Grief can shrink daily life, leaving long hours that feel heavy and quiet. In this space, companionship becomes more than comfort. It becomes a reason to keep showing up.

After losing her husband, Dr. Kimberly shares how her rescue dog Dakota, became a steady presence through grief, responsibility, and healing. Their bond grew through training, trust, and the simple rhythm of caring for another life.

Press play for a heartfelt conversation on grief, pets, and resilience, and explore:

• Grieving a spouse and adjusting to life alone
• How pets support emotional healing after loss
• Rescue dogs, trauma, and rebuilding trust
• The role of routine and responsibility in recovery
• Unconditional love and nonverbal connection
• Training, leadership, and safety with dogs
• Why animals often know when we are struggling

01:25 Meet Dakota: More Than a Dog

05:23 Dogs Get It— Even When Humans Don’t 

09:57 Dakota Steps Up When It Matters Most

12:31 From Axious to Confident: Dakota’s Training  Journey

15:52 Unconditional Love on Four Legs and a Wagging Tail

19:12 Why Your Dog’s Oral Health Matters

21:12 Dakota’s Least Favorite Thing

📖Grid: Once in a Lifetime You Get to Start Over by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette

📖Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette (COMING SOON)

Thank you for listening.

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05:57 “The most calming thing about Dakota is she’s loving, and that she loves me unconditionally, and that’s very important when it comes to healing.” —Kimberly Hubenette

07:57 “In the 47 years that he was alive, Mark lived life to the fullest.  —Kimberly Hubenette

14:24 “Dogs are intuitive. They listen, they hear, and they actually respond back if you just allow them to. Dakota is my best friend.” —Kimberly Hubenette

16:31 “Dakota loves me. She cares about me so much. I’m her human, and she’s my dog. She’s not just a dog, she’s my best friend, and she’s my family.” —Kimberly Hubenette

21:54 “She saves all her energy for me. Even if she didn’t feel good for the whole day, she would jump up and be ready to go for a walk with me when I get home. It’s really interesting how I affect her, her personality, her energy level.”  —Kimberly Hubenette

23:56 “So many times, people project too many things on their dogs and their pets and their animals, and that the animal rules, but that’s not a good thing. There’s a fine line between ruling and being ruled in a dog’s life.” —Kimberly Hubenette

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Welcome to the  Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! Podcast that helps you embrace life’s challenges, grow through adversity, and discover your true potential. I’m your host, Dr. Kimberly Hubenette, anti-aging dentist, widow, Author and inspirational Coach. I live by the “Can I” philosophy of constant and never ending improvement, and I’m here to help you do the same. Each week, we’ll dive into real conversations, powerful stories and practical tools to help you heal, grow and thrive. Whether you’re rebuilding after loss or ready to step into a more purposeful life, this space is for you. Let’s grow, evolve and thrive together. 

Dr. Kimberly Hubenette: Hi everybody, I’m Dr. Kimberly Hubenette at Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!. Today is a special episode. In fact, I’m not interviewing any humans, but I am interviewing my dog. Her name is Dakota, and she’s a special friend. She helped me survive through all of my deepest, darkest moments of time when I was healing in the healing stages that my husband, Mark, had just passed away. I had my dog Rosco, or actually his dog. And Rosco was such a special dog, he lasted for another couple of years. And basically, he helped train Dakota to be my dog. 

And Dakota here, she’s just a lovely, part staffy, part pitty, and part Border Collie. And that makes the most wonderful combination. She has the Border Collie eyes, and she also has the staffy brown, smoky look to her, as well as the pretty little socks and stripes up front, up above, there is a picture of Dakota and I when we went to the big trees up in Sequoia National Park. How about the picture over here where we have Dakota, we have Ninjago, her cousin, and her grand, I guess you would call it, well, my niece’s dog. So I guess you would call him my grand nephew, something like that. Anyway, they’re kind of friends, but they’re not friends because Dakota and Mordecai, which is my niece’s dog, they kind of don’t get along. I don’t know why. 

