Pure Dog Talk

Juniors’ Best Advice: Always Strive to Improve Octavia Stensen, Best Junior at Westminster Kennel Club this year, joins host Laura Reeves for the behind the scenes story of how a non-dog show kid just capped off the triple crown of junior showmanship, having also won Best Junior at the AKC National Championship and made finals in Juniors at Crufts. Stensen’s family acquired a Norwegian Buhund when she was 10 years old. Her first time in the ring left her in tears, but she persevered and nine years later she reached the pinnacle of the sport for juniors. “We ended up getting Fiona and she became our new pet but the one catch of it was that we had to get her grand champion," Stensen said. "I was like, ‘I'll do it. I don't even know what that means but I will do it. I don't even know what this entails or what I'm doing in this, but I am going to do it.' And so it started from there and it wasn't easy by any means. “I went to bed that night (after my first ring experience) thinking, I can do better and I can do better here and I could have done this and I'm gonna do that next time,” Stensen said. “And there was a next time, you know what I mean? There was like that idea of the future. “I did eventually get her Grand and she is now our pet and we have since then bred her and got my heart dog out of that, Pineapple.   [caption id="attachment_12963" align="alignleft" width="426"] Octavia Stensen with her mom and Pineapple after the WKC Best Junior win.[/caption] “I am so, so lucky both my mom and my dad have been so supportive, but my mom really steps up. My dad is like, I'll pay the bills, but my mom is like, I'm going to be here next to you and I'm going to travel with you to all of these things and I couldn't be more grateful for that. “They have definitely supported me in more ways than I could have ever, ever asked for. I mean, after winning at Orlando and walking out of the ring and then being like, so I guess I need to go to London now. And they were like, ‘okay, so let's figure out how we're going to finance that.’ Stensen’s advice to juniors coming up is always have fun and never stop improving. “It is so, so hard to get caught up in the competition and freaking yourself out and getting all nervous but this is meant to be fun. It's all for fun. We are coming to these things to have a good time, we're not coming to these things to torture ourselves with nerves. Listen to your mentors and your peers and you can always be better. You can consistently improve. I mean, there's never a moment in your life where you can stop getting better at things.”

What Your Puppies’ Poopy Tells You Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves for an extended conversation about puppy poopy. Color, consistency, contents and coating of the puppy’s stool give detailed information about its gut health. They also discuss prevention and treatment of common intestinal upset. “A yellow, softened, seedy stool is absolutely normal (for the first two weeks),” Greer said. “It's not that they've eaten anything that shouldn't be in there. That's just normal milk curd being digested and the normal color with the digestive enzymes.” [caption id="attachment_12956" align="alignleft" width="483"] Puppy stool samples and what they tell you, at a glance.[/caption] To watch the entire presentation, with photos, click the link HERE. Intestinal parasites “If a bitch ever had roundworms when she was a puppy or ever had hookworms when she was a puppy, those will encyst in her muscles and they will reactivate during the stress of pregnancy and lactation and migrate,” Greer said. “Roundworms migrate through the placenta into the puppies. So, this is how puppies are born with intestinal parasites, is they're already born with them before they are hatched, they come out, and hookworms will migrate through the milk and into the puppies. “So this is how we end up with parasites that are going to cause problems in puppies. And they typically will start to become an issue when the puppies are right about three weeks of age. So just three to four weeks, just about the time you're starting to wean, about the time you're trying to get them on to solid food, they get sick, they feel puny, they have a belly ache, they don't feel good, you end up going to the vet. “Sometimes those stool samples are negative even if the parasites are there because the parasites need to be at least three weeks old to produce the eggs that it takes for them to see under the microscope.” Worming pregnant dams with Fenbendazole (Pancur) is the only guaranteed way to raised puppies not born with intestinal parasites. “So Panacur, you start at day 42 of the pregnancy,” Greer said. “And you give the dewormer every single day from day 42 of the pregnancy until the puppies are 14 days old. That is five weeks. The label says three days, and I understand the label says three days, but it is a five -week protocol. It is an off -label use, technically, but I can say that because I'm a veterinarian and I'm allowed to say those things. This protocol was published for the first time in the early 1980s. “We're giving 50 milligrams per kilogram once a day (to the dam for five weeks). If you give the suspension, not the tube paste, but the suspension, the liquid stuff that you shake up. That's given at one cc per four pounds of body weight. Safeguard, Panacur, fenbendazole is all the same thing. So if it's a 10 % solution, it's one cc per four pounds of body weight. Or you can use the granules. Now granules come in little packages, but they also come in a one pound tub, so there are very cost effective ways for you to get this. I'll tell you the bitches don't like the medication given daily, but you know what? I don't like worms in my washing machine and in my puppies, so I'm going with, I'd rather deworm the bitch."

Study Shows Purebred Dogs Healthier Overall than Mixed Breeds Dr. Kiersten Forsyth, DVM cardiology resident at Purdue and lead author of the recent paper from the Dog Aging Project discussing findings on health in our canine companions, joins host Laura Reeves with the details, which are not necessarily the same as what you might have heard. “The Dog Aging Project is this really cool community science project,” Forsyth said. “Essentially, there are some researchers that are involved at a few different universities, but the main people that are involved in this project are the dog owners themselves. People can nominate their dog to participate. “It is a longitudinal observational study, which basically means as a pet owner, once a year you fill out this really big survey that tells all about your dog, what their history is as far as their health, but also where they live, what kinds of things they do, the environment they're in. And that information for one dog might not tell us a lot, but when we have tens of thousands of dogs participating, we can pull a lot of information from this. “And so once a year, you get to refill out this survey, and we can follow these dogs throughout their lifetime to see what changes, what they're exposed to and our real goal is to learn more about all of these dogs in the U.S., but also what makes some dogs live longer than other dogs and can we get more information about aging in these dogs? “For the specific research part that I was involved in, we were looking at all of the dogs who were enrolled in the study during the year of 2020. We had 27,541 dogs included. So, a huge number. “Of those, about 50 percent of them were mixed breed dogs and 50 percent of them were purebred dogs. We tried to look at what the 25 most common or popular dog breeds were that made up the dog aging project pack at that point in time and then really focused on those top 25 breeds to then say, 'okay for these specific breeds, what are the most common medical conditions that their owners are reporting their dog to have experienced in their lifetime'. “So, for each breed, we came up with a list of their 10 most commonly reported conditions, and then we looked to compare how those changed between different breeds and between the mixed breed population and the purebred population to see is there really a difference in the amount of medical conditions that a dog gets if they're a purebred dog versus being a mixed breed dog. “When we looked at it, one of the things we were wondering was, do purebred dogs have more disease than mixed breed dogs? And we found, no, that's not the case. In fact, it might even be slightly suggested into the opposite, 'cause we looked at, of all of these dogs, how many of them did not have any health conditions reported? “These are our healthy dogs. Nothing has been reported to be wrong with them. And we found that 22 percent of the purebred dogs had no reported medical conditions. And just under 21 percent of the mixed breed dogs had no medical conditions. So, there was really a 1.6 percent difference between the two of them, which is not a huge difference, but it was actually statistically significant that the purebred dogs were actually more likely to have no owner-reported medical conditions than our mixed breed dogs. “It’s really not more likely to have disease in your purebred dogs. “Now, specific breeds may be more likely to have specific conditions. And that goes along with, you know, I do a lot of stuff with the heart. I know that if we think of degenerative valve disease, Cavaliers come to the top of your mind, or if you think of dilated cardiomyopathy, Dobermans come to the top of your mind. And we're not saying that certain breeds aren't more prone to very specific diseases or medical conditions, but as a whole, being purebred doesn't show a higher reporting of medical conditions compared to mixed breed. “It’s turning out that common things happened commonly, where even though we're looking at these purebred dogs, where you might think they're prone to very specific diseases or medical conditions, it still is things like dental disease, dog bites from other dogs. Those are still some of the things that are showing up frequently across breeds, not just with one specific breed.”

