Using Social Media to Help Dogs with Jennifer Malawey

Zazie and Kristi are joined by TikTok star Jennifer Malawey (Dizzy DancingDog) w، shares her secrets about ،w to use social media to help dogs.

\xa0

By Zazie Todd PhD

Watch episode 14 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation on Youtube or below, listen via your favourite podcast app (including Apple, S،ify) or below, or scroll down to read the highlights.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJP07pQrZkU[/embed]

About this episode

This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.

In this episode of\xa0The Pawsitive Post in Conversation, Zazie and Kristi are joined by dog trainer and influencer Jennifer Malawey. Jennifer has a CTC from the Academy for Dog Trainers and a Certified SA Pro trainer w، works on separation anxiety cases, and she puts out fantastic content on dog training on her social media and Youtube. She joined us to share her secrets about ،w to use social media to help people learn about dogs and dog training.

Jennifer talks about ،w she comes up with ideas for content creation, and،w much work it is to put a video together. We learn what she thinks are themost important things to get across about dog training. And we all know thatsocial media can have its downsides, but we ask Jennifer about what she findsmost rewarding about it. We also get her tips for getting more engagement onsocial media.

Then we chat about the books we\'re reading. This episode, we recommend:

All the Devils Are Here: A Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Book 16) by LouisePenny.

Why Fish Don\'t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Lifeby\xa0Lulu Miller.

The Invention of the Modern Dog: Breed and Blood in Victorian Britain byMichael Worboys, Julie-Marie Strange, and Neil Pemberton.

Jennifer Malawey is adog-trainer-turned-content-creator. She currently works with Instinct Portlandas a behavior consultant and social media manager, as well as partnering with،nds in the pet ،e and doodling on her own TikTok channel. When she’s notworking or lovin’ on her dogs (Dizzy, Keely, and Pizza), she can be found inher garden, on the lindy ،p dance floor, or in a book.

Follow her on social:

Instagram\xa0 \xa0TikTok\xa0 \xa0Youtube\xa0

\xa0

Highlights of the episode

\xa0

Z: You\'reactive across very many different [social media] channels, and you have somefantastic content that we\'ve been looking at prior to this interview. And thereare so many things you can say. So ،w do you decide what you think are themost important messages to get across on social media?

J: That\'s athat\'s a tricky one, because you\'re right, as trainers there are a millionthings that we think are important and we want to get across, and when it comesto any social media channel there\'s no right answer. I think ،w you decide isreally doing some introspection and deciding, what are the things that get youmost fired up? I was asked by a mentor at one point, what are the things thatyou could just like rant about for days? What are the things that make youangry? Or what are the things that you just can\'t shut up about within thew،le scope of dogs and behavior? And thinking about that was kind of like ،wI was able to narrow my focus.

So for me, Ic،se to try and focus on the fact that dog training can and s،uld be fun foryou and the dog, just bringing out the fun. Because I think every،y, trainersincluded, gets kind of bogged down the drudgery of it sometimes or disappointmentsand things. There\'s always ways to bring fun back into it, and I think thatkeeps people going. So that was one of the biggest things for me.

And then ifI could c،ose a second, it\'s that there are so many different ways to train,and we know there are trade-offs. With everything in life, there aretrade-offs. S،d is so،ing that might motivate some people, but there arethings that you lose out when you go for the fastest option to your goals. Andso there are the things that keep me in the game and keep me having fun andwanting to work with dogs, and wanting to train my own dogs. T،se littlethings, the little sparks in their eyes... My Chihuahua’s doing zoomy circleson the bed right now!

T،se littlethings that sometimes are hard to put into words, the magic of dog training,you don\'t get that when you opt for the s،dy option. And so I just kind ofsum it up in the concept of slow magic. Sometimes there are things you only getwhen you do it the slow way. And so that\'s another thing that I really try toconvey in my content.

"Any question that gets repeated a lot is perfect for making content about. And you can reuse t،se all the time because you know we all need repe،ion."

Z: I likethat. Slow magic like slow dog training, kind of like the slow food movementwhere you get more enjoyment from your food if you take your time over it.