My dog is the sweetest dog, yet she is very territorial when it comes to my house. And I guess I pivot that into the thought of she’s protecting me and she’s protecting her house. She is kind of like a big dog. She’s like, well, I would say she’s 45 pounds, and she can go all the way up to 60 pounds if I let her eat, and eat, and eat. But she is so harmless. She’s like a little chihuahua in a big dog’s body. Her bark is really strong, and it sounds like she’s like a vicious, ferocious dog, but she is so timid and shy. When we walk around, she barks at the dog she doesn’t know, but I think it’s because she’s afraid of them. Even the littlest dogs she has like sometimes, she has a little issue with. But if she gets to know you, and if she gets to know the dog, she’s the most friendly dog in the world. She loves every dog that we have in contact with on a daily basis. 

I want to show you Dakota. There she is, there she is. Miss America. See, there she is. Oh, there she is. Wow, Dakota, there’s a few things I have to ask her. Number one, I asked her things like, Dakota, do you want to go for a walk? And she understands that. She understands the word WALK. She understands that it’s time to eat. She understands, let’s go outside to go to the bathroom. She knows when to go and it’s time to go to the car. She actually barks at me when she wants food sometimes, if she’s hungry. Hungry hippo, huh? But the most calming thing about her is that she’s loving, and that she loves me unconditionally, and that’s very important when it comes to healing. 

Since I lost my husband Mark, I’ve had to deal with a lot of things. Number one, household. Number two, obviously keeping track of the house like the cars, the house, the upkeep where usually the guys would do. But now that I’m single and doing these things, I really appreciate the fact that Mark used to do all this. He did train me. We knew that one of these days, I was going to outlive him. We always knew that because he had a double lung transplant when I met him. It was like maybe three years new, and so he only lived out of a tackle box of medication. And if you looked at him walking down the street, he would have looked normal to you. But nobody knew that he had the problem unless they were his friends, or his family, or co-workers. 

And I have to hand it to him. He used to tell me it was like breathing underwater every day. How difficult is that? I don’t even know how to swim underwater without feeling suffocated. I’m not a swimmer. I’ll never be a swimmer. But can you imagine living your life breathing like you’re breathing underwater? That is so difficult. And yet in the 47 years that he was alive, he lived life to the fullest. Somebody with cystic fibrosis really isn’t supposed to live past 18. But with new technology and the way that things are going, I think that people are going to be out living their disease process a little bit better. 

He was one of test pilots for these double lung transplants back in the day. And when I went to a conference, a thoracic conference, they said that there were only 200 lung types of surgeries every year being double lung, single lung, lobectomies, any of that kind of stuff. Only 200 a year are in transplants, or double lung transplants, or even single lung transplants. Can you believe that? 

In the year 2025 and they’re still doing so little, that means his surgeon back in the day 21 years ago, now it’s probably 25 years ago, he probably only did like two or three in a year, that’s why they call practicing medicine the practice of medicine, or the practice of dentistry. But mostly, the practice of medicine with organ transplant is huge. Nowadays, they have organ transplants that are, I would say kidney transplants, heart transplants are pretty routine now, but double lung transplants are not routine. They say that you have to take the heart and the lung to get the best result, so that is really scary. 

So back to Dakota. When Dakota was being changed, trained by Mark’s dog Rosco to be our dog, she really took it upon herself to be the leader, because Rosco was never the leader. Rosco used to have my other dog, Loki, as the leader. She was a black lab that was about two years older than he. And when he lost her, a part of him died as well, and he was kind of lost without her. So that’s really one of two reasons why I got Dakota, because I knew that my Rosco was depressed when Mark wasn’t around. He was always looking for Mark. And number two, he was also looking for a pack leader. So when Dakota and Rosco met at a dog park, the dog people told me when I rescued her that I should make sure that they got along. Because as a rescue, basically, if they don’t want to keep changing the dog around, because if there’s not a good fit for a person that has another dog and you have to bring it back again, it’s really devastating to the dog. 

