What is going on at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)? The lack of awareness and professionalism coming from this organization is becoming impossible to ignore.   Here are just some of the mounting concerns: • A president publicly endorsing shock collars contradicting AVMA’s own stance, the global behavior science consensus, and basic animal-welfare principles. • A refusal to acknowledge the One Health catastrophes in Gaza, Sudan, and Congo, even while claiming One Health as a core value. • Silence on the disappearance and killing of Dr. Mu’ath Abu Rukba, one of Gaza’s last surgical veterinarians (see previous episodes of this podcast for the full story!) • Routine deletion, hiding, and restriction of comments from members and the public raising legitimate concerns, and censorship of their own members and speakers within annual conferences. • Posting trivial “awareness” content while ignoring mass suffering of humans, animals, and entire ecosystems. • A PAC aligned with lawmakers who support militarism, environmental destruction, and policies directly harmful to people and animals. • A documented history of systemic issues, including the controversy with Tuskegee University, the primary producer of Black veterinarians.   This is dysfunction, denial, and dereliction of duty. @avmavets appears disorganized, unaware, and unprofessional at a moment when moral clarity is needed most.   Why is a dog trainer on the internet having to point out the hypocrisy and misinformation of the world’s largest veterinary medical association? If it’s on me, and all of us, to hold this organization accountable, then something is profoundly wrong inside that institution.   This is about restoring truth, ethics, and public trust in a profession that desperately needs it.   Veterinarians and the public deserve better leadership than this.

A major shift just hit the dog training world, and it affects every family with a dog.   The new Joint Standards of Practice were released, bringing together the leading organizations in our field under one clear message: fear-, pain-, and intimidation-based training has no place in modern, professional work.   Noticeably missing from the list is the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers.   After months of refusing to correct their blatant misinformation about AVSAB (even after AVSAB felt obliged to release their own statement to clarify because of the misinformation being spread by CCPDT), CCPDT continues to operate under outdated frameworks that still allow shock, prong, and choke devices.    Now, the CCPDT has been firmly left behind, as the rest of the industry finally moves forward.   This is about public safety, scientific integrity, and protecting the public and their dogs.    Dog training is evolving.   The science is clear.   And organizations choosing to cling to harmful methods are being exposed.   Tell us what you think about these updates in the comments ⬇️   Follow https://instagram.com/zakgeorge for the latest updates, and check out our website to learn more & subscribe to our email list: https://zakgeorge.com 

(This is the FULL version of this episode!)   How did American pop culture learn to support Israel?    Are celebrities obligated to speak up for oppressed peoples?     What do you think? 🧐    We’re joined by Zak’s cousin Illesha @illeshamagdalena - if you’re interested in history, pop culture, colonialism, and all around awesome content, you will definitely want to follow Illesha to learn more❤️🇱🇧 https://www.instagram.com/illeshamagdalena/https://www.tiktok.com/@illeshamarie   Subscribe to our podcast: https://dogtrainingrevolution.podbean.com

You can’t bury the truth forever.    Zak and Dr. Erika + Doctors Against Genocide SHARE this post since @avmavets and @amermedicalassn insist on choosing censorship, silence and complicity over upholding their own ethical standards. Tag them and any other organizations/public figures who SHOULD be speaking out.It takes all of us 💪❤️‍🩹Honored to connect with @doctorsagainstgenocide and amplify this message.  Follow Doctors Against Genocide on YouTube to see their weekly webinars and other incredibly important content Support their work and learn more at https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org 🔥 Stay tuned - follow https://instagram.com/zakgeorge and sign up for our email list at zakgeorge.com for more.   Dr. Erika Lin-Hendel, VMD, PhD is a veterinarian and activist based out of Arizona. Although they currently practice companion animal medicine, Dr. Lin-Hendel has a background in developmental neuroscience, agriculture and food security. In addition to their clinical work, they are highly involved in advocacy work spanning mental health, education and social justice from a one health lens. Their current passions are centered on the veterinary profession’s role in anti-war movements. Dr. Erika's Instagram page: https://instagram.com/theautisticveterinarian  

