Podcast: PETS LLC

Where did my dog come from? And how did it get here? That may sound like a Talking Heads song but it's the charter mission of Peterson Express Transport Services (PETS LLC). If you adopt a dog halfway cross country, Kyle Peterson, the owner and operator, makes certain she gets to you safe and sound.

There's a backstory here, too. My first encounter with Kyle and PETS was just after the walk was completed in June 2010, I stopped over in Maryland to help a family for a week. From there I had to get back to Hudson and Murphy who were in Memphis and the folks at PETS gave me a lift and they were courteous enough not to make me travel in a kennel.  

Our producer, Sheila, has a more recent experience and in her words, "In October we adopted a rescued dog out to a young couple in CT and Kyle transported the dog, Sonic, for us. Sonic's new mom, Emily, wrote a short blog about adopting Sonic and his transport with PETS that's on Finding Fuzzybutt Four. And this Friday we are sending our latest foster, Lissette, with Kyle to her forever family in New England!"

PETS was part of a Reality show called Last Chance Highway and they've helped a whole lotta companion animals out.  Hope you enjoy our show with them.  

Podcast: Valentine's Day Special with Sheryl from Leashes and Lovers

"When you love someone eternally, having them in your life one second short of that is not long enough"

It's our Saint Valentine's edition of Raising Indiana and we have with us the 'Dog Lover's Matchmaker', Sheryl Mattys, author of the book Leashes and Lovers and a web based dating site by the same name.

We talk with Sheryl about how dogs can help us become better companions, whether single puppy parents should even try to date, and a cute but kinda creepy celebrity story.

Late last nite, I signed up to Leashes and Lovers and our profile name is, not surprisingly, TheFuzzybutts. Will we find a Mommy for Indiana there? If we do, we'll post it here on Raising Indiana.

Podcast: Ian Dunbar

It's a double header tonite with two, count em, two episodes with the great Ian Dunbar.  There are people who write books on training and then there is the person who wrote the book on puppy training.

30 years ago last week (Happy Birthday!) Dr. Dunbar started SIRIUS Puppy Training, the world's very first off-leash puppy socialization and training classes. He is a Veterinarian, animal behaviorist, and dog trainer, an author and founder of Dog Star Daily, a destination website packed with videos from trainers round the world.

Episode 1: We talk about SIRIUS, the importance of early socialization, and how to make your puppy a party animal.

Episode 2:  How much training does a puppy need, the various training models, Sheila weighs in on the discussion, and Dr. Dunbar's wife, Kelly's work with animal shelters.  

FLP

If you've never read Michael Crichton's autobiography Travels you should.  In it, he talks about some of the curiously inane traditions of doctors, one of which is their use of secret acronyms to describe patients.  Like FLK for 'Funny Looking Kid'.

Breakfasting with Kerry and Robin at PJ's Pancake House last week in Princeton, it became apparent that their Newfoundland puppy, Beanie, is going through the same  awkward growth stage that Indiana is - where he's all knees and elbows.

So we decided Beanie was a FLN 'Funny Looking Newfie' and Indiana is a FLP 'Funny Looking Pyrenees'.

What's yours?

A New Year, A New Look, and a New Home

And a Bigger Purpose!  

Welcome to Raising Indiana v2.012  - formerly a podcast about the joys and pains of puppyhood.  When the new year comes it's always a good time to take stock of things and Sheila and I spent some time talking over the holidays about where we're going with the podcast and what do we want it to be when it gets all grow'd up.  

And, perhaps, more importantly, when does a puppy stop being a puppy and become a dog?  And when Indy does become a dog is that the end of the podcast?  Have we served our purpose and time to move on?  I get a little existentialistic during the silly season.  

Why not instead use this platform to follow his entire life since, as pet parents, there never really is an end to learning and growing and even though the relationship changes over time it still requires lots of work.  

As I am writing this blog I've realized how fortunate we are that we get to experience every phase of dog's life, an impossibility within species.  

And that's what we're going to do here at Raising Indiana.  Every happiness and hardship; every adventure and challenge will be posted here as well as our weekly podcasts with pet experts and people we meet on our travels.  We hope you'll be with us on our journey...