NOHS Regional Events from the Club’s Perspective Ryan Horvath and Sandra Pretari Hickson join host Laura Reeves to discuss the upcoming first ever NOHS Regional Event at their Harvest Moon Classic dog shows Oct. 17-20 this year. “Since the inception of the owner handled competition, we've included it in our shows every year,” Horvath said. “And we've also recognized the need to elevate it to a status on par with the rest of the show. So, we've offered similar trophies. We have the event taking place right in the main hall with the rest of the show so that you can kind of go pick and choose what you want to watch, who you want to cheer for, you know, and make sure that you can make all your ring times because, you know, it can get a little hairy sometimes.” “(NOHS Regional) is happening on Saturday,” Pretari Hickson said, “on the same day as the regular dog show, but it is a standalone event. So we're not offering the traditional owner handled that day. And we have rings dedicated to just owner handlers. And we actually have brought in judges just for this.” “It’s challenging being one of the first clubs to put this on,” Horvath added. “Trying to invent it from the ground up. And we are in a new site that we've had two years in and we continue to evolve and develop new things that we need to improve each year. So this is one more thing that we have to integrate in and kind of start out without anyone to look at and see how they do it. “One of the things that we try to pay attention to, and something we've definitely done for this regional event, is to have judges that are approved for these groups. And so you're gonna have judges who, judge them, know the breeds, and many times we've had them on our panels doing similar breeds and groups in the past. So, we're thrilled to be able to provide them with an equal stake.”  

Best Advice from Best in Show Judge, Roz Kramer Roz Kramer, Best in Show judge for Westminster Kennel Club last week, joins host Laura Reeves with advice, stories, suggestions and tips for all exhibitors. On judging Best in Show at Westminster [caption id="attachment_12915" align="alignleft" width="255"] Kaz Hosaka, winning BIS at WKC with the Miniature Poodle, Sage.[/caption] “You know, you're sequestered and so you don't really know who you're getting and they come in the ring one at a time and it was one gorgeous dog after another. “I mean, all of them showed like a million bucks. They all looked wonderful, fabulous condition. And it gave me goosebumps. It really did. I was so happy and so thrilled. On her mentors “I have had three incredible mentors for me Annie (Rogers Clark), Janey and Bob (Forsyth). I had so much respect for the three of them. Annie, she was such a teacher in many ways. I never worked for any of them, but you saw them at shows all the time and they'd give you little hints or little suggestions all the time and or you’d just sit and listen to them and you'd learn. On how newer exhibitors can succeed “You should stick around (after showing in the ring), learn your history of your breed, learn who the greats of the breed were, learn your pedigrees, figure out who the best multiple breeders of your breed, and it wouldn't matter if they're ones on the west coast and ones in Texas and ones in Maine. Seek those people out, learn the best you can. And then if you get a dog, don't be afraid to go, not just ask other breeders for help on trimming or showing. “I'm telling you, you go to most of these handlers, it doesn't matter who they are, they are more than willing to help. We need the new people in the sport and everybody knows it and I think that what people also need to do is don't think that you're better than everybody else, be kind and caring to people because you know something, we all have to ask for help at some point in our lives and don't be afraid to. “You know one of the ways that I learned when I was a kid is my mentor on the Scotty's John Sheehan. He'd trim the show side and then he'd say ‘okay now you trim the other side. Copy that.’ “(There) is the conditioning part. And it was a teaching tool to me that you do this day after day, hour after hour, and don't stop. And it's going to pay off. "(It's) hard work and don't stop, even though you may get discouraged. Keep pushing on because you know what, it pays off in the long run and it gives you so much joy and reward. "And you know what the best part of it is the dogs. You're spending time with our best friends ever. I mean, I don't know where my life would be without the dogs themselves, seriously. “It's artistry, and I think people prefer the quick fix and the easy fix. I think that people should give themselves a challenge, prove what they can accomplish and they might be surprised." [caption id="attachment_12912" align="alignleft" width="310"] Kramer's Etsy shop features home decor and fashion items like this pillow cover.[/caption] Visit Kramer's Etsy shop to see her beautiful breed specific designs on home decor and fashion items.  

The New Voice of Westminster Kennel Club Host Laura Reeves is joined by Valerie Nunes-Atkinson, handler, breeder and the new color commentator at Westminster Kennel Club. “So I think one of the reasons why I've been brought in is because of some of the things that you mentioned, being a handler, having lived it and been there. So I'm hoping to bring the insight from that perspective, from the handler's perspective, the excitement of it, what goes on a little bit behind the scenes, but then also from a breeder perspective, you know, having bred dogs that have done well there and bred dogs for decades. “Jason has been a breeder and a handler and a judge, but he's more from the judge's perspective and the historical importance of the breeds and details of the breeds. And I hope to bring a little bit of the other type of knowledge. And Chris is our fun guy that asks interesting questions. “You learn how to listen to someone in your ears and still talk… It's something, I will say it's something to get used to. So they're talking in your ear. ear and they're counting you down. So literally we have about 20 seconds after the announcer gives all the breed details on that particular breed to make a point about something and keep it somewhat interesting. “Twenty seconds is a long time, but it's really not a long time. So to be concise and get your message across and be done before he starts going into the next breed. So they're counting you down as you're talking and trying to make your point in these 20 seconds and you have to be done by the time they get to one. Otherwise, someone might be screaming in your ear. “So learning that and learning how to go back and forth between the three of us and not step on each other, so that you're not talking over the other person. “There's a huge learning curve and we'll see because, you know, it basically scares the, you know, what out of me to be doing this. And I really considered not doing it. But my dad always told me, and this was before he passed, he said, ‘If you're not doing something that is scary and challenges you and really scares you, you're not growing.’ So you've got to live your life. You've got to push yourself and reach for other goals. And so I'm doing it. “And that's where I think, you know, through this broadcast and through Jason and Chris, I mean, we hope to, you know, give breed details. We hope to give breed information to the general public. That'll be interesting that maybe allows them to think about other breeds and hopefully maybe even learn how to find a preservation breeder. “I think being able to, for my role, step in and maybe tell some little tidbits of stories or experiences that I've had that might bring other people in to say, ‘Hey, maybe I could try that or that sounds fun.’ Or maybe they don't even know about things we're talking about like the agility. trial that's gonna be there as well. There's other sports within AKC that the general public can do wth their dogs, which is very exciting. And I think it's a way to bring everybody else, the general public into a scene, what else you can do with your dogs?”

Expert Tips for Expanding Puppies' Minds Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves for their ongoing conversation about raising puppies. This month they’re talking week four, when the puppies’ minds are exploding with new sensory input. [caption id="attachment_12902" align="alignleft" width="528"] From Dr. Greer's "Canine Reproduction and Neonatology"[/caption] “When the puppies first open their eyes, first open their ears, we should have gentle lighting, we should have gentle sounds,” Greer said. “We shouldn't just have this loud TV with Rambo on. So, you know, things like just have the lights starting to come up, their vision isn't great, their hearing isn't great, but it went from almost nothing to something and so we want to ease them into that world.” Four weeks is when many puppies are introduced to solid food. Mothers of wild canids vomit for their puppies as their introduction to solid food. Laura describes making puppy food the “consistency of dog vomit.” Marty recommends shallow water bowls for puppies to prevent drowning hazards, as well as Lixit bottles for smaller breeds. 100 experiences in 100 days “I try to do a lot of variation in the enclosure. I have a rabbit hutch that's got a two story ramp on it so they can go in and out of doors and up and down the ramp. I have all kinds of little beds that have holes and places for them to go. Honestly the best toys are the kids’ toys that I pick up at garage sales. So you pick up, you know, baby walkers and all kinds of toys and they're brightly colored and they're hard plastic. They're not durable enough for the aggressive chewer or adult dog. So you probably don't want them in with mom if you've got a lab that eats everything, but they're fun. They make interesting noise and you can do variability. “I think both Sophia Yen and Ian Dunbar, veterinarians that talk a lot about behavior and development, talk about a hundred experiences in a hundred days. “I have a series of 11 bath mats that are all different sizes, shapes, colors, textures. The mesh ones I put under the puppies when they're really young because the urine runs through and so they stay dry. When you're in that transition period between when mom stops cleaning them, that two to four week transition period when they start urinating on their own, they stay dry and it doesn't soak into a pad directly on their skin so it's cleaner and neater. “And those again can go in the washing machine. But I went to Walmart during COVID and they had 11 styles of bath mats. They had some with bristles, they had some that were shiny, some with round holes, some with square holes, some were dark colored, some were light colored. Just this whole variety and again I throw them in my washing machine when they get soiled and then I hang them to dry. And I have two sets so that they can rotate through. And you've just given now a puppy 11 different surfaces, so of the 100 experiences you need to do in 100 days, you just did 10 percent of them, with a bath mat.”  

