_final_32326_digital.pdf The AI investigation into racing records (University of Melbourne): https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/greyhound-racing-says-its-transparent,-so-we-used-ai-to-check-dog-by-dog Inside the kennels (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deKUhm4ZQYI

  8. Jun 14

    Pain wears disguises | Your reactive dog is probably in pain | Kerry Sheldrick

    If you've ever stood in your kitchen at half eight on a Tuesday with a dog who's barking at nothing, lunging at the postman, scared of the front door, scared of you, scared of their own shadow, and wondered what on earth you're doing wrong, this episode is for you. It rearranges how you see your dog. Most of what we label as bad behaviour isn't behaviour at all. It's pain, fear, or stress that nobody has spotted yet, and you can't punish away pain, and you can't punish away fear. The barking, the lunging, the guarding, the dog who can't settle, almost always it's a dog telling you they don't feel safe, or they hurt somewhere nobody has found. So the work was never about control. It's about understanding what a behaviour is for, asking why instead of how do I make it stop, and meeting a frightened dog with distance, patience, and kindness rather than more pressure. Your dog isn't giving you a hard time. They're having one, and the kindest, most useful thing you can do is work out why. Kerry Sheldrick runs Howl School for Dogs, a qualified and APDT-accredited dog trainer and behaviour consultant offering remote support for clients all around the world, and mentoring for other dog professionals including dog trainers, dog walkers and daycares. She also hosts regular online workshops and her own informative and entertaining podcast, Are You There, Dog? It's Me, Kerry, available on all the usual platforms.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Just a Dog Podcast is a dog welfare podcast for dog guardians, dog professionals and anyone who wants to understand dogs better. Host Nadine Burzler talks to scientists, vets, behaviourists, breeders, trainers and rescuers about the beliefs we inherit about dogs, from breeding and training to rescue and everyday life, and asks what science knows and what anecdotal experience tells us about how dogs think and feel. Each episode looks at the gap between what we know about dogs and what we actually do, and what it would take to close that gap. New episodes every other Monday.

Information

  • Creator
    Nadine Burzler
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Nadine Burzler
  • Show Website
    Just a Dog Podcast

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