The Paws and Reflect podcast
by Haley Young
Haley and Sean reflect on life with our delightful (and delightfully weird) blue heeler Scout. Since adopting her in 2019, we’ve trained through fear-based dog reactivity, fostered multiple shelter dogs, dealt with idiopathic epilepsy, and navigated so many ups and downs in between. In January 2023 we hit the road for full-time van life! We hope our blunders and realizations can encourage fellow dog lovers. Find us at pawsandreflect.blog and @paws.andreflect on Instagram. www.pawsandreflect.blog
Episodes
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Close encounters of the creature kind
First drafted in Everglades National Park, after a week of mesmerizing nature experiences. Paddling a designated mangrove trail, I cringe as our inflatable kayak rubs the bottom of the pond. “We’re stirring up the mud,” I worry aloud. “How many organisms call this mud home?” Sean shakes his head....
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A love so evident it doesn't need any evidence
Sean and I don’t regularly wear wedding rings. (The ones we do have are cheap nontraditional bands.) Our ceremony was short and, to be candid, kind of not a big deal. He did not only see me in my dress before our vows—he actually found my dress in the first place. I kept my last name. We rarely...
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Thank you for not treating my cattle dog like a retriever
“She doesn’t require an ounce of management when people don’t expect her to be a Labrador” — summing up Scout’s ability to happily coexist with strangers We just spent a long weekend with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend in Miami. After we bade them farewell, I found myself gushing to Sean...
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What's the value of a fox-kit moon?
Drafted in Long Pine Key at Everglades National Park on February 12th, as a male and female cardinal danced outside the van’s open doors. Catherine Raven, a solitary biologist in the mountains of Montana, wrote about befriending a wild red canid in her memoir aptly titled Fox and I. The most...
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There is no finish line
Written on February 7th in late-afternoon shade at Everglades National Park, my keyboard clicks barely audible above the rhythm of pileated woodpeckers. Reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone makes me realize (not for the first time, but I’m terrible at internalizing this morsel) the obvious:...
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What makes my dog well-behaved and composed and good
A couple walks two small dogs past our campsite. “Morning!” I reply to the man’s warm hello. I give Scout a treat, not because she needs it (there are still times where our use of food is more management than reward) but because it is a beautiful calm morning and she is a beautiful calm dog.…
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Dispatches from the Florida keys
Clad in my bucket hat, saltwater dripping from day-old braids, I make Sean follow me outside for a celebratory photo. “You want a picture of the pie here?” he asks, slightly incredulous as I try to balance the melting treat on uneven gravel. It’s heavier than you’d expect. “Yes,” I reply. “My key...
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I meet my younger self for coffee
I meet my younger self for coffee. (She still only drinks chai tea.) How can I leave? she asks. This must be as good as it gets.I know she wakes up at three am gasping the opposite: This can’t be all there is. It isn’t. She dreams of good enough. She looks so small. She wonders how anyone can…
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Would you go to Mars?
Inspired by a conversation with a friend and Joanna Bagniewska’s A Modern Bestiary. “Would you go to Mars?” I hesitated. “Safety guaranteed,” he added, tone suggesting an obvious answer. (Who wouldn’t want to go to space?) “I couldn’t.” There are no creatures on Mars: no fireflies, no frogs so...
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You can't be "anti human, pro dog"
Behind me at the coffee shop stands a man in a gray shirt with white letters. “Anti human,” reads the top line. “Pro dog,” completes the bottom. I almost laugh. I want to be the type of invested dog person who can still chuckle at jokes meant to be benign; who friends don’t hesitate to send viral...
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What my dog's given up for full-time van life
“A dog like that is too high energy for a small space.” “It’s cruel to keep an animal in a van.” “Dogs need yards.” “[Insert other skeptical comment here.]” Living in a van with a sensitive dog isn’t simple. We all made sacrifices when we hit the road in January 2023—Scout included. While my...
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Things that aren't a cure-all
Three days ago I got a rejection email. It’s not important what it was for. When I first pitched, I remember telling Sean I didn’t even care much about the specific opportunity anyway. (“Why not try?” was the extent of my excitement. “Why not try!” he agreed.) But the rejection came after I spent…
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21: Dog Nerd Tries to Counter Condition Her Own Eye Drops
Sean and I recorded this on December 14th, three days after my eye surgery. Now I'm finally able to look at screens here and there to share it! Mostly a (somewhat silly) story of trying to make my drops suck less... but as usual the experience did make me think of some real dog connections too....
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20: Visiting Family With Our Dog: Logistics, Advocacy, Emotional Processing
'Tis the season for holiday family time! We talk about how it can be (counterintuitively) harder to advocate for our dogs around loved ones than strangers, that it's okay to focus on humans-only activities sometimes, what our visits have looked like lately, and my very best advice for anyone who...
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19: Ego as a Dog Owner: Why I've Struggled, How It's Impacted Our Training, and Where We Are Today
Sean and I sit down to talk about the ways I've struggled with ego, self-righteousness, and external opinions in life with Scout, including where I think the pressure came from initially. I feel more confident about our life together today than ever before — but wow, has it been a journey to get...
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18: City Dog Rambles
Probably one of our least organized episodes to date (yes, that says something haha...) BUT Sean and I finally recorded another podcast! We reflect on our recent visit to New York City with Scout. Urban dogs & their people face so many challenges every day — it made me think about how adaptable…
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17: Fulfillment Deep Dive: How We Think About Fulfilling Our Dog (and Ourselves)
Haley and Sean sit down to talk about fulfillment, a topic inspired by a very kind listener in a podcast review. We discuss what biological fulfillment means to us, what it does for us & Scout, how we try to find activities that fulfill our cattle dog, and a bit on how we conceptualize our human...