This is the conversation the AVMA doesn’t want you to hear - but veterinarians across the world are refusing to be silenced any longer.   It’s time.    Behind the white coats and lame social media posts, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is a political machine - lobbying on Capitol Hill through their Political Action Committee, deciding which lives deserve empathy and funding (and which do not) through their “charitable arm” the AVMF, and calling that “neutrality.”   For over two years they have displayed racism by omission.   Veterinarians everywhere are speaking up while the AVMA still hides behind its image, and its VERY LOUD silence.   Meanwhile, AVMA continues to delete and hide critical comments about this topic on their many social media posts, and ignore the thousands of emails they have received asking them to show the same level of care for the Global South as they have during other humanitarian crises around the world, like in Ukraine and Australia.   Our guests today are two US-based veterinarians who are also co-founders of Animal Healthcare Workers Against Genocide - an organization that Bree and I are very proud to be a part of! Learn more and join us at http://www.animalwag.org   Dr. Erika Lin-Hendel and Dr. Serena Nayee are two veterinarians who are here to speak about their experience in the American Veterinary world, and to specifically highlight the censorship they experienced when they gave a scheduled educational talk at an AVMA conference in July 2025.   After months of preparation (including advanced approval of their topic/abstract), Dr. Erika and Dr. Serena were suddenly told by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) to censor their presentation just two weeks before the conference.   Can you guess their topic? 🫠   It was public health and veterinary care during the ongoing One Health crises worldwide including Palestine, Sudan and Congo - internationally recognized humanitarian, animal, and environmental catastrophes that the AVMA still refuses to acknowledge.   Their talk - which was submitted in advance, and *reviewed and accepted* by the AVMA 3 months before the conference - made it clear they would discuss:   > the historical and current weaponization of animals against civilians    > destruction of agricultural resources   > damage to the human-animal bond during armed conflict   These are all concepts backed up by scientific data, some of which was reported by the AVMA itself…   And yet, two weeks before they were supposed to give their talk, they received a thinly-veiled censorship email from the director of the AVMA Convention and Meeting Planning Division.   Does this surprise you?   The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has built prestige and profit around the idea of compassion without borders.   They post regularly about global care and empathy and the importance of veterinarians advocating during global humanitarian crises.   They spoke out for Ukraine. They raised money for wildfire victims in Australia.  But while Gaza’s doctors, families, and animals are bombed, they have said absolutely nothing.    And worse, they are actively silencing those of us who are working to help in this crisis by deleting nearly all critical comments from their social media, and even censoring their own colleagues and members at their conferences.   The AVMA has spent decades branding themselves as a global voice of compassion. But when that compassion was tested… it wasn’t there 🫥     More about our guests:   Dr. Erika Lin-Hendel, VMD, PhD is a veterinarian and activist based out of Arizona. Although they currently practice companion animal medicine, Dr. Lin-Hendel has a background in developmental neuroscience, agriculture and food security. In addition to their clinical work, they are highly involved in advocacy work spanning mental health, education and social justice from a one health lens. Their current passions are centered on the veteri

TW: difficult topics discussed.  A lot happened this week on our instagram page. Let's talk about it.    Follow our Instagram page! Follow Bree on Instagram too! Subscribe to the Dog Training Revolution on YouTube Learn more at zakgeorge.com

The Evidence Ends the Method Wars -- podcast interview with Dr. Zazie Todd! GET FREE TOYS FOR A YEAR! Thank you BARK! for supporting the Dog Training Revolution ✊ See the VIDEO version of this episode here! (SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES from this episode are LISTED BELOW - SCROLL DOWN!) Get Dr. Todd's incredible books here!  Dr. Todd's Website - Companion Animal Psychology Fetch Me a Beer video 🍻 SUBSCRIBE to see all of our new videos (it’s totally free!)  Follow us: ➡️ @zakgeorge on Instagram ➡️ I’m on TikTok too! http://vm.tiktok.com/fFxPbh/ ➡️ Like me on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/TheZakGeorge 😍 @breejustine is on instagram too: http://www.instagram.com/breejustine   🥰 THANK YOU to our Patrons who help us keep this content TOTALLY FREE 🥰 You can help support our videos by making a contribution here ⚠️⚠️⚠️REALLY COOL TIP HERE - LEARN HOW TO GET YOUR DOG TO STOP PULLING & STAY NEAR YOU ON WALKS 📖 If you have a NEW PUPPY or you’re PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE, my FIRST book (broad overview of choosing, raising and training a dog) is the one for you!!!  📖 Order my NEW BOOK here (💥this one is a deeper dive into troubleshooting the most common training issues💥)    REFERENCES AVSAB (American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior) position statement on Humane Dog Training Schilder, M. B. H., & van der Borg, J. A. M. (2004). Training dogs with help of the shock collar: Short and long term behavioural effects. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 85(3–4), 319–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2003.10.004 Vieira de Castro, A. C., Fuchs, D., Morello, G. M., Pastur, S., de Sousa, L., & Olsson, I. A. S. (2020). Does training method matter? Evidence for the negative impact of aversive‑based methods on companion dog welfare. PLOS ONE, 15(12), e0225023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225023 Casey, R.A., Naj-Oleari, M., Campbell, S. et al. Dogs are more pessimistic if their owners use two or more aversive training methods. Sci Rep 11, 19023 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97743-0 Joana Guilherme Fernandes, I. Anna S. Olsson, Ana Catarina Vieira de Castro. Do aversive-based training methods actually compromise dog welfare?: A literature review, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 196, 2017, Pages 1-12, ISSN 0168-1591, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2017.07.001 (See discussion noting association with presence of handler.) Mellor, D. J., Beausoleil, N. J., Littlewood, K. E., McLean, A. N., McGreevy, P. D., Jones, B., & Wilkins, C. (2020). The 2020 five domains model: Including human–animal interactions in assessments of animal welfare. Animals, 10(10), 1870. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/10/1870 Here are the references to those two studies that tell us about how fast dogs run for different foods: Variety or the same favourite treat: Bremhorst, A., Bütler, S., Würbel, H., & Riemer, S. (2018). Incentive motivation in pet dogs–preference for constant vs varied food rewards. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 9756. https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2019/05/dogs-preferred-training-rewards.html Kibble or sausage: Riemer, S., Ellis, S. L., Thompson, H., & Burman, O. H. (2018). Reinforcer effectiveness in dogs—The influence of quantity and quality. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 206:87-93. https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2018/11/do-dogs-run-faster-for-more-treats-or.html 

The Crisis in Dog Training: President of the ACVB, Dr. Radosta, Speaks Out! Today, we have a very special guest: Dr. Lisa Radosta, DVM, DACVB - she’s a board-certified veterinary behaviorist and president of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (ACVB). A board-certified veterinary behaviorist specializes in understanding animal behavior and promoting ethical, science-based practices. Dr. Radosta is widely respected for her straightforward approach to helping pets and their guardians.