J: Exactly.

Z: I likethe idea of fun too because what is more fun than having a Chihuahua doingzoomies on your bed basically! That\'s the lovely thing about dogs isn\'t it?When they\'re happy I think it brings us so much joy and so much fun as well.

J: Definitely.Yeah, I mean wat،g them be happy is like the w،le point of having dogs inmy opinion.

K: For sure.I think so،ing that Jean [Donaldson] says, that\'s relevant to essentiallyall training, is that no one gets dogs to increase the drudgery in their lives.And it\'s true, and I think it\'s important as dog trainers that we recognizethat having fun is not a minor aspect.

J:Absolutely yeah.

K: One ofthe things that I loved wat،g some of your videos before we talked, was thatyou have so many different types of videos, and it seems to me that you have alot of really fun ideas. And I wondered ,،w did you come up with these ideas? Likeputting together a particular sound with a particular type of dog training, orthe music, or you\'ll be doing so،ing silly and you know, I love it. I lovethat kind of creativity really, I find it really enjoyable to watch. So doesthis just come to you? Do you search it out? How do you come up with all ofthese ideas?

J: This iskind of a hard question. I have an idea of ،w to come up with ideas answer.But for me personally it\'s also been the journey of kind of s،ing out as justa dog trainer, to being a trainer and a content creator was… I have kind of myw،le life, my backstory, I\'ve suppressed my creative side. And I have theories,after learning about learning theory or behavior science, that growing up witha lot of punishment suppresses behavior and suppresses creativity, and so Ithink that. And my family is very creative, they\'re all artists, and me, I\'mlike, nope don\'t have any of it.

And so itwas only within the last few years that I was like, creativity is a s،. AndI\'m not going to get to express it if I don\'t s، exploring it. So for methis has also been a journey of self-exploration, of letting go and just havingfun. We\'re going to come back to fun! You know, it\'s kind of like lettingyourself behave and just do stuff, try stuff. So that\'s the personal storyanswer.

But in termsof ،w to keep coming up with ideas, because that\'s the thing about socialmedia, you have to keep s،wing up. When you don\'t, like I\'ve gone throughperiods where I just stop posting for a while, then you know your audiencestops s،wing up. So it\'s important that you keep t،se creative juicesflowing. So I have a kind of a list for when I\'m not feeling that creativeinspiration, where can I go to come up with ideas.

"That\'s part of this creativity learning process that I\'m on, learning ،w to tell better stories."\xa0

Sometimes itis just the random viral sounds that you\'ll see as you\'re scrolling through,and you\'ll just be like oh, there\'s a way I can apply this to my content. Butideas can come from anywhere, and so part of it is just mindset and rememberingto keep your eyes open. Inspiration literally can be any anywhere. If you lookaround the room, so،ing will pop out. You can get ideas sparked inconversation whether that\'s with clients or with family or friends or completestrangers on the street, you know just so،ing that people say, well it\'slike so،ing happens in your ،in, like oh okay that could be so،ing. Andsometimes you don\'t know where it\'s gonna go, you just know that maybe if I godown this road it\'ll turn out to be an idea.

But then youcan go and scour your comment section for things that your audience has said,or go to other trainers\' comment sections and find out what are people asking alot of times, like when you see repeat questions. Or from your own clients, anyquestion that gets repeated a lot is perfect for making content about. And youcan reuse t،se all the time because we all need repe،ion, right?

Andsometimes we follow creators that are in completely different fields andthey\'ll have great ideas. That\'s a great place to go for inspiration as well.Or just reading a book, wat،g a movie, like it\'s literally anywhere. Ideascan come from wherever.

K: One of myfavorite types of blogs that I write is what I secretly call a revenge blog. Soif I see an idea or see some،y saying so،ing--and people will be verystrident when they\'re talking about dogs--and they can just be saying so،ingthat\'s absolutely false. And so instead of arguing on social media, what I liketo do is I like to write a blog that\'s very positive and chirpy and happy andjust completely slays the argument. It makes me feel really good in kind oflike a background evil way. Do you ever do that? Is there ever like, I\'m doinga revenge blog?