Eye Emergencies Can Go From 0 to 60 in a Blink Host Laura Reeves is joined by veterinary ophthalmologist Stacey Halse for a deep dive on eye emergencies in our dogs. [caption id="attachment_12861" align="alignleft" width="385"] Dr. Stacey Halse, veterinary ophthalmologist, with one of her Dobermans.[/caption] “Eyes are a very unique structure when it comes to every other organ, well, most other organs in the (dog’s) body,” Halse said. “They have what you call the fancy word for is a blood aqueous barrier. It kind of protects the inside of the eye from the rest of the immune system. The eye itself is called an immunoprivileged site. And so when things go wrong and the regular immune system kind of gets into the eye, it can go very wrong very quickly. “And so emergencies can go from, oh, it's just a little scratch, just... to suddenly you're like, "Oh, now the eyeball's melting out of the face." And so that's always very scary, both for an owner and a dog.” Eye Infections in Newborns “One of the biggest things that you can do is get that eyelid open even though the eyes are only supposed to open at about two weeks old, you don't want that material to stay in there. And so if it's not draining yet, warm compressing and just gently massaging those eyes open to get that material draining because if it stays in there, it's going to ruin the eye. It's going to cause scar tissue that can affect the puppy for the rest of its life. And I haven't seen it a ton, but in the worst case. case scenarios, usually the shelter dogs that are kind of not brought in to care, but they can lose their eye. And so outside of medications, just getting that eye open is really the most important part.” Steroid Cautions Generally, any ulceration or scratch of the eye’s surface should NOT be treated with steroids. “If there's an ulcer there and you don't know because you don't have the staining and all this stuff, you just wanna be cautious and kind of just do the topical antibiotics. In general, something like neopolybac, which a lot of people have, or a topical drop, most often if I'm prescribing it, I'll use Tobromycin because you only need something that's superficial. But I feel like a lot of the time people have neopolybac in the dog world. “You just have to make sure there's no steroid in it. So the two steroids that can be a neopolybac is hydrocortisone or dexamethasone. Dexamethasone probably the most common, but hydrocortisone is the one that's most commonly missed because people are just looking for dexamethasone on the thing. And one little trick that I teach students as well as owners is that if there's a pink strip on the box, it's a steroid. Tan is antibiotic, pink is steroid. Corneal Ulcers “The cornea is only about 0.8 millimeters thick, so it's super, super thin. And so an infection anywhere else, not a huge deal. An infection on the surface of the eye can be very bad very quickly. You can lose the eye within 24 hours. I've had one in the hospital that I was medicating aggressively and then we still lost the battle. And it like developed an ulcer in the hospital. This was like during my residency and we started treating right away and we still lost it. “I don't wanna freak everyone out but that's the worst case scenario. - If there's a little bit of squinting, and if you ever see a divot on your dog's eye, just take it in.”  

Westminster Kennel Club Fashionista Advice Host Laura Reeves is joined by Veronica Wolfe of Best In Show Clothes, talking about that *perfect* WKC outfit, hair, nails, makeup and more. “So, you know Westminster, it is the premier dog sport event of the year,” Wolfe noted. “It is the second oldest sporting event in the nation only behind the Kentucky Derby and then only by two years. It's been going on since 1877. So you have to give some respect to the event. Very prestigious, limited number of dogs, the juniors invitation only. “There's a few factors you need to consider. One is the event, of course. You know, and how do you get ready and how do you dress for Westminster? My first thought would be the way you get ready and appropriate for really any dog show. You're representing your breed. If you have a kennel, you're representing your kennel. If you're a handler, you're representing your client's dogs. If you're an assistant, you're representing your handler, “So everybody should look professional, okay? So you need to have professional clothing and you need to have all the support factors that we talked about in our first podcast. You're going to be on national television by all the possibilities. If you're not on national television, then I'm sure your breed's going to be on YouTube, right? Yes. So have those good shoes on. Have the good support wear on. Don't skip the pantyhose on this one, that kind of thing. “But you also need to consider the weather. You need to consider the location. Everything's not indoors anymore. So let's run down a couple of those things. “The temperatures in May and New York are gonna be 71 high day, 54 low. That's average. So if you've got an eight a.m. ring time and now they're outdoors, right? You need to consider that. You need to dress appropriately for that eight a.m. ring time. If you've got to change later on because woohoo, you made it to groups, then you can plan for that. But consider the weather. “It can be humid and it can be hot in May also so you'll want to consider that when you're debating between the Tahari suit versus the wool blend St. John. It can also be wet. The average rainfall in that area in May is 3.9 inches to give you an idea. In eastern Washington, that's like a quarter of our rainfall for the year. So prepare for that. Bring a raincoat. You don't want to, you know, have that beautiful suit or a silk blend suit, get water on it. So the weather you need to consider, the time of day, once the schedule comes out, you need to consider for what you're wearing. “And then you've got groups and the finals for juniors, moves indoors. I would say be mindful that that indoor carpet is green. You might want to consider what you're wearing with that. I'd be careful of wearing a similar green. - One giant green blob. With that color, a lot of people love to wear purple to Westminster 'cause Westminster's purple and gold. But then a lot of people are wearing purple. So you need to be aware of that. “I think blue and green always go really well together. Depending on your dog if you're of the mindset that you prefer to really stay in the background, grays, blacks and tans can go nicely with that color carpet. Certain red tones if you do the blue based reds and not the orange based reds, I think the blue based reds almost leaning towards burgundy would be okay with that. “You want to present a very professional image without distracting from the dog and that the dog should be the center of attention. If you love bling and you want to wear it great. There is a love of bling in the dog show world and I sell a lot of bling online and in my booth. If you're not careful, I think it can be distracting. “And juniors, can I address you a minute? Because I have a junior. You know, you or your parents do not need to go out and buy a six hundred to a thousand dollar suit for this show There are gorgeous Taharai, Le Suit, Casper. All those. You can get beautiful suits that accentuate your dog that aren't St. John and if you just have to have a St. John, make sure that it's age appropriate and it doesn't look like a St. John that should be on somebody maybe more my age. “You want to look your age. If you're young, you want to look young, professional, neat, clean, your hair back out of your face. Yeah, it's prestigious, but you don't have to wear or own or buy a St. John. Of course, I'd love to sell you one, but you know, it's not necessary.”

Neonates Deep Dive: Caring for the Dam and Hypocalcemia Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves for a continuation of their ongoing conversation about neonates. The discussion today includes hypocalcemia and eclampsia, how much calcium to supplement and when. “For some bitches, you need to continue (calcium supplementation) until the puppies are weaned,” Greer said. “It depends on the size of the bitch and the size of the litter. The smaller the bitch and the bigger the litter, the more you need calcium. It tends to be... in small breed bitches that develop hypocalcemia, eclampsia, that that tends to be an issue. “We don't see it in Labs, Goldens, Rottweilers, you know, the big dogs, but in the little dogs, and you know, I mean little dogs usually under 10 or 15 pounds, dachshunds, terriers, some of those small breeds, we can see hypocalcemia. In those cases the bitch will start to run a low grade fever. The first symptoms are going to be that she starts walking kind of goose-stepping like real stiffly, associated with the calcium becoming too low and then her muscles developing this tetany. “When the puppies are growing at about that two to three week time period, when the puppies are really growing fast, is when the demands of the calcium become the greatest on those small breed bitches and they just don't have the ability to mobilize enough calcium from their bones, their vitamin D levels are trying, but they just don't have the ability to mobilize calcium quickly enough. “And this is why you don't want to give calcium prior to the time that the bitch goes into labor and has her puppies. If you give it during the entire pregnancy, then you tell her parathyroid gland, "You know what, you can just take a vacation. "You don't have to worry about this, just hang out." And then their calcium doesn't mobilize adequately. “So you want them on a normal amount of calcium in their regular dog food, and then once they whelp, then that's when you can start adding the additional calcium in gel form, in tablet form, in powder form to the diet along with the puppy food to make sure she gets adequate amounts of calcium. “The powder, the gel, those are all going to be fine and safe because the GI tract is going to only absorb and the body's only going to take in so much. So you're okay to be pretty aggressive. Now there's definitely some things that you have to be concerned about if you're giving (calcium) by injection. But if you're giving oral in the powder or the tablet form, you know the petcal or the revival or the whatever product you want to use, those are all absolutely fine to give. You have to really screw up to give too much. But it does make a big difference and you basically titrate it until you see the effect that you're looking for. Greer touches on a variety of different topics in this wide-ranging conversation, so check out the entire podcast here.