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16: We Live in a Van Now! First Impressions, Space Constraints, Pros & Cons of Being on the Road With a Dog
Sean and Haley sit down to record a podcast for the first time in a while after several weeks of transition. We're officially living full time in our converted van, Hermes! We talk about our first impressions of van life (we absolutely love it so far); how the small space has changed (and not...
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15: Dog Training & Ownership Phrases That are Both True and Not True (aka "Semantics are Messy and Everything is Nuanced")
Haley and Sean run through a (not comprehensive) list of phrases I've heard often in the dog world — particularly in online training communities — that I think have merit (I see where they're coming from and agree in some contexts) but can also be reductionist (too sweeping of a generalization,...
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14: Every Dog is Different: Honoring Individuality (While Still Generalizing Helpful Core Themes)
Largely inspired by our recent experiences fostering, Sean and Haley sit down to talk about how every dog is an individual even within a single breed or home or other group. While domestic dogs do share many overarching traits, they also each bring their own quirks and preferences to the table....
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13: "Should" Everyone Foster? Rescue Pressure, Big Emotions, and Multi-Dog Integration Thoughts
Sean and Haley sit down to talk about fostering, which is clearly very top of mind lately. I am absolutely honored to have inspired some people with dogs like Scout (fearful, reactive, otherwise not social butterflies, etc) to open their homes to foster pets. I'd love to normalize the fact that...
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12: The Rollercoaster of Fostering a Puppy with a Broken Leg (aka "It's Okay if Things Are Really Hard Sometimes")
Sean and Haley are a little tired and frazzled today after some busy weeks... but we sit down to talk about our current foster dog, a seven-month-old puppy with a broken leg, and the emotional rollercoaster we've lived since picking her up on Monday morning. We cover: a brief overview of Mystic's...
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11: Embracing Social & Observational Learning While Also Advocating for Our Dogs
Sean and Haley talk about social / observational learning with our dogs, how incredibly COOL and worthwhile those concepts are to explore, and also how they can fit into advocating for our pets. (Sometimes "showing our dog a person / dog / situation is okay" and "advocating for our dog" might…
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10: Van Life FAQ: High-Level "Why"s and Some Build Details
Our van conversion will be finished in just three months! Sean and I sat down to answer some commonly asked questions about our choice to live in a van full-time along with a few build details. We go over: Why do we want to pursue van life in the first place? Why go through a conversion company…
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9: Work-Life-Dog Ownership Balance: Nontraditional Career Changes, Guilt, Self Care
Sean and Haley talk about balancing work, dog ownership, and other responsibilities with self care and messy emotions — specifically in the context of working from home. It's been easy for me to feel like a remote work schedule should automatically mean my days are more productive (I don't have a...
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8: Balancing the "Magic" of the Dog-Human Bond with Science & Critical Thinking
Sean and Haley talk about embracing the mythical magic of our relationship with Scout (how incredible is it that we harmoniously share life with a creature of a whole different species?!) while also staying rooted in an accurate perception of what makes our cattle dog, well, a dog. Sometimes we…
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7: Dog Sports Deep Dive (Why Don't We Do Them?) and Internet Messiness
Sean and Haley talk about dog sports, inspired by a thoughtful friend's question of if not participating in them has ever been at all uncomfortable as a voice in the online dog community (or if we've ever been made to feel weird by others in the space). We discuss why we don't do organized dog...
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6: Myths and Generalizations That Hurt Me as a New Dog Owner
Sean and Haley sit down to chat through some dog ownership myths and generalizations that have personally affected life with Scout. I've felt a lot of internal conflict on different topics, especially in my first year with her — and across-the-board, contradictory statements from different…
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5: Not Having Kids: Parallels to Dogs, Species Differences, Individuality
A while ago I answered an "ask me anything" question on our Instagram story saying that no, Sean and I do not want human kids. I was completely floored at the number of messages — and diversity of responses — I received. So Sean and I sat down to dig into the topic further! We explore ways that...
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4: Training Evolution: Guilt? Asking Why, Honing Values, Comparing Our Life Today to the Past
Sean and Haley try to distill a massive topic into an hour of conversation: how our training has evolved over time with Scout and whether or not we regret things we did in the past. This topic was initially inspired by someone on Instagram asking us to discuss guilt about previous training…
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3: Fostering With a Reactive Resident Dog: Logistics, Emotions, Reflections
Sean and Haley talk about our fostering experiences. I'm thrilled we've been able to welcome new dogs into our home even with Scout's fear / social awkwardness / general discomfort! We get into some of our personal logistics to make sure every creature in our home feels safe and advocated for…
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2: Healthy Relationships: Our History, Communication, and Parallels to Dogs
Sean and Haley sit down to talk about relationships. We briefly touch on our history as a couple (I adopted Scout when we'd been dating for 4-5 months and she was just "my" dog at first), discuss things that went well and things we struggled with as we came to own Scout together, and make…
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1: Our Very First Podcast Episode! (Who are these dog owners, anyway?)
Drumroll for an official Paws and Reflect podcast! This first episode is a quick introduction to Haley and Sean, our cattle dog Scout, and how we came to be recording a podcast episode instead of just doing Instagram lives. Take a listen to our previous Haley-Sean dog chats on Instagram at...
About this show
Haley and Sean reflect on life with our delightful (and delightfully weird) blue heeler Scout. Since adopting her in 2019, we’ve trained through fear-based dog reactivity, fostered multiple shelter dogs, dealt with idiopathic epilepsy, and navigated so many ups and downs in between. In January 2023 we hit the road for full-time van life! We hope our blunders and realizations can encourage fellow dog lovers. Find us at pawsandreflect.blog and @paws.andreflect on Instagram.
www.pawsandreflect.blog
Hosted by
Haley Young