Canine Conversations

Originally titled “Canine Conversations”, this podcast has since branded to “K9 Conservationists” as Journey Dog Training’s founder Kayla Fratt has focused increasingly more on canine conservation work.

This podcast features over 170 episodes covering all kinds of areas of canine expertise including: detection dogs, ecology, conservation, dog behavior, training, and more!

K9 Conservationists

Welcome to the K9 Conservationists podcast, where we’re positively obsessed with conservation detection dogs! Join us every week as we discuss detection dogs, ecology, conservation, dog behavior, training, and much more.

K9 Conservationists is hosted by Kayla Fratt, CDBC and co-founder of K9 Conservationists. Along with her two co-founders, she trains dogs to detect data. Support the work we do at patreon.com/k9conservationists.

It’s time to bust some myths and challenge some hot takes of the conservation detection dog world! Join Kayla Fratt (K9 Conservationists), Paul Bunker (Chiron K9), and Meg Barnes (Detection for Good) as they tackle common claims and controversies that impact dogs, handlers, and the field as a whole. From “training your dog on Kong will ruin them”, to “good training can fix anything”, to “working a dog is unethical”. These seasoned professionals break down why these ideas persist, why they’re wrong, and what good, ethical, and evidence based training really looks like.

Hot takes we BUST in this episode include:

If you train your dog on Kong/essential oils you will ruin them!

Detection dogs can’t do any other sports or it will ruin them!

Good training can fix anything!

Your dog wouldn’t do ___ if you were a better trainer!

You should starve your dog to make them work harder!

Confine your dog to a small kennel for days to “build their desire to work”!

Making your dog work is unethical!!!

You can’t train directional cues without an ecollar!

Force fetch is the only way to teach a dog to retrieve!

Our guests:

Meg Barnes