Compass TV special Goodbye My Dog on the ABC

As a dog behaviourist, Laura Vissaritis practises what she preaches, sometimes all at once. While filming Compass: Goodbye My Dog, an episode of the ABC’s ethics and spirituality program that looks at how people grieve for dogs, she was not only considering end-of-life care for her 15-year-old Staffy, Chester, she was also training him for the arrival of her first baby.

While most expectant parents cherish their uninterrupted sleep, Vissaritis was playing recorded baby cries every two hours, to prepare her three dogs for the big change.

“It makes me sound like a mad woman!” Vissaritis says, laughing. “Bit it’s also getting me used to different behaviours. Dogs are so perceptive of how we’re feeling, emotionally, so if I’m not used to the things I’m trying to prepare myself for now, when it comes to the crunch, they’ll know that these are changes that no one was prepared for, not even me, and that’s unfair on them.”

In the Compass episode, Vissaritis, who also starred in the ABC’s New Leash on Life with Joel Creasey, shares the way in which she has commemorated her cat and dog, by zipping their ashes inside lookalike plush toys. She also warns about the pitfalls of the pet funeral industry, and the economic realities of veterinary palliative care.

“For people who love their animals and can’t afford to put them through MRI scans that cost thousands of dollars, it can be almost more painful because there’s nothing more that they can offer their animal,” she says.

“On the flip side, if you can afford to do those investigations, it’s what’s in the best interests of your dog. It’s not so much about what you can afford to do, it’s about, what does that dog need from me right now? What can I offer that dog that is going to make their quality of life better, rather than prolonging something for my own needs?”

Raised in a semi-rural suburb of Melbourne on a farm full of rescue animals, Vissaritis developed a deep connection with dogs when her father died when she was aged 11. “I struggled a lot, I was quite introverted and shy, and didn’t really talk about thoughts and feelings, and dogs were great listeners.”

She advocates a gentler approach to dog training than the “outdated” notion of domination. “There’s no current evidence that stress is beneficial to anyone,” she says. “We’re so busy telling them what they think and telling them what they should do, I think the least we can do is go, ‘Well, why are you feeling that way?’ And what can I do for you, and pay back that unconditional love?”