Show Safe Launches for the Dog Sport Community Host Laura Reeves is joined by Mary Dukes, Lindsay Fetters and Carissa Shimpeno to discuss their new grassroots launch of Show Safe. The organization encourages all exhibitors to take the Safe Sport program and offers a lapel pin to those who complete it. “I knew about Safe Sport through my daughter, who's a professional horse trainer,” Dukes said. “And safe sport is a congressionally mandated program for all Olympic sports that came in after the multitude of abuses in gymnastics, swimming, diving, I could go on. So anyway, I was familiar with it because my daughter shows horses and since equestrian events are an Olympic sport, she has to take safe sport and a re -up every year. I got it in for the registered handlers program and then I always had wanted to expand it. I advocated to expand it to at the very least junior judges, but while I was an employed by the AKC I was never able to get that done. “Everybody has a story. Everybody has a story to varying degrees. I feel like mine is relatively minor in the big scheme of things, but everybody has a story of being inappropriately touched, inappropriately propositioned, all that.” “Historically when something happens people react and everybody wants to do something,” Fetters said. “But I feel like a lot of people put it off on somebody else. ‘The government needs to do this, the AKC needs to do this’… It's like we're upset about something, but we're saying it needs to be somebody else's mission. “I sort of was reflecting on what can we do, what can I do, what can you do, what can we do as a fancy because I think if anybody can be united over something it's united over protecting our children. “I don't know a single person who would disagree with the mission of let's do better for our next generation but it's hard to invoke change. It's hard to start a movement, it's hard to unite people as just one solo person, especially in our sport. “My idea was basically, let's do a grassroots movement. Let's control what we can control. And let's let people know that this training and this option is out there. And instead of mandating or instead of controlling somebody or demanding somebody do it, because I think that that immediately puts somebody on edge, like let's say, ‘okay, look, this options out here, let's pursue it. And if you do, we want to let other people know we want to let juniors know. We want to let other people in our sport know that we've had this training and we're here to be a listening ear and we're here to provide support.” “I guess I would have to say my biggest learning experience in what works and what doesn't work started last year,” said Shimpeno. “When we had a handler who had been to prison for raping his minor assistant and he was returning to the world of dogs. In my mind I thought well what a beautiful way to show the young people of our sport that we actually have their back. Why don't we try and make some kind of policy within AKC that says, you know, if you've been convicted of X, Y and Z, that we can't stop you from coming to the dog shows, we can't stop you from existing and we can't make you a better person. But we can send a message to our little people and men and women around the sport in general just saying this is not what we're about. We're going to take a stand and we're going to draw a line in the sand. “A year ago, Mary actually said, you know, why don't we stop asking AKC to do this? And we do something ourselves. And my response in that moment was like, ‘because that's not right.’ We have to be the better people, like we have to make them do what's right. That mindset got me exactly nowhere at all. “We have this large portion of people out there that are just stuck in the injustice of it. And I want them to understand that we get that and we don't want to minimize the pain, the trauma or anything they've been through. But our group of people has learned through experience that we need everybody to receive this message. "And in order for that to happen, we have to be way more organized. and focused. We are not a vigilante team. This has nothing to do with the perpetrators themselves. It's not even about necessarily protecting. It's about empowering, right, like knowledge through education.”

Tools to Help Protect Vulnerable Victims [caption id="attachment_12816" align="alignleft" width="335"] Pam Bruce, judging in Orlando.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Pam Bruce, a 32-year veteran of the Toronto Police Department where she was a sex crimes investigator. Pam was also Canada's first acknowledged expert in this field. With recent arrests that have dramatically impacted the purebred dog world, everybody's asking what the American Kennel Club is doing. Pam is the individual who has trained all of our AKC reps, staff and board members already. Her presentation from which today’s podcast is drawn will be available to everyone in Canine College starting this month. Today's episode is an excerpt of this critically important presentation. Watch the full conversation HERE. “We can all be empowered by knowledge,” Reeves said, “and the knowledge that Pam has to share is what is going to make us all more able to handle the situations that we've been handed.” “Sex assault itself (is) intimate sexual contact with a person without their consent,” Bruce said. “And a young person does not have the capability of offering consent, the same as somebody that's vulnerable. (It may be) accompanied by force or even threat of force … “It’s not for sexual gratification of an offender. It's all about power and control. But the big problem for us in our sport is it's living in the gray areas, and that comes from non-reporting. The first time an offender was caught is not the first time they offended. And when you speak to the experts about this, they say on the low end, the average of sex assaults that have been committed before an offender has been even on their radar is at least seven. “So let me just drill down a bit with vulnerable victims. A vulnerable person can be identified as someone who belongs to a group within our society, so think of dog shows, that is either oppressed or more susceptible to harm. “Anyone under the age of 18 years, or an older (person) who has an impairment due to physical, mental, or emotional function. One who is unlikely, unable, or incapable to report grooming, sexual abuse, physical abuse, or neglect situations. “Now let it not be lost on anyone that the offender is the one that chooses the victim. And it's often for that exact reason that that person has a lack of capability and if they do have capability or someone to assist with that reporting, will they be believed? We must report on their behalf or assist them to do so. “The bigger issue for us and for society is what about the undetected offenders? Due to non -reporting, we don't know what we don't know. Child victims know their offender 94 percent of the time. “These people are our village, but there are victims in our village and offenders in our village and we know them, we love them. We believe we know their full being, but does anyone ever really know anyone? “'Grooming behaviors' is the idea of a perpetrator forming relationships with children. If you see an adult and they're really not friendly with a set of parents, but they're spending a lot of time around their children, I periscope up right away. I want to know why or if it's somebody vulnerable, someone disabled. If they're helping them, that's wonderful. But there is a line that should not be crossed, which is the next point, testing boundaries. Perpetrators will try to test boundaries on your child's comfort level."

Kelly Lyn Marquis Shares Her Insights from the Masters [caption id="attachment_12798" align="alignleft" width="368"] Kelly Lyn Marquis in the ring.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Kelly Lyn Marquis to discuss the stories in Marquis' new book Behind the Scenes of Best in Show: Intimate Moments with the Masters. "When I started writing (the book)," Marquis said, "I was seeing some dissension, sometimes some frustration where I would hear people saying things about handlers doing all the winning and you know I really really wanted to show all of the work that goes into those wins. "And even even for many of us that you see in the book, for so many of the masters, it's not about the wins. Actually, not one of them, not one of them, mentioned about the win being something that matters to them. It's the behind the scenes things that matter to them whether it's making their clients happy or the connection that they have with that dog. And that was a motivation. In her conversation with Michael Scott, Marquis admits struggling to understand his thinking. "...(T)o Michael, it is his job to handle the dog to the (best of his) ability and to bring that dog to the right judges. And he knows his judges well. He knows what they like, as did Gwen (DeMilta). (B)ut Michael's job was to handle. Well, there wasn't the messiness that I would see in Gwen, and that also was active in myself as well. "So when I interviewed Michael and Michael said, 'My job is to handle the dog and to bring it to the right judges. Period.' And he even went on to say that, 'Look, it's a game.' And that really triggered me 'cause I thought, 'No, this is serious business!' And it isn't that Michael doesn't take it seriously, but he's very clear on what his role is as a handler. "That was one of the things that really struck me interviewing Michael, was if Michael had been my mentor and if I operated and navigated the dog show world with Michael's mindset, how might my... my life be different? So that is one of the values that I think a reader can get from reading this book where when you see where someone's priorities are and how that shapes how they navigate the world... "When it comes to the passion and the emotional attachment, I always give credit to the owner handlers and let them know that when it comes to my own dog, I have to have another handler show it because it gets messy. "One of the things that I love about handlers that I think is a lesson for, well, even for ourselves to bring out into the world, but we're masters of our emotion. It's like you, okay, we look at this, what do I need to be? How do I need to show up for this dog? "And we're very clear about that. We have a very clear role and we're able to be in integrity and we're also able to look at that dog and go, okay, what's going on with you? You and I, we need to... make this work. We don't have the luxury to have an emotional moment, "Which also gets me thinking about another motivation for my book. I wanted to show our humanity because when we're at a dog show, we need to be in business mode. We're not showing our... our feelings. "You know, Michelle Scott talks about how difficult it can be for her at times, managing her expectations and how she knows she wants to make people happy. And it can be so disappointing when you're not able to make that person happy. But we can't show that we have to show up and we have to be professionals. But it doesn't mean that we don't feel things. It just means that we're in business mode, we can't be getting caught up in those places, but we do have feelings just like everyone else. "Another motivating factor for me is this is our community. I'm looking around it it's scary it looks like a dying community. I believe that this is an underlying theme in my book as well is that we are people. There are people at the ends of those leads and we need to be taking care of ourselves and our community better. One of the things that I've learned. Being a mom is my number one priority. And if my work is getting me so strung out that when my daughter comes home from school I can't hold space for that because I'm too agitated myself, then I'm not able to be the mom that I want to be. And so even as handlers, when we show up at our job, are we making good choices for ourselves so that we can serve not only ourselves but more people?"

