What if the future of dog care isn’t about better obedience…but about deeper safety?

In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, I sit down with Dr Laura Donaldson and Annie Phenix to explore their new course, Transformation and Healing: New Paradigms for You and Your Dog - and the larger shift happening in the world of canine care.

We begin by honouring the late Sarah Fisher, whose work invited us to learn from our dogs rather than simply lead or manage them. Her legacy threads through this entire conversation.

This episode challenges the long-held paradigm of compliance in our relationships with dogs. Instead of focusing on obedience and suppression of behaviour, we explore what becomes possible when we centre:

• Deep safety
• Emotional wellbeing
• Agency
• Resilience
• Trust
• Social support

We discuss what it means to become trauma-informed in our approach, and why that shift is transformative, not additive.

We explore:

✨ Why compliance has shaped traditional dog training - and why it’s time to question it✨ Dogs as somatic beings (and how we’ve forgotten that we are too)✨ The intelligence and wisdom of all life forms - and dismantling the “humans at the top” worldview✨ Getting curious about behaviour instead of correcting it✨ The links between pain, nutrition, and behaviour✨ The power of a collaborative care team (vet, behaviour professional, nutrition consultant)✨ Becoming your dog’s advocate - and how that often becomes the path to advocating for yourself

We also speak to something many of us feel but rarely name:

Your dog may be your greatest teacher.Your “difficult” dog may be your healer in disguise.

At the heart of this conversation is love - the kind that truly witnesses. The kind that listens. The kind that believes healing is possible.

Because we can heal from trauma.And so can our dogs.

And how embodied, courageous kindness is what moves us forward.

If you’ve ever felt there must be another way to be with your dog, then this episode is for you.

Join Dr Laura’s and Annie’s course, Transformation & Healing: New Paradigms for Our Lives With Dogs, here:

⁠https://laura-s-school-1f3f.thinkific.com/courses/transformationhealing?fbclid=IwY2xjawQAV3lleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETJqQzdOVUcyOXdIeVdqeDlqc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHg6HnXe2NeStkigpItMingJ2som3QK1q4b0pJ6ON7I0dCHT2xJ_SBOkZojfb_aem_x3TJVAo1bWFCVqDgbLRE4Q⁠

Join Annie’s free group The Canine Trauma Clinic here:

⁠https://community.caninetraumaclinic.com/invitation?code=G6686B⁠

Connect with me!

Website: ⁠https://mysticdogmama.com⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://instagram.com⁠/mysticdogmama

Come join my free Facebook group, First Light. It’s my sanctuary where soulful dog mamas like you find clarity, confidence, and connection ⁠https://facebook.com/groups/fetchfirstlight⁠

Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease, or replace medical guidance. Please speak with your veterinarian.

What if the longings you feel, the questions about leadership, intuition, service, and responsibility… are not random at all?

What if the being guiding you into them is the one lying at your feet?

In this profound and wide-ranging conversation, I sit down with Kiki Keskinen, founder of Witch School Canada, to explore what it means to become a woman who can trust herself in a time when the world is asking for new forms of leadership.

Together we wander through history, lineage, and the living, breathing practice of embodiment.

We talk about witches — not as aesthetics or trends — but as women committed to deep listening: to the land, to ancestors, to other generations, to one another, and to the animals walking beside us.

And yes… we talk about dogs as familiars, initiators, and mirrors.

Because again and again, they ask us the same sovereign question:

Who am I?
And where are we headed together?

Inside this episode, we explore:

✨ how the conquering of the wild is intertwined with the conquering of women
✨ what feminine leadership looks like as old systems unravel
✨ the role of the crone in our particular moment in history
✨ expanding our understanding of motherhood (hello, Mystic Dog Mamas)
✨ the medicine of discernment
✨ learning to serve rather than control
✨ why trusting yourself is a practice
✨ shapeshifting as a skill we urgently need right now
✨ and simple beginning exercises to strengthen your intuitive muscle

This conversation is both philosophical and practical, ancestral and immediate.

It will meet you wherever you are on your path - whether you’re just beginning to sense your intuition or already feeling the call to lead, to protect life, and to participate in healing our relationship with the Earth.

Your dog may have brought you here.

Let’s listen.

For more information on Witch School Canada, please visit https://witchschool.ca

Connect with me!

Website: https://mysticdogmama.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com

Come join my free Facebook group, FETCH First Light. It’s my sanctuary where soulful dog mamas like you find clarity, confidence, and connection https://facebook.com/groups/fetchfirstlight

Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease, or replace medical guidance. Please speak with your veterinarian.

Our dogs have a way of ushering us into the exact lessons we need.

In this episode, I’m joined by psychologist and resilience specialist Dr Kate Lund to talk about what happens when the life we imagined falls apart — and how we build something meaningful on the other side.

Dr Kate shares the story of her childhood diagnosis of hydrocephalus, the many hospitalisations that followed, and how her dog Peanut helped her cultivate courage, hope, and orientation toward possibility. Those early experiences inspired her life’s work supporting paediatric patients and families navigating illness, trauma, and profound change.

We discuss why resilience is not toughness, positivity, or spiritual bypassing. It’s the set of skills, supports, and perspectives that help us optimise within the reality we are living.

You’ll hear:

✨ What resilience actually means in real life
✨ Why we must move through difficulty, not around it
✨ How strengthening our own resilience changes the way we show up for our dogs
✨ The surprising ways dogs demonstrate resilience every day
✨ How Dr Kate supported her own children through the terror of a lost puppy
✨ How that experience led her to partner with her therapy dog Wally serving families at a children’s hospital in Seattle
✨ Practical ways to build confidence and agency in kids and dogs
✨ What it means to “find a new normal”
✨ Why dogs so often arrive exactly when we need them most

I also share how Lucky has continually invited me to become more resilient — especially in the moments I doubted myself most — and how recognising his resilience changed our relationship.

If you’ve ever wondered how to stay open-hearted while the ground beneath you shifts… this conversation is for you!.

Connect with Dr Kate Lund: https://www.katelundspeaks.com/

Connect with me!

Website: https://mysticdogmama.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com

Come join my free Facebook group, FETCH First Light. It’s my sanctuary where soulful dog mamas like you find clarity, confidence, and connection https://facebook.com/groups/fetchfirstlight

Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease, or replace medical guidance. Please speak with your veterinarian.