Readers credit her articles for calling attention to dogs in need and helping to save lives.

Mary Schwager, aka Watchdog Mary, has won more than two dozen journalism awards for investigative, consumer, and feature reporting, including 17 Emmys, eight Edward R. Murrow Awards, and numerous Associated Press honors. 

She is honored to now be a judge for the National Daytime Emmy Awards.

Mary is the senior executive producer of programming for equalpride. She leads a team and oversees the production of the award-winning television shows: The Advocates, The Out100, and The Pride of Broadway, which air in syndication on national television and stream on Hulu.

The Advocates won a 2025 Telly Award for an episode called “Nowhere to Go.” The investigative show revealed a shortage of domestic violence shelters for people with pets and the queer community, leaving them with nowhere to go if they need to escape an abusive relationship. (Fact: Women with pets are less likely to leave an abusive situation if they can't bring their dog or cat.)

The show also won a Communicator Award from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. The Out100 also won a Telly Award and the Best Broadcast Packaging award from the National Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.

Mary has worked as a television reporter, investigative reporter, and investigative producer at network-affiliated stations across the country, including Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Indianapolis, Indiana; and WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, where she won 17 Emmys, 8 Edward R. Murrow Awards, and multiple Associated Press Awards.

Working in television, she's gotten high-profile interviews, gone undercover with hidden cameras, and done round-the-clock live shots during breaking news events, sometimes even reporting thousands of feet above the ground in a chopper. (While hovering over giant, flaming explosions.) 

She has chased after infamous criminals to get interviews, like Christopher Scarver, the man who killed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in prison.

While on assignment, Mary asked William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind the nationwide college admissions bribery scandal, why he gamed the system in front of the federal courthouse in Boston.

Mary also loves covering stories about animals and the environment. While at WHDH-TV in Boston, she produced an investigative story revealing how emergency responders were not allowed to help police K9s if they were injured in the line of duty. The story won an Emmy award, and after it aired, the state of Massachusetts passed “Nero’s Law,” which now makes it possible for these working dogs to receive life-saving care.

She has received five awards from the Dog Writers Association of America. One was for an article published in The Dodo about a stray dog joining a charity run and finding himself a new home. Another award was for a story about her beloved dog, Daisy: “Ode to Daisy: The Yellow Lab Who Stole Our Hearts.”

She also won three Cat Writers' Association awards for articles published in Catster Magazine. One was about a hero kitty who saved her owner from a fire.

Reporting on animals combined with her consumer and investigative storytelling earned her the name “Watchdog Mary.” Some of her articles helped implement change in municipal shelters and saved animals’ lives. She was one of the first journalists to write about a change in federal tax rules, which made fostering an animal for a nonprofit rescue tax-deductible. Even with the new additions to federal tax laws, fostering is still deductible.

She was also the Facebook Live roving reporter (some might even say the “rover reporter”) for I Love My Dog and its 5.5 million fans.

Her "Consumer Watchdog Mary" videos aired nationally on "The Daily Buzz" morning show. As a print journalist writing about money, trends, and finance, Mary's articles have appeared in Galtime.com, The Examiner, Huffington Post, Yahoo, and Fox Business News.

Mary was also a state-licensed detective and conducted criminal and insurance fraud investigations after graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Marquette Magazine (page 34) featured some of Mary's accomplishments. 

Mary is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Dog Writers Association of America, the Cat Writers’ Association of America, and Investigative Reporters and Editors. She is also a part-time lecturer teaching journalism at Northeastern University in Boston—and hopes to one day write books about rescued dogs and a memoir about one of her dogs, Solly.

She has always loved animals. Growing up, she had parakeets, chameleons, fish, guinea pigs, and dogs. In college, she and her roommate had a cat and a rabbit. The pair actually got along quite well. The cat would paw at the bunny's nose. He took it as a sign of affection and loved it. The two animals, both litter box trained, made for some wonderful moments.  

The very first dog Mary adopted was abandoned when she was three weeks old. Ever since, she has adopted rescue dog after rescue dog, and so has the rest of her family. 

In her 20s, Mary started volunteering with rescue organizations, something she continues today. It’s often one of the toughest yet most worthwhile volunteer gigs you can have!

Follow Watchdog Mary on social media:  Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

One reader sent this note to Watchdog Mary: "I would like to extend a heartfelt ‘THANK YOU’ in appreciation of you, Mary Schwager, for being a true advocate for animals everywhere, whose voice is heard through your tenacious spirit, diplomacy, and passion, which reaches the hearts of those who join you for the sake of all the precious furbabies left behind in shelters. You give us hope and cause to continue to speak for the animals we love." -Elizabeth Barrera