What to Do at WKC from the Queen of Queens [caption id="attachment_12785" align="alignleft" width="353"] Host Laura Reeves and Denise Flaim at Crufts '24.[/caption] Denise Flaim, lifelong resident of Queens, joins host Laura Reeves with a personal guided tour of what to do while at Westminster Kennel Club, slated for May 11, 13-14 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. “Queens is not like Manhattan, first of all,” Flaim said. “Queens scares people, I think because like all the boroughs, it's not laid out in a grid pattern …. OK, so there are street names, the streets curve and all this. Well, you know, New York is the city of neighborhoods. And if you know the neighborhood, you can find your way around. So I'm going to give you a couple of neighborhoods to go to. “Let me preface this by saying don't drive anywhere people. OK? First of all, you're not going to find parking. Second of all, you have a 37% chance of being involved in an incident of road rage... And then you've got to know how to parallel park.... So take an Uber. They're everywhere. [caption id="attachment_12783" align="alignright" width="437"] The Parkside in Queens is a historic Italian restaurant.[/caption] “First of all, you've got the Parkside restaurant, OK? Parkside Restaurant is probably one of the few remaining white tablecloth, red sauce, old Italian restaurants. It's phenomenal. You go in there, you order a glass of wine or carafe of wine and you get your eggplant parm. And it's going to be very New York. It's going to be lots of neighborhood guys. It's going to be a typical New York City Italian restaurant. The likes of which has basically been eradicated off the face of the earth. But this is the real deal. [caption id="attachment_12782" align="alignleft" width="536"] Bocce games in Spaghetti Park are quintessential New York.[/caption] “After you have your amazing meal at the Parkside, you're going to go one block to the Lemon Ice King of Corona, from which that television show got its name, and apparently it's been featured on The King of Queens or whatever. You're going to order. You don't have to just have a lemon ice. You could have a spumoni ice. You can have a chocolate ice. It goes on forever and ever. Pistachio, my personal favorite. Then you're gonna take your ice …. and you're going to go across the street to what is called Spaghetti Park. In the right weather, you will find the Bocce courts above, with septuagenarian and octogenarian Italian men in their slouchy sweaters and their caps playing Bocce. You will then not disturb the bocce play just because that's not going to end well. You're not going to ask to play, but you're going to watch because really, that, is New York. “Now for something completely different. Flushing, Queens. You can go to Chinatown in Manhattan. But just as amazing is the Chinatown in Flushing, Queens. And I want you to go to a place called the New World Mall … on your right you're going to see this Asian supermarket that's got everything. I don't want you to be distracted by the supermarket. You can get that on the way up. I want you to go down the escalator. To the subterranean food court that has every (food) you could possibly want, every cuisine. “It has Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Taiwanese. You name it, it's there. You can get pho. You can eat bullfrog. There are all the amazing Chinese aunties making hand done dumplings, hand rolled. Bubble tea, the whole thing. OK? It is amazing. You would never know that it is there. But I think it's well worth an excursion. Listen to the full episode to hear more of Denise’s personal guided tour of Queens.

At-Home Early Cancer Detection Test Hits the Market Chan Namgong, founder of Oncotect, joins host Laura Reeves for a very personal discussion of the value of early cancer detection for our dogs. Namgong launched his company in 2019 in the aftermath of his mother’s cancer diagnosis. He already knew that dogs can detect human cancer by scent. But then he learned about a group of scientists that discovered that small nematodes can detect cancerous metabolites in urine in human medicine. “What's amazing about these small nematodes is that they have very high sense of smell,” Namgong said. “They have more olfactory receptors than dogs, despite their small size. So what we have done is we've developed a platform where we are using (nematodes) to detect cancerous metabolites in dogs’ urine that contains the cancerous metabolites. “(Nematodes) are small worms, and the scientific name of them is C. elegans. And C. elegans is actually, you know, if you are a scientist or biologist, it's a model organism. It's widely used in different disciplines of science. In pharmacology, chemistry, biology, you know, cancer cells, stem cell research, environmental study, because we know everything about these worms. In fact, C. elegans was the very first multi-cell organism that was ever DNA sequenced. And the way we utilize them is we can actually measure the intensity of the olfactory neuron in their head. “We can categorize pets as low, moderate or high risk of cancer. Oncotect is a screening test, not a diagnostic test. So, this is meant to be proactive and preventive measure. And then if there's any risk, moderate or high risk, we'll bring you back to your veterinarian for further consultation, diagnostic tests such as x -rays or ultrasound to really confirm or deny a cancer suspicion or to identify the type and location. “Prevention of cancer is almost impossible because we don't know what's really truly causing cancer. But your best strategy is find it early and treat it quickly. Diagnosing a cancer is like a putting a puzzle together. You’ve got to bring different pieces of information to really look at a big picture. “We have primarily focused on the four most common treatable canine cancers. They are lymphoma, melanoma, hemangiosarcoma and mast cell tumors. And the reason why we focus on those four is because just due to the limited resources that we have. “We've tested over 700 dogs in the last year or so. And among those 700 dogs, we have detected TCC, bladder, prostate, liver, soft tissue. So we've detected other cancer types, but the reason why we are not making claims for them is because we haven't run a large enough sample size to publish any scientific paper on them, which we plan to do this year.”          

Managing Your New Puppies’ Critical First 72 Hours Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves to discuss managing the critical first 72 hours with new puppies. A recurring theme with breeders and new litters is the term “fading puppy.” “(Fading puppy) is basically we're just lumping a bunch of stuff together and calling it fading puppy,” Greer said, “because we don't necessarily have a confirmed diagnosis. We may not have a diagnosis yet. We may never have a diagnosis, but it is not a diagnosis. It's just a description of a puppy that fails to thrive. And I think that a better term is failure to thrive rather than fading puppy because it's more clear that it's not really a term of diagnostics. “I think a lot of owners and veterinarians tend to kind of throw up their arms and say, ‘well, it's a sick puppy. I don't really know what to do with it.’ “Well, there's a lot of things you can do. Diagnostically, you can do almost everything to a small puppy that you can do to a big dog. Now of course the bigger the puppy gets, the easier it is to do the diagnostics. But if you choose to pursue some of these diagnostics, it's not that difficult. You can do an x -ray, you can do an ultrasound, you can do blood work. At the very least, do a glucose level. “Worst case scenario, you lose a puppy. Don't just put it in the freezer and walk away, take it to your veterinarian, ask them to either open it up for you or send it in for diagnostics. “We've found things that are clearly one -offs. We've seen like the puppy doesn't have an intestinal tract, a large intestine. Okay, that's not gonna affect every puppy in the litter. But if you have herpes, if you have adenovirus, if you have distemper, if you have E. coli, if you have all these different kinds of diseases, the faster you can get a specific diagnosis and get a specific treatment put together, the better.” Greer observed that puppies who fail to thrive may present as crying constantly or weak and not moving with the “swarm” of the litter. Dehydration and low body temperature are common and correctible issues that can knock a puppy down and even out in the first 72 hours. Test hydration by monitoring urine color, Greer recommends, and be prepared to administer subcutaneous fluids if needed. Listen to the full episode as she walks listeners through this process and more.

CRUFTS! Preview with breeder, exhibitor, judge Sharon Pinkerton [caption id="attachment_12769" align="alignleft" width="329"] Sharon Pinkerton with one of her 66 champion GWP.[/caption] Sharon Pinkerton, Bareve GWP, joins host Laura Reeves to preview the Crufts dog show held in Birmingham, England on March 7-10. Pinkerton, who was raised with Greyhounds and English Cocker Spaniels, will judge Spinoni Italiano and the Breeders Competition finals at the show. “Originally launched on 15 January 2009, the prestigious breeders' competition, sponsored by Agria Pet Insurance, gives breeders the opportunity to showcase their skills and knowledge as a breeder,” according to the Crufts website. “Each year a number of qualifying heats take place at general and group championship shows. Teams compete to gain points by being placed between 1st - 4th. The top 40 teams will qualify for the final at Crufts, of which two positions will be for the breeders’ competition winners from the European and world dog shows.” “I've judged German Wirehaired Pointers (at Crufts) a long time ago. And I've also judged Hungarian Wirehaired Vizslas. But this has been a little while since I've been asked to judge at Crufts. And certainly the first time I've been asked to do anything like the breeders (competition). “It is still quite a new competition. I'm probably the first true exhibitor that's been asked to judge it. The last four years have been top all-rounders where they've had breeding experience but they are more considered now to be an all-round judging person as such rather than still a breeder exhibitor. So I feel quite special really to be at that level. “I think that's what I'm looking forward to most is actually doing that because I know it's such an achievement to be asked. When I first got the email invite and I opened it and looked and I just thought no this is a mistake people like me we don't get invited for these sort of things. I dutifully sent it back thinking it would just come back saying ‘I’m really, really sorry Sharon, but it was wrong.’ But it came back as yes, you're now confirmed.” Sharon decided German Wirehaired Pointers were the breed for her and acquired one from the second litter ever born in the UK. Since the mid ‘70s she has produced 66 champions, of which 12 are full champions, where the dogs have proven their ability in the field as well as the show ring. “Dogs that have a job to do are considered to be show champions until they've actually been out in the field to prove their gun dog worthiness,” Pinkerton said, “plus of course the Border Collie which is the only herding breed that are show champions until they actually go and prove their ability to herd. [caption id="attachment_12768" align="alignright" width="425"] Champion Bareve Blaauboskom JW in the field.[/caption] “So all the gun dogs, no matter what breed they are, are all show champions unless you then go out into the field and prove that they are capable of doing the job that they were bred to do. And then we can proudly knock off the show bit and then they become full champions. Listen in to the entire interview for more details and insights about the famous Crufts dog show.  

