Positively Dog Training - The Official Victoria Stilwell Podcast
May 26, 2026 · 1 hr 7 min · 15 segments
Melissa McCue-McGrath joins Victoria to discuss her new book 'Misadventures of the World's Okayest Dog Trainer,' her experiences with unconventional cases, and the challenges faced by women in the dog…
So tell us about this book.
Tell us why you wrote it, and then I kind of want to get more into the weeds of it and to talk about some of the things that you discovered while you were writing it.
Sure.
Absolutely.
So, um, this book actually came, it was inspired entirely by my very first VSA student, Zoe.
Um, so I've, I actually just got my first two copies and I signed the first one and I have to put it in the mail to her because this book wouldn't have existed without her.
And she had asked me, she was like, "So what, what is it that I need to know?" I think it was, like, the day before her last test, and this was before, like, everything was online, so she was in person with me.
Right.
Um, and had been with me for six months.
And, and there's something to that relationship of being with someone, like, face-to-face, in person.
We literally had to push a FedEx truck that had gotten stuck, like, in an ice storm, like, on our way to a behavior case.
Like-
Right
... "We got it.
We're from New England." Or just, like, trying to push, and then he's like, "Thanks." Um, so like when you kinda go through something like that-
Mm
... um, with a person, um, it, it, it just forges this cool relationship.
And she had asked me the night before her final exam, like, "What do I need to know?" And I'm like, "Well, definitely brush up on learning theory." Um, and she's like, "No, no, no, no, no.
Not that.
What didn't they tell me?" And, and I kinda sat there for a second like, "Well, what does she mean by that?" And then I realized she meant, like, all the things that she had been seeing in my private cases, um, maybe walking into a hoarding case, um, behavioral euthanasia, like what that feels like when you're face to face with someone like that or having to discuss rehoming, but also just, like, the out of left field hilarity that comes when you're in people's most intimate spaces.
[laughs]
Yes.
Um, yeah, there are just so many things.
So, like, each chapter, I, I wanted people who are coming into this industry to get a behind-the-scenes look.At what I do, what you do, what people listening to this do.
Um, because it really isn't just the textbook stuff, it's the people.
So tell us about this book.
Tell us why you wrote it, and then I kind of want to get more into the weeds of it and to talk about some of the things that you discovered while you were writing it.
Sure.
Absolutely.
So, um, this book actually came, it was inspired entirely by my very first VSA student, Zoe.
Um, so I've, I actually just got my first two copies and I signed the first one and I have to put it in the mail to her because this book wouldn't have existed without her.
And she had asked me, she was like, "So what, what is it that I need to know?" I think it was, like, the day before her last test, and this was before, like, everything was online, so she was in person with me.
Right.
Um, and had been with me for six months.
And, and there's something to that relationship of being with someone, like, face-to-face, in person.
We literally had to push a FedEx truck that had gotten stuck, like, in an ice storm, like, on our way to a behavior case.
Like-
Right
... "We got it.
We're from New England." Or just, like, trying to push, and then he's like, "Thanks." Um, so like when you kinda go through something like that-
Mm
... um, with a person, um, it, it, it just forges this cool relationship.
And she had asked me the night before her final exam, like, "What do I need to know?" And I'm like, "Well, definitely brush up on learning theory." Um, and she's like, "No, no, no, no, no.
Not that.
What didn't they tell me?" And, and I kinda sat there for a second like, "Well, what does she mean by that?" And then I realized she meant, like, all the things that she had been seeing in my private cases, um, maybe walking into a hoarding case, um, behavioral euthanasia, like what that feels like when you're face to face with someone like that or having to discuss rehoming, but also just, like, the out of left field hilarity that comes when you're in people's most intimate spaces.
[laughs]
Yes.
Um, yeah, there are just so many things.
So, like, each chapter, I, I wanted people who are coming into this industry to get a behind-the-scenes look.At what I do, what you do, what people listening to this do.
Um, because it really isn't just the textbook stuff, it's the people.
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