For the Love of Dog author Pilley Bianchi on Chaser, Canine Welfare, and Creativity
Aurora Airwaves • Episode 9
Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube
For the Love of Dog author Pilley Bianchi sits down with Jordan for Aurora Airwaves to chat about her work and life with her father Dr. John Pilley and his research of canine cognition, which led to his discoveries with Chaser the Border Collie, who had the largest tested memory of any non-human animal.
Chaser and Dr. Pilley were internationally acclaimed for their work, which led to the publication of their highly successful book Chaser: Unlocking The Genius Of The Dog Who Knows A Thousand Words by Dr. John Pilley and Hillary Hilary Hinzmann.
Pilley and Jordan discuss her father’s findings and philosophies on life, and what she learned in the time after his passing as she picked up his work to be a champion of canine welfare. The two discuss writing, creative exploration, and how to navigate the ebbs and flows of creative projects, careers, and life.
In ep.8 of Aurora Airwaves, Jordan introduced us to Chaser through readings from moment in Chaser: Unlocking The Genius Of The Dog Who Knows A Thousand Words, and Chasing Joy, a children's story by Jordan and Pilley Bianchi. Listen to ep.8 Beethoven, Chaser, and the Pilley’s.
Read Chasing Joy by Jordan and Pilley.
A bit more about Pilley:
Pilley Bianchi is an award-winning musician, producer, and writer from Brooklyn NY. She never imagined she would be utilizing these same skills to collaborate with her father Dr. John W. Pilley, and his dog Chaser – known as “the smartest dog in the world” - in their groundbreaking, research. John Pilley cracked the code in teaching human language to dogs, empirically demonstrating that Chaser had learned the names of over 1000 objects as well as verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and common nouns. The methodology was play and the reinforcement was praise.
Bianchi has been a co-teacher, producer, writer, and media consultant for Chaser featured in Time, People, Popular Science, The New York Times, Modern Dog, USA Today, etc. and film shoots with 60 Minutes, CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, ITV, Discovery, Nat Geo Wild, etc. Bianchi collaborated with her father and his co-writer Hilary Hinzmann, behind the scenes on their New York Times bestselling book Chaser: Unlocking The Genius Of The Dog Who Knows A Thousand Words and has appeared as an expert on Chaser at SXSW, Hill’s Science Diet, Fox & Friends, PBS, Dogspot.in India, CBC Canada, SBS TV South Korea, WIRED, the AKC, the ASPCA, The IAABC, NPR Canada, Talk RADIO London, etc. Bianchi is Senior Executive Producer/Founder of The Chaser Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to educating Children (K-12) about the legacy of John Pilley & Chaser and learning through play.
Bianchi’s new best-selling book For the Love of Dog, The Ultimate Relationship Guide with New York Times illustrator Calum Heath and foreword by Marc Bekoff, has received critical acclaim and called “truly a game changer” by NPR’s DOGTALK host Tracie Hotchner.
She lives with her husband Jay Bianchi, son Aidan Bianchi and their two recue cats, Toro & Miki Mouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Chaser the Border Collie: www.chaserthebc.com
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