We set aside our regular “Talking Animals” format to experiment with an extended new feature, “Ask The Trainer,” in which listeners were invited to call or email questions or concerns about their dogs—we suggested it could be a training challenge, a behavioral issue, maybe something else. 
The person answering those questions–the titular “Trainer”–was Glen Hatchell, the Behavior and Enrichment Manager at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay (HSTB). Formerly a longtime programmer at WMNF, Hatchell has worked with the HSTB since 2010, and is an accomplished dog trainer and behavior expert, through years of hands-on experience, and academic coursework. For example, he has held the Certified Professional Dog Trainer certification since 2014. It appears this experiment was successful: We barely had a moment for 
Hatchell to explain what his job title means, and what duties it involves, when the calls and emails began pouring in. Listeners posed a variety of questions, including from Hans, who has two male mini-dachshunds, one of whom growls at the other, for reasons that seemed unclear to him…to Kelli, who was concerned that, especially when out on walks and otherwise, she seemed unable to get her dog’s 
attention…to Curtis, who described a scene in which two dogs, on leashes, were visiting, and when her husband leaned over to pet one of those dogs, their own dog, a yellow Lab, also on a leash, became aggressive…and so on. Hatchell offered very careful, deliberate responses, spending plenty of time on each, asking multiple follow-up questions of the callers, making an array of suggestions, including, in some cases, visiting websites: https://www.ccpdt.org, https://m.iaabc.org, https://positively.com, https://aggressivedog.com. and Thanks to Hatchell’s advice and wise, measured guidance, this “Ask The Trainer” experiment proved to be a success—there were more callers and emailers than we could accommodate within the hour—and it looks likely we’ll offer another segment not too far down the road. (https://humanesocietytampa.org)
COMEDY CORNER: There was no “Comedy Corner” today.
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: We didn’t play “Name That Animal Tune” today.
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