Gatekeeping Within Our Breeds: A Conversation with the Patrons Host Laura Reeves is joined by members of the Pure Dog Talk Patrons group in an extended deep dive on the question of gatekeeping within our breeds. Members of this private group share their opinions, thoughts and mitigations on placing dogs, using limited registration, educating puppy buyers and more. Spinning off a podcast conversation several years ago with Amanda Kelly on the topic of are we protecting our breeds into extinction, Laura and the members of the group discuss the various perspectives on the topic. “This is a group where we talk about a lot of things and very rarely do we share those things into the public realm,” Laura noted. “But we all thought this was a pretty important topic and that we all had things we wanted to say about it and we wanted to share that with the larger Pure Dog Talk community as a podcast." One side of the conversation is the position that we have a lot of problems with new people coming to dogs and you have a new person who's excited to do it and the gatekeeping is preventing them from doing so. On the other side of the discussion is the opinion shared by a long-time breeder in the group. “I do not want my only okay, mediocre dogs in the conformation ring. That is not my goal. I don't care how many champions I do or don't finish as a kennel,” Karyn Cowdrey said. “What I care about is that what represents my kennel be of, in my opinion, sufficient quality. I would be proud to have kept it I would be proud to walk into the ring with it and honestly if I deem it show ring worthy to me then it's breeding quality and I keep my name on that dog until at least a certain amount of criteria are met by that person if they're a new person.” Education of new and potential buyers was also frequently mentioned in the dialogue. “I'm very big on education,” Sandy MacArthur said. “And I can give an example and I will not name the person nor the breed, but there's a person who went in the dog world and was looking for a ‘breeding pair’ … this was 30 years ago in the 90s… emailing everybody ‘I'm looking for a breeding pair’… We all know that's an instant red flag and this person got put on everybody's do not sell list. “Someone in the breed she was interested in decided to take this person out to lunch and have a conversation. By the end of the conversation at lunch, she sold that person a bitch on a co -owned contract. This person put all the work into it, all the research, drove everywhere every weekend, did everything right, and 30 years later is a well -known dog person. Let's just say that. Somebody took their time to pull them aside 'cause they didn't know. They thought that what you do is you get a breeding pair. They had no idea.” If you would like to join these types of conversations, as well as support the work of the podcast in education and mentoring, please visit the website and sign up to join us! Go to https://puredogtalk.com/patron/ to learn more.

WKC Inside Scoop with Don Sturz, Tell YOUR Stories [caption id="attachment_12756" align="alignnone" width="2290"] Don Sturz and host Laura Reeves sit down at the Rose City Classic to discuss the 2024 Westminster Kennel Club dog show and plans for the future.[/caption] Dr. Donald Sturz joins host Laura Reeves to discuss this year’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens, NY and plans for the future. This year the club will celebrate the 90th anniversary of Junior Showmanship, Sturz noted, while the show is dedicated to the memory of Dave Helming. Sturz describes the search for new turf, new bracing over the courts for the outdoor rings, a gelato stand, an outdoor bar and new ticketing resources for evening events. “We want to be respectful and pay homage to the history and the tradition of Westminster, but at the same time, attempt to move forward and remain relevant,” Sturz said. “Always keeping the experience for the dogs and the exhibitors as the priority. And it's not always easy to juggle that. “Will we ever be back in Madison Square Garden? That's what you all want to know. Everybody wants to know, will we ever go back to the Garden? “Okay, so my standard answer has been for the past year, never say never. Remember, I grew up in this. I showed at Westminster for the first time when I was 10 years old … I've moved to calling it Westminster because we're not calling it the Garden … so I'd like to get back to being able to say “the Garden” so it is something that we're working on. “The fact of the matter is Madison Square Garden was remodeled and when they did that remodeling it's what took away all that space. So there's no way to have a daytime event. So that's how we ended up with the Piers. So then that thing called covid hit and during that time Pier 92 fell into the water … so that's gone. Pier 94 is actually being remodeled and will no longer be an exhibition space. It's going to be smaller spaces for individual businesses and so on. “So the Piers are off the table. (We) really basically looked at every possible venue in New York City or the metropolitan area. You know, we went to Newark … we had to exhaust everything, right? We also went a little further out into Queens, to the Nassau border and looked at an arena there. And all of these, we kind of looked at it from a space point of view, like, how would it work, right? In Manhattan itself, it's very limited as to what venues… like, there's really only one. “We're going to be in one of those kinds of venues that's going to, hopefully, afford us the opportunity to then be back at Madison Square Garden in the evening. So, watch for that. “The plan is to try to find something for ‘25 that is also ‘26 because we just need to stop moving. We need our home. “There's lots of fabulous events in our sport, but there is nothing in the world like Westminster. There's something magical about that event. That's something that we consistently commit ourselves to is the Westminster experience, right? Creating that magic. “So. I think Westminster is in a really great place. I think it's a pivotal moment for Westminster.”

Puppy Evaluation System Developed by a Woman Ahead of Her Time [caption id="attachment_12746" align="alignleft" width="360"] Virginia Apgar, who named the newborn evaluation system.[/caption] Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves for their ongoing puppy discussion. This month Greer shares the story of Virginia Apgar, who named a now-famous newborn evaluation system after herself. Apgar was a human anesthesiologist who graduated from medical school in the 1930s, Greer noted. “She was the first female anesthesiologist admitted to the College of Anesthesiology back in an era where there were no women doctors. There were no women a lot of things. So she was truly remarkable, Greer said. “In that era, a lot of babies were born to mothers that were sedated or anesthetized. And so (Apgar) developed a scoring system to analyze the babies and it has stuck for the last 70 years and it's very impressive that it's something that people talk about every day, still using the word APGAR. The acronym stands for: appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration.” The system was adapted for small animal veterinary use by a vet on staff at the University of Minnesota. [caption id="attachment_12752" align="alignright" width="550"] Parameters for APGAR scoring.[/caption] “The advantage of a numerical score,” Greer added “is that it gives you something that you can measure and compare litter to litter, puppy to puppy within the litter over the course of time. And we have some really good data from Neocare, which we talked about last time, about what the relationship with the APGAR score and the survival of these puppies will be. So it's actually super cool that you can take all this information and turn it into something that you can use at home, you can use at your veterinary clinic, and that your veterinary clinic can help you with. So I would encourage people to learn to do APGAR scores. It's not hard, it's not mysterious. It's really pretty straightforward on what to do with it. [caption id="attachment_12753" align="alignleft" width="480"] Treatments for common whelping issues.[/caption] “The value of this is when you go home (from a csection, for example) and you have a puppy that had an APGAR score of a four and a puppy that had an APGAR score of a nine, that you know the puppy with the four needs a lot more attention to have the kind of survival rates that one would hope for. We always hope for a hundred percent (survival), but reality is 100% is probably not a realistic goal. “Each of the five parameters, appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respirations gets a score of a zero, one, or a two. So collectively, if you get twos on all five of your items, you have a score of a ten. “It's really simple to do. It doesn't require high level assessment and like I said, a lot of us probably are intuitively already doing this. When you have puppy born, if it's fish breathing and gasping and gaping, that's not good. But, if it's got nice pink color and it's wailing and it's crying and it's wiggling and it's pink and it's all those things, you know that you've got a puppy that's in pretty good shape. But it's just nice to be able to give it a more numerical sign because that gives you data to work with. “The average puppy is gonna be seven and up. It does give you a numerical score. The value of this is knowing that from the Neocare information, that's from the University at the Toulouse -France Veterinary School, the puppies with an APGAR score of less than seven have a 22-fold increased risk of death in the first eight hours after they're born. “And they also know that puppies with APGAR scores between a four and a seven can achieve a 90 percent survival rate with the appropriate interventions. So, what does that mean? That means you suction them, you put them in oxygen, you make sure that they're staying warm. You're doing all those things that you already have been trained to do to help with puppy resuscitation so that they're not just you know laying in the whelping box kind of hoping that they do okay.” Greer's seminal book "Canine Reproduction and Neonatology" is available HERE.