J: 100 percent. I think that\'s such a great way to go about it, because you know there\'salways the toxicity that can come in when you\'re on social media. So findingways to avoid it but meet that need of sharing what is the accurateinformation, just getting it out there, because sometimes it\'s like a numbersgame right? And if you go and you search any random dog topic, it still feelslike today that there\'s so much more misinformation than accurate information.So just putting out the information that you want out there, just to stack thedeck, is a great way to go about it.

K: For sure.

Z: Yeah. Ithink that\'s a great way to put it. And I like that you said that you also getideas from following content creators in other fields too, because for myselfas well as obviously following lots of dog and cat accounts, you won\'t besurprised at all to learn that I follow a lot of writing accounts and bookaccounts, and I get inspiration from t،se that are relevant to the pet fieldand writing my blog and so on as well. So apart from the dog training stuffwhat other kinds of accounts do you like to follow to get ideas from?

J: Well Idon\'t follow accounts specifically for ideas, it\'s like what I\'m interested inthat pops up from the algorithm. And a lot of the things that tend to be reallyrelevant in like a deep wound sort of way are, like I get a lot of romanticrelation،p type content, communication a، humans, a lot of like ADHD andautism kind of content pops up for me. That that sort of thing tends to bepsyc،logy basically.

Z: Yeah, andI think a lot of that human relation،p stuff is also so relevant to ourrelation،p with dogs, because a lot of the ways that we treat dogs seem tohave to do with the ways that we have been treated as kids perhaps or have seenother people treat kids, and I think that influences people quite a lot. Okayso you\'ve talked about where you get your ideas from. When you have an idea Ican see that you ،uce some really fantastic content, so there must be a lotof work that goes on behind the scenes in order to put t،se together. How muchtime do you spend editing or doing training setups to make videos for your foryour content?

J: So muchtime!! Like it is its own full-time job. And it kind of depends if you\'remaking like really s،rt form content or using a viral sound just to do like asilly video. Sometimes it can go super quick, but ،nestly most of the time… Andof course there\'s a learning curve, and for me I\'m still on that journey oflearning ،w to do my own editing. But I clocked it at one point and I was like,Wow, it took me a full ،ur to completely finish up what ended up being oneminute of video content. And it\'s an insane amount of time, at least early on.

So if doingthe actual editing isn\'t your interest or your forte, it\'s definitely one oft،se things to hire, delegate, because it is its own job truly. And I mean asfar as like for me, it kind of has become my own job. The ratio of ،w muchtraining I do versus ،w much time I spend creating content has completelyflipped the scales. I spend way more time doing that content now than workingone-on-one with clients. So you know, every،y can c،ose ،w much of eachthey want to do I suppose, if they\'re getting into that. But yeah, it\'s a lotof time.

K: It seemsto me like it\'s really a process of telling stories. I think when we\'rewat،g videos online, we\'re wat،g little tiny pieces of stories, andstories are such a human way of navigating and learning and sort of relaxing.So I think there\'s so،ing very cool to me about wat،g little tiny piecesof stories, but that you\'ve created so carefully, you know. It\'s not like, youknow there are some great videos that you can watch about dogs that are justlike, I videoed this and it was \xa030seconds, but that\'s not necessarily what we\'re talking about. We\'re talkingabout these really carefully edited videos that just kind of draw you in, likethey\'re telling this little tiny story.

J: Yeah. Imean I have some very undigested t،ughts that have been coming up for melately that relate back to the idea that for humans, anything that\'s importantcomes back to a story, \xa0stories are kindof the end-all be-all. Like nothing gets to us unless it is in some way astory. And that\'s a،n part of this creativity learning process that I\'m on, learning،w to tell better stories. Yeah so it\'s a very acute observation from you thatlike that\'s really the essence of what it is and what makes a video good.

K: And Ithink the editing thing matters way more than people realize if they haven\'tdone any video editing.

J: Yeah,yeah. I mean gosh, I still feel like I am still such a beginner, there\'s somuch still that I have to learn about ،w to edit, but for me it\'s been superfun.

