Marisa Heath has spent over 15 years working inside UK Parliament to improve the lives of dogs. She runs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW), leads the Canine and Feline Sector Group, and co-founded the Innate Health Assessment, a tool that helps people recognise extreme conformation before buying a puppy or choosing which dogs to breed from.

Extreme conformation refers to physical features that have been bred so far from a dog's natural form that they cause pain, discomfort or difficulty doing basic things like breathing, walking or playing.

In 2009, Marisa published A Healthier Future for Pedigree Dogs. Sixteen years later, she is still asking the same questions.

This is not a conversation about bad breeders or irresponsible owners. It is a conversation about all of us. Somewhere along the way, we stopped noticing. Noses got shorter. Skin folds got deeper. Legs bowed. Spines curved. Breathing became laboured. And we called it normal. We called it cute.

We shared videos of dogs snoring and struggling and we laughed. This happened to the animals we say we love most, and it happened right in front of us. If you have ever looked at a dog and thought nothing of how they were built, this conversation might change what you see.

🔗 Try the Innate Health Assessment: https://www.innatehealthassessment.org/

Morocco agreed in 2019 to manage free roaming dogs through catch, neuter, vaccinate and return. That agreement was never made law, and many regions continued killing instead.

Since Morocco secured co hosting rights for the FIFA World Cup 2030, the pace and scale of killings have increased.

The IAWPC has documented shootings, poisonings and mass removals near proposed stadium cities including Tangier, Marrakesh, Rabat, Agadir, Fez and Casablanca.

Les Ward MBE and Debbie Wilson explain the evidence, the political pressures, the impact on rabies control, and why systemic violence toward dogs harms children and whole communities.

This episode explores what happens when image wins over science and what can still be done to change the direction of an entire nation.

IAWPC Website | Sign the Petition | IAWPC on Instagram | IAWPC on Facebook | IAWPC on X

This episode looks at what happens when a dog’s inner world does not match the life we imagine for them.

Sam Walker-Arends is a force free trainer who works with dogs carrying fear, uncertainty or history in their bodies, and our conversation keeps returning to one truth.

Every dog is an individual. Their needs, thresholds and ways of feeling safe are never the same.

We talk about Ivy the ex racer and Reyna the timid Galgo, and how raising two children alongside two very different dogs forced Sam to confront stress, expectation and the limits of tolerance.

She shares openly about recognising when a dog is no longer coping and why safety matters more than any ideal of the perfect family dog.

At its core, this episode asks a quiet but important question.

What does safety look like for an individual dog, and what does our response to that individuality reveal about us.

Follow Sam here: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Every February, as Spain’s hunting season ends, thousands of Galgos and Podencos are discarded. Some are abandoned, some are killed, and most are simply forgotten. They are fast, intelligent and deeply sensitive, yet still treated as disposable tools rather than sentient companions.

In this week’s episode, I speak with Gemma and Adva, the organisers behind Free Spanish Hounds, a UK-based movement that marches each year to raise awareness of Spain’s hunting dogs and the cultural systems that allow their suffering to continue.

We talk about how empathy becomes action, what it means to show up for animals we may never meet, and the quiet power of people who refuse to look away.

This conversation asks:
→ What does it say about us when one species can be both pet and tool?
→ Can empathy travel across borders when laws and traditions divide it?
→ What happens when love for one dog changes the course of a life?

It is an episode about compassion as resistance and the quiet hope that collective action still matters.

Follow Free Spanish Hounds

Website⁠ | Facebook Group | Instagram

Follow Hope for Podencos

Website⁠ | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

In this episode, I speak with Jenna Miller, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Spirit of the Dog Rescue, an independent charity run entirely by volunteers.

With more than fifteen years of experience in animal care and rescue, Jenna offers an honest look at what really happens behind the scenes — far beyond the social media snapshots and success stories we usually see.

We talk about what it takes to run a rescue responsibly, the emotional weight of decision-making, and the systems that often fail both people and dogs.

Jenna shares what surrendering a dog actually involves, how rescues decide who they can help, and the ongoing battle to balance compassion with sustainability.

This is a conversation about reality, not rescue romanticism.

It is about fatigue, bureaucracy, and the moments that make it all worth it. It is about humans trying to do right by dogs in a system that is stretched to breaking point.

If you are moved by this conversation and would like to support the work being done by Spirit of the Dog Rescue, you can learn more or make a donation here:

Website: www.spiritofthedog.org.uk

Donate: www.spiritofthedog.org.uk/donate

Instagram: @spiritofthedogrescue

Facebook: Spirit of the Dog Rescue

Follow Jenna’s work and stories: @dogrescuediaries

In this episode, I speak with Rose Bao, a canine behaviourist and counsellor whose work explores the emotional lives of dogs and the systems that have taught us to value obedience over understanding.

Rose brings a rare mix of science, empathy and cultural reflection to the conversation, drawing on her background in biomedical engineering and her current research in Clinical Animal Behaviour at the University of Edinburgh.

We talk about how identity, power and emotion intersect in dog training cultures, the lingering influence of colonial and patriarchal structures on our relationships with animals, and what it really means to unlearn control.

Rose shares how her first dog, Bruno, became both her greatest teacher and her deepest heartbreak, leading her to examine pain, agency and the human need for certainty through a new lens.

Together we explore what happens when we stop trying to fix dogs and start listening to them, and how that shift can ripple through our understanding of empathy, attachment and care itself.

This conversation is not about finding answers. It is about sitting with discomfort, questioning what we have been taught to believe, and allowing curiosity to reshape how we live alongside other beings.

Rose on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosek9behaviourist/

In this episode I speak with Hannah Greeno, founder of Canine Needs and the practice of Canine Facilitated Coaching.

With over 15 years’ experience in behaviour and training, as well as volunteering with Blue Cross Pet Loss Support, Hannah brings a rare perspective on how our dogs mirror back the parts of ourselves we often ignore.

We explore how guilt, grief, projection and loneliness show up in our relationships with dogs, and how these emotions can surface in ways no training plan can fix.

Hannah shares how canine facilitated coaching helps people confront boundaries, face loss, and sit with the uncomfortable truths that dogs so often reveal about us.

This is not a conversation about obedience. It is about reflection. About what rises to the surface when we stop looking at our dogs as problems to be solved, and start noticing the stories they tell us about our own inner lives.

This week I am joined by Hasan Yiğit Aktaş, an animal behaviourist and breeder of primitive and spitz breeds such as Akitas, Shibas and Shikokus.

Hasan’s path into breeding began by accident, yet over time he has combined academic study in animal behaviour with the lived experience of generations of family breeding and hands-on work with horses and dogs.

We explore what it might mean to breed for preservation rather than profit, the hidden influence of genetics on a dog’s health and temperament, and the ethics of practices that many people see as normal, from dog shows to fertility clinics.

Hasan explains why for him temperament matters more than trophies, how cultural attitudes shape our treatment of dogs, and what it takes to put welfare before convenience.

This is not a simple conversation about breeding. It is an invitation to think more carefully about the categories we create, such as pet dog versus product dog, and preservation versus profit. These categories shape our choices, and those choices reveal something about us as humans.

The episode runs for three hours because Hasan had much to say and we cover a wide range of issues in the dog world.

Some of these conversations may be triggering for listeners and viewers.

While the views expressed are Hasan’s own, the purpose of Just a Dog Podcast is not to endorse or dismiss any single perspective. Instead, it is to create space for open dialogue across the dog industry, because hearing different voices helps us reflect more deeply on our own assumptions and choices.