Dakota really already had low self esteem. She was walking around Vallejo, and I guess she had just had a litter of pups, but they couldn’t find the pups. So basically, she already was anxiety driven. When Rosco met Dakota, she licked his face. He licked her face, and they ran around having so much fun. So that’s when the leader, the person that was taking care of Dakota at the time, said that she thought it was a good fit, and maybe I should take Dakota home to see how they would do. Well, in the car, Dakota was not a good dog in the car. She was very anxious in the car, and she just huddled in the corner. And when I got home, I put her on the leash and started taking her for a walk. She was not good at walking leash either. So that’s when we decided, or I decided, along with the lady that introduced me to Dakota, she was like the house mom, she was just a volunteer person at the dog rescue that I rescued Dakota from, suggested that I have a professional dog trainer, and she gave me a couple of sessions, I guess, for free, to this guy named, and you’ve met him in my podcast before because I interviewed him, Troy McDaniel. 

Anyway, I decided to take her there, back to Vallejo, because that’s where he was living at the time, and we took her for a walk. She wouldn’t walk on top of cracks or anything, and she was pretty hesitant to walk on the leash. Anyway, he told me that he would have her for two weeks and train her, and well, he knew he could help her. So after two weeks, I came to pick her up, and she was a whole different dog. He had trained her to walk over the cracks in the sidewalk. He had taught her how to walk around over drain ditches, because she didn’t want to do that either. And he also taught her to be friendly with other dogs. And so that created our journey. 

Dakota is such a sweetheart. She knows when I’m depressed. She knows when I need a little TLC. She’ll come up to the chair and sit next to me. I don’t want her to lick my face, obviously, but she will come to me when I need her the most. And dogs are intuitive. They listen, they hear, they actually respond back if you just allow them to, because they will. And she’s my best friend. Every day I come home to Dakota, I treat her very well. 

Since I am a dentist, I have to go to work for 8 hours a day. And since I live 30 minutes away from my office, it’s another hour back and forth. So in the middle of the day, Dakota has a dog walker named Walt, and he loves Dakota. And then she also has dog walkers that are my neighbors, and they’re teenagers, and they’re so helpful in helping Dakota grow as a doggy. I’ve had all of the children in the neighborhood walk Dakota because I love her, and I know that she loves kids. And even though she’s this pitty staffy Border Collie, mixed with a lot of energy, she is the sweetest. She listens to them. She walks well with them on the leash. She listens to them, huh? You do. And she is just a love bug. 

When somebody has a problem with the loss of a loved one, it could be either a spouse, a child, a sibling, or even a mom or a dad, here she goes. She’s on point. You hear? I want you to hear her, because she is a great dog. I know. I know. There she is, there she is. Come say hi to everybody. Dogs are so special. They understand, huh, you understand me, baby. You understand me. She loves me. She cares about me so much. I’m her human, and she’s my dog, and I love her. She’s part of my family. She’s not just a dog, she’s my friend, my best friend, and she’s my family. 

Dakota, I have a question for you, what would life be like if I hadn’t found you and you haven’t found me? Huh? What would it be like? Well, I’ll tell you what it would be like. She was running around Vallejo looking for her puppies, and she couldn’t find them. I think they were in a drain ditch, and then she got caught by animal control. She couldn’t go back to her doggy puppies, and that’s what happened. And so what’s interesting is she and I, I’ve taught her how to play a game called hide and go seek, or Marco Polo type of thing. Well, every day, we play the same game, and safety is this drain ditch. And so if I walk around and away from this drain ditch, she walks out of the way also. But the minute she hears me running to the safe zone, which is the drain ditch, she gets there first. Anywhere in the field, if I start running towards the drain ditch, she gets there first. She is such a smart dog, and she loves that game. She barks at the drain ditch, but I’ve trained her to play that game. 

Dogs are very, very smart, and they also can wrap you around their little pinky finger to do whatever they want you to do. Well, I’m here to tell you that dogs or any kind of pet that you have is very peaceful and enjoyable. And having a pet when you’ve lost a loved one is so inspiring. You could talk to them. Talk to them and tell them your darkest, deepest secrets, and they’ll keep them because they can’t tell anybody else. Anyway, that’s my little spiel about having a pet, and we love our pets. Yes, I’ll do anything for my pet. 