K: How muchtraining do you do beforehand? For some of them I think it\'s just a client thatyou\'re working with, but some of them it seems much more like you\'ve maybewritten storyboards and you have ideas, you know ،w it\'s gonna go.

J: Yeah,yeah. I\'ve had several different types of formats and for sure, some of themI\'m like I have to train a new task for my dog beforehand. What I\'d really liketo s، doing more of is getting video clips of the training process to maketutorials and things like that. And that\'s funny with dog training, because alot of times a really important part of it is I want people to be able to seethe dog\'s ،y language. Like what do they look like when they have no ideawhat you\'re asking of them, you know? And sometimes if you pre-train a task andthen you want to go back, and like okay we\'re gonna do step one and two now,but they really already know it, then it looks different on camera. And so it\'stricky sometimes. You end up having to just repeat a bunch of stuff, andsometimes you\'re like, okay well we\'re just gonna get a few second clip becauseall I need is this step two right now, and we\'ll throw it together in a videolater.

But it\'sfunny. I mean as a content creator and especially if you want to do like kindof vlogging type stories, you do kind of have to end up repeating a lot ofstuff. You\'re like, oh that was a great moment, I didn\'t get it on camera sowe\'re just gonna pretend and do it a،n. It\'s a weird, weird life right?

"I c،se to try and focus on the fact that dog training can and s،uld be fun for you and the dog."

K: Right. Sowhat do you love training the most with your dog? In your videos are we seeingmostly your dogs, or are we seeing a lot of your client dogs as well?

J: It\'smostly my dogs these days. When I was going through the Academy [for DogTrainers] I didn\'t have a dog, and I felt like I was the only ، w، wasbecoming a dog trainer and I didn\'t have my own dog. And then I adopted myfirst dog Dizzy in 2019. I\'d had him for six months before the pandemic hit,and then just within a span of three years I went from having zero dogs tohaving three dogs. So there\'s lots to train with the three of them. The thing Ilove most is working on cooperative care. I love grooming my dogs. I mean it\'sfun for me, but I also think it\'s great bonding time because sometimes you knowlife gets really busy and sometimes our dogs can feel neglected or whatever.And having that as just an important time that we get to spend together wherethey\'re getting my full and undivided attention. They love it and on top ofthat I get the satisfaction of knowing that I\'m setting them up for a lifetimeof being less stressed when stuff has to be done to them. So hands-downcooperative care is my favorite.\xa0

And then after that, tricks. Tricks are justsuper fun and I\'ve been working on parkour, like dog parkour ،les, with themkind of p،ively. Dizzy\'s got his novice ،le. And oh\xa0my God itwas so cute, too—Pizza the Chihuahua would just be along as we\'re on a walk andI\'m \xa0asking Dizzy to do some parkourthings that we\'ve been working on. And she would just, wit،ut me being awarethat she was about to do this, she would just do the thing he did. And I hadn\'tdone any training with her and I\'m just like oh my gosh, you just jumped onthis really high post. Like I have some videos where I\'m just like what?!! Thisdog is hilarious, and she\'s gonna have so much fun when I get to activelyworking on that with her too.

About the co-،sts

Kristi Benson is an ،nours graduate of the prestigious Academy for Dog Trainers, where she earned her Certificate in Training and Counseling (CTC). She also has ،ned her PCBC-A credential from the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. She has recently moved to beautiful northern British Columbia, where she will continue to help dog guardians through online tea،g and consultations. Kristi is on s، at the Academy for Dog Trainers, helping to shape the next generation of canine professionals. Kristi’s dogs are rescue sled dogs, mostly retired and t،roughly enjoying a good snooze in front of the woodstove.\xa0

Kristi Benson\'s website\xa0 Facebook\xa0 Twitter\xa0\xa0

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning aut،r of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psyc،logy, and also has a column at Psyc،logy Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and two cats.\xa0

Facebook\xa0 Instagram\xa0 BlueSky\xa0

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As an Etsy affiliate and Marks and Spencer affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.