Pro Tips on Changing the Conversation from Ian Lynch [caption id="attachment_12739" align="alignleft" width="373"] Ian Lynch with his newest Dawin Poodle, Portia.[/caption] Canadian Kennel Club spokesperson Ian Lynch joins host Laura Reeves to talk about changing the conversation on purebred dogs with the general public. Lynch, a broadcaster in his day job, brings his passion for purebred dogs to the CKC as their public spokesman. He describes his lifelong obsession with the sport, obtaining the Dogs in Canada Annual magazine and creating a “vision board” with pages from the book taped to his wall. His first dog as an adult was a Dawin standard poodle. “I used to get “Dogs in Canada” annuals and I used to put all the pictures on my walls because I love these dogs. And I had a picture on my wall in 1995. It was an Allison Alexander in a red dress, holding Dawin High Falutin, who was the number one dog and has all these records to this day. His name was Lutin, I believe his call name. And it's funny because as I get older, I realized that I was making a vision board because now I have a Dawin dog. [caption id="attachment_12740" align="alignright" width="266"] Ian Lynch and Allison Alexander, from vision board to friends.[/caption] “And I'm friends with Allison Alexander and she's the greatest person alive. So, it's so funny that like, you know, that you hear almost like manifestation stuff and I didn't know what I was doing. But as a kid, I used to always have the picture of the Dawin dog and I used to tell my parents, ‘I'm gonna have a dog just like that one day.’ Don't just talk. Listen! Lynch recommends we just talk to people about dogs. And not just talk, listen also! On topics from training to doodles, listening to what people say gives you a chance to address their actual concerns and increase buy in to the information you do have to share. “The easiest way for me, I think, to start talking to people about purebred dogs is to talk to everyone who has a dog. “For example, there's this lady on my street. She has this pitbull mix. And this dog was so reactive to my dogs all the time. I mean jumping in midair. And then, I noticed that from a distance, she taught the dog the look at me, you know, the treat out. And I stopped her and I said, ‘Sorry to bother you, I just want to congratulate you and let you know that I've noticed how good you're doing with this dog and how far your dog has come.’ And she says to me, ‘Oh my God, thank you. I've always admired your dogs. What kind of dogs are they? Are they show dogs? Where are dog shows? Where can I learn more about these dogs?’ Simply talking to people about dogs. “The way I think a lot of times, I'm lucky I have a radio show. I can infuse dogs. I got the mic. I got the platform. But we can all infuse dogs into our life at all times. When you have people over, my dogs are generally always well-groomed and bathed, basically weekly, but you want to make sure your dogs will look good if people are coming over. “They smell good, they're cuddly. I'm a big proponent of best self and make sure your dogs are their best self when people come over and, you know, people ask questions. Another thing we have to do is when we talk to people about dogs is we have to let people talk as well. “We know a lot about dogs. We want to voice our opinions, but we have to let people talk.”

Breed Type First: Mary Dukes on Judging Dogs [caption id="attachment_12717" align="alignleft" width="409"] Mary Dukes in her handling days heyday.[/caption] Legendary handler, rep and now judge Mary Dukes continues her conversation with host Laura Reeves. Today they talk about judging, handling and all-time favorite dogs. “I’m a type-first girl all the way,” Dukes said, quoting the notable Anne Rogers Clark common wisdom to sort first on type and then reward the soundest of the typical dogs. “I’m forgiving of leg faults, especially on the down and back. As long as it doesn’t offend me, it’s probably good enough. “I do firmly believe this. A good judge can see right through a poor handling job. Sometimes it's frustrating. I watched a breed in Orlando. It wasn’t a hound breed but a breed that I'm very familiar with and it was so frustrating because it's an owner -handled breed for the most part and the best dogs in there were being tragically handled. It was so frustrating because there was a dog in there that's beautiful and every time the judge looked at him (the handler) wasn’t even trying to do anything with him. His legs were everywhere. You know, all she was doing was feeding him basically. “And I thought, God, if you could just rack him up once, just rack him up once and pull him up over his front and break him over, (the judge) just needs to see it once. “I might be the one that will turn into Frank Sabella. I mean, not in terms of swapping dogs or anything, because he did that to me a million times, but I know he got in trouble for it. But in terms of, ‘Here's what I want you to do. Can you go from this corner to that corner on a loose lead? Can you do that?’ If they give me five steps, we're golden. “At the end of the day, it’s putting up the best dog." Pro tip: Pacing “It's all about throwing them off balance when you take the first step. I always like to go into them because they learn pretty quick. A lot of people they jerk (the dog) and then ‘let's go.’ Well, then the dog starts anticipating that. I just would turn them into me and then just bump them. Just bump their shoulder as you start your down and back.” [caption id="attachment_12718" align="alignleft" width="482"] Ch. Aroi Talk of the Blues, 'Punky', shown with handler Corky Vroom. Judge Anne Rogers Clark “discovered” Punky in 1975, when she made her Best of Breed from the Puppy class at the Greyhound Club of America specialty in Santa Barbara. Punky was the Top Dog of all breeds in 1976.[/caption] Mary’s fantasy best in show line up would be judged by Michelle Billings. It would feature Mick, the Kerry Blue who shows up in most judges’ all-time best line ups, but many of her other choices are more esoteric and focused on dogs she knew personally. From Iron Eyes, the Bouvier to Scarlett Ribbons, the Italian Greyhound. Listen in to hear her personal choice for Best in Show.

Mary Dukes: An Evolution from Owner to Professional to Rep to Judge Host Laura Reeves is joined by Mary Dukes, legendary Whippet breeder, professional handler, AKC Executive Field Representative and now judge. [caption id="attachment_12711" align="alignleft" width="400"] A 1991 advertisement for Dukes' handling services.[/caption] Dukes has spent a lifetime involved in working with animals. From showing horses to training elephants to showing dogs. Her work with the zoo animals instilled in her an absolute dedication to animal husbandry. NO Dirty Dogs “There are no shortcuts in animal care. Period,” Dukes said. “In zoo animals, you have to be even more on top of it because wild animals don’t have a tell that they’re sick. In the wild, any tell that they are sick or injured is going to make them dead. So they are really good at masking that. If you are sloppy or dirty or messy there is no room for you in the animal business. “I’ll put this on blast right now, if someone walks into my ring with a dirty dog, we’re going to have a problem. There is no excuse to show a dirty dog. I won’t hold it against the dog, but the handler might get an earful.” AKC Registered Handler Program Dukes was an early member of the AKC Registered Handler Program. As a rep, Dukes was a coordinator of the RHP. She joined RHP because they demanded insurance, inspections, so “I wanted to put my money where my mouth was.” RHP is not a guarantee the handler is going to win with your dog, Dukes said. “The whole point of the program is so the people have a place to start looking where we had done some of the ground work for you. You know they (they handlers) are insured. You know their vehicle is inspected for safety and cleanliness. You know their kennel has been inspected by AKC kennel inspectors. You know they’ve signed a code of ethics. “RHP members have to have a contract. They have to bill in a timely fashion. The bill has to be itemized. A lot of the trouble you see, most of it is because the expectations weren’t clear. If you have a contract, it’s [caption id="attachment_12710" align="alignright" width="392"] Dukes is still actively involved with horses. Her vacations frequently involve riding in exotic locales.[/caption] right there in black and white. Safe Sport “One of the newest requirements is SafeSport. All RHP members have to take the training as a condition of membership. “Safe Sport is a congressionally mandated program for every Olympic sport. “There’s been a lot of abuses in every sport. Basically, Safe Sport is making you aware of what to look for. If you see a situation that you suspect might be something, it gives you tools. Because we aren’t an Olympic sport, we don’t have access to the mechanics of the national organization. “It automatically makes everyone (who’s had the training) mandatory reporters. If you put it out in the open more, it’s harder for someone to creep around. I would like to see it spread out to judges, especially juniors judges.” Join us next week for part two of this fantastic conversation. Learn what Dukes is looking for in a dog and hear about her fantasy Best in Show lineup.

