Canine Intelligence and Puppy Kindergarten with Vanessa Woods

That sounds like the best ride ever.

So yes, but firstly, I do wanna say just how much Brian and I really appreciate, um, trainers, actually.

We do everything we do, um, just because we are dog lovers.

We are dog lovers first, and, you know, our main purpose is to make the world better for dogs and the people who love them.

And I think that, you know, we can talk about this later, but, um, I think there's been a real cultural shift in the way that, um, dogs, in our relationship with dogs.

That's probably the biggest shift we've had in, like, 15,000 years since our relationship first began.

And, um, you know, that creates many wonderful changes, but it also has created some struggles, and I think really the trainers are on the front lines of those struggles.

And if there's anything, any, anyone who can help us, it's really people who have a lot of dog, uh, experience with dogs, um, behavior modification.

Like, I know you know that behavior is, um, one of the straws that breaks the camel's back and can really kind of fracture the relationship we have with our dogs.

So Brian and I are just, you know, so thankful to trainers.

Um, and we are just happy to help.

Well, tell us about what got you into all of this to begin with.

Right? So you wrote this book, you lived in the Congo, and you are spending time studying bonobos.

Can you take us back to that time, and why and how-

[laughs]

... did you get there?

[laughs] Well, you know, I, I'm just getting to the stage where I do feel like I've, I've lived a long time.

I was talking to one of my students today.

She's like, she's like, "Oh, I can't even believe the graduating class is, like, 2030." I'm like, "Well, when you were born in the last century, like, that kinda puts things into perspective."

[laughs]

So I mean, I guess, um, you know, Brian and I, Brian, you know, Hare is my husband, and when we met, he had really come from things for the dog side of things.

So you know, his work with dogs goes all the way back until, you know, he was a teenager, basically.

But I was really, um, in love with primates.

So, um, you know, bonobos and chimpanzees, they are our two closest living relatives.

Um, they share, like, 98- 0.7% of our DNA, and, you know, it's kinda like just like you have two cousins, they are from different sides, but you're equally closely related, um, that is our relationship with them.