One time when she got hit by a car and I had to take her right away to the dog hospital because I was so afraid that she broke a bone or something, or had internal bleeding. Well, what happened was I took her, and they said that she had some broken teeth. So I took her to the doggy oral surgeon. It took a whole month before I could get an appointment because I wanted her to get a root canal. Since I’m a dentist, I didn’t want her to have a missing tooth. They put her to sleep, took x-rays. They found out she could have one root canal, and she had to have a few teeth pulled because they were abscessed and had periodontal disease, so we had to take a few teeth out. But she did get a root canal. 

And you know that root canals are the same as human root canals, they just use a little longer tool for the removal of the pulp chamber in the doggy teeth. Anyway, it was great to watch and experience that part. I wish I could have done it myself, but the doctor said that, as a dentist, it’s almost the same. But you also need to be certified to treat doggy types of teeth. So he didn’t let me watch, but he did show me a little bit. He let me in to see what she was looking like when she was sedated, intubated and getting her teeth cleaned. But he showed me the X-rays and everything, and she was very comfortable. 

She woke up okay, and now I brush her teeth every day. It’s a good thing to brush your pet’s teeth because they’ll get gum disease and periodontal calculus and so forth too just like a human. What’s one thing Dakota that you hate the most out of your day? And you know what she would say? She would probably say that it’s just waiting for me to get home. She loves the fact that she gets her two dog walks, but it’s still not the same because she wants me. I’m her human, so she loves me so much, huh, even on the days where she’s grumpy, or she’s sick, or she doesn’t want to do anything. Maybe she caught a little cold, or any of those things when I get home is when she jumps up and she saves all her energy for me. Even if she didn’t feel good for the whole day, she would jump up and be ready to go for a walk with me when I get home. It’s really interesting how I affect her, her personality, and how I affect her energy level because I’m her human. She doesn’t do that for everybody else. She just does it for me. Same thing. She protects and guards our house, different from anybody else’s house and anywhere else she is. 

She’s outside, she loves all the dogs, and she loves to be with dogs playing. But if they’re in her house, boy, oh, boy, she follows them around like this is her house and her territory. So a little side note, I take her everywhere. I take it to the store. I take her on hikes. She stays in the car if she can’t go places, but I do take her to some places that allow dogs. When we go to Home Depot, she’s allowed to walk around there. So we do that a lot. When I take her to the Pet Smart, or Petco, she gets to walk in there. I walked into the post office with her. I’ve walked into other places, like restaurants. Not so much at restaurants because she can’t sit still that well. Most importantly, I’ve trained her with my dog trainer to sit on the corner and I walk across the street, and she won’t follow unless I call her. So that’s a great training trick. 

People that have dogs, they let their dogs rule them. But I’m to the point where I rule her because it’s better for me as the human to be the boss. So many times, people project too many things on their dogs, their pets, and their animals, and that the animal rules. But that’s not a good thing. I rule, huh, Dakota. But she’s also my friend. There’s a fine line between ruling and being ruled in a dog’s life. 

I think that it’s time to say goodbye. I’m glad that you listened to this podcast today of Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! talking to my pet, Dakota. It’s been an inspirational talk, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed it, too. I’ll see you next time, bye. 

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! I hope our time together has inspired you to embrace life’s challenges, find the courage to overcome obstacles, and create a life filled with love, purpose and fulfillment. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. Your feedback means the world to me, and to help us continue to bring you stories and tools to empower your journey. And if you have a story of resilience, transformation or thriving after adversity, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at livelovesurvivethrive@gmail.com. You never know, your story might just be the inspiration someone else needs to hear. 

To learn more about me and my work, visit my website at www.drkimberlyhubenette.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out my current book, GRID: Once In A Lifetime, You Get To Start Over, a guide to rebuilding and rediscovering life after loss. Get a sneak peek at my upcoming book, Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!, a powerful companion to this podcast, and a heartfelt roadmap to reclaiming joy, resilience and meaning after life’s toughest seasons. You can also connect with me on social media. Follow me on Facebook at authordr.kimberlyhubenette. Follow me on Instagram with the same name, and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! for more inspiration and insights. 

Remember, you have the power within you to write your story and thrive beyond your wildest imaginations. Keep relearning to live love, survive, thrive every single day. Until next time, I’m Dr. Kimberly Hubenette, and this is Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!