BernerGarde Leads the Way in Open Sharing of Health Information Host Laura Reeves is joined by Lori Jodar, president of the BernerGarde Foundation, to discuss this legendary program. BernerGarde has been collecting health and pedigree data on the Bernese Mountain Dog for nearly 30 years. The founder of this concept began in the 1960s gathering information on 3x5 cards. The non-profit foundation was created in the 1980s and now includes 215,000 dogs’ information. “The mission of BernerGarde has always been genetic, genetic, genetic,” Jodar said. “And because of that, we've been able to stay on course. The Parent Club, the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America, and the BernerGarde Foundation have remained very good partners throughout the years. So that's a good thing. “The most expensive thing that we have done to date is to start a repository. We started a DNA and tissue repository. “We knew we wanted to study this malignant histiocytosis. So in 2006, we partnered with Michigan State University, Dr. Vilma, we call her Dr. Vilma. And she's a brilliant researcher, as well as being a professor at Michigan State University Veterinary School, and she has managed a repository for us. We have 4,000 unique dogs in the repository, and I don't know how many tumors we have, but not that many, but like 1,000, we use for research. “It's very expensive, very, very expensive, but what has morphed out of that is there's a group in France that has been studying histiocytic sarcoma for a long time, and they are finding some answers. So, we have shared DNA with them, tumor submissions with them. We're about to send several hundred DNA samples to them for their continuing research. “The database that we have is so vibrant and vital to the community. I don't think I can overstate it. It's become part of everybody's life. And if they complain about anything, they... they being the community of breeders, they complain about anything, it's that there's never enough information. “Through this database, there's health records. We divide the health records into what we call anecdotal and diagnosed. So, to be diagnosed, you have to have veterinary support, a pathology report or veterinary report to actually have a diagnosed condition. And then we do all the health certs, you know, we get a quarterly thing from OFA on hips and elbows and whatever they're doing. “We also have, you know, about 50% of the dogs in the database now are not US, they're from Europe and Australia and Canada. So, we needed to learn how to interpret all of those records like through the FCI in Europe. And oh it's a lot. So, we have database operators all over the world now. We have about 30 of them and they're kind of the in-between, between the people that want to submit information. “We are so focused on accuracy that I think that has given us legitimacy, actually, that focus. “If you got a bitch and you are looking for a stud, you can go to our database. We have a stud-finder and you can put in parameters. What the age is, do they need their hips, do they need their elbows, do they need DM, do they need whatever it is that you feel you need for your breeding. And then, we'll just... spit out a list of stud dogs. “You can also do trial pedigrees. We also do COIs, Coefficient of Inbreeding, for every dog. You can put five pictures of your dog in there.”

614 – Neonates: Hypoxia, Hypothermia, Hydration, Hypoglycemia Dr. Marty Greer DVM joins host Laura Reeves to talk about the four H’s that constitute critical care of neonates: Hypoxia, Hypothermia, Hydration, Hypoglycemia. “The four H's are hypoxia which is oxygen,” Greer said. “Hypothermia which is temperature, hypoglycemia which is glucose and hydration which of course is hydration or dehydration. So we've got those four parameters and basing the rest of the discussion on that, we can get started with some pretty important things that you can do at home to measure, to manage. It doesn't do you any good if you can't manage it. But collecting the data doesn't do you any good unless you use the data. Greer notes there is currently no good way to measure blood oxygen levels in puppies at home, but that physical indications will give you an accurate starting place. “You can look at puppies and say, are they nice and pink,” Greer notes. “Do they have a curled pink tongue? Or is their tongue kind of grayish, blueish, a little bit flat? So curled pink tongue means you keep working even at one minute, five minutes of age, curled pink tongue with that curl to the edges, you keep going. If it's gray and flaccid and you've got other puppies that need your help, set that one off to the side, keep moving.” Greer recommends breeders consider investing in an incubator and oxygen concentrator. She advocates for the Puppy Warmer system in particular. Well-hydrated puppies will have very pale yellow urine when stimulated with a clean cotton ball or tissue, Greer observes. “For me, hypoxia is first,” Greer said. “For me temperature is second and then hydration is third. That's my particular order. Hydration is very important but temperature in the immediate birth period, in that first hour after birth. Puppies come out wet… They come out without any oxygen in them, other than what they got from their mom. So, they've got to start breathing immediately, and they've got to stay warm. “And so you want to get them born into enough absorbent material, like warm towels, that you can very quickly get the puppies dried off. Again, the incubator that Puppy Warmer has is a great place to put them for drying. “I like heat sources under the puppies, under the bitch and under the puppies. I don't like the ones that come from above. The ones from above, I have concerns about dehydrating the puppies. I have concerns about the bitch getting too warm and not wanting to stay with her puppies. I'm concerned (about fires) started with heat lamps. So, I'm really not a fan of the overhead heating. This is the first in a planned series of episodes about neonates, their care and deep dives into the first hours of a newborn puppy’s life. Listen in for more today and BOLO the first Monday of every month for more from Dr. Greer.

Junior Handler Wins NOHS Finals in Orlando [caption id="attachment_12679" align="alignleft" width="439"] Adam showing his dog to Best of Breed.[/caption] The 2023 AKC National Owner Handled Series Finals was won by 14-year-old Adam Kucera and his two year old Irish Setter, Stryker. Adam and Stryker’s breeder, Patty Fanelli, join host Laura Reeves to share their story. “At (Adam’s) first show, he beat me for Winner's Dog,” Fanelli said. “It was one point with the brother. The next show was the Potomac Specialty. He went best in sweeps and he took a five point major and went best of Winners and best puppy. “And I said to him, "You just took a five-point specialty major." And he said, ‘I don't even know what that is.’ He sure knows now." Stryker is Adam’s first Irish Setter that his grandmother arranged to purchase from Fanelli. He showed a Boston Terrier first, but really wanted to show a bigger dog. Adam says he does all of Stryker’s grooming “except the clipper work because I am so afraid he's going to just move and it's just going to go, it's all gone.” The most challenging part of training Stryker, Adam said, was teaching him to freestack “Because he always just wants to jump, he always just wants to jump on my shoulders and thinks it's time to play as soon as I hold a treat and not hold him.” A 4.0 home-schooled student, Adam says he practices with Stryker every morning before completing his school work. Competing in NOHS gives Adam and is family more time to spend at the shows. “My first show, we went to the show and I didn't win the breed,” Adam said. “We went to go watch the groups and we saw that there were two groups going and we were like ‘why are there two, there should only be one?’ So then we found out what owner handler was. It's kind of hard to show an Irish Setter. There's not that many owner handlers out where I live, so if we want to stay a little bit longer at the show, we can do owner-handled and that gives us stuff to do and it's a really fun competition.” Adam has set lofty goals for himself and his dog. His remaining goals for Stryker include winning best of breed at the National Specialty and winning the breed at Westminster Kennel Club. He dreams of becoming a professional handler and breeding Irish Setters in his future. Take a listen to the entire episode for more from this outstanding young man.

Clubistry: Websites Designed for Dog Clubs Host Laura Reeves is joined by Jennifer Johnson and Brent Wiethoff from Dialogs who have created and are building a service called Clubistry. The service designs websites specifically for dog clubs. “Younger generations are not as keen to join clubs,” Johnson said. “They don't always really know that there are parent clubs or that there might be a value to, or something that they can gain from joining their national parent club. And part of fighting that is to have an online presence and online applications. “We see a lot of people who don't want to download a PDF. If I have to mail something, I have to go find a stamp. I have to find an envelope. I don't know where they are. I don't use them very often anymore on purpose. Moving applications to an online form helps increase the number of applicants you get because you can fill it out all in one step and submit it at it's done as opposed to, ‘that looks like something I want to do, but I've had to download this and now I have to cook dinner. So I'm just gonna set this aside’. And then they never get back to doing that thing. “A Facebook presence or other online platforms becomes more important these days because this is where people go to find out about information and there's a lot of bad information on social media. So it's... really important for clubs to have an official presence on social media. So they have a voice. They have an official representation and an official voice. You can't really ever stop the bad voices, but if you are not one of the voices, then all they hear is the bad stuff. “Anybody can spin up a WordPress website and you buy a template and then you start dropping your own content into it and it breaks. The design breaks. It looks bad. It doesn't look good on mobile. The person who had the login information leaves the club or your volunteer moves on to other things. Or you've hired somebody off of Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace to do the work for you. And now they've gone on to college or a girlfriend or a different life and are no longer available. “Domain names, you register your domain name, somebody in your club registers your domain name. And then it was 30 years ago and nobody knows who it was that did it. I have seen clubs lose their domain entirely because they don't know who has the login information for it, and then it gets purchased by somebody else to be held for ransom for a large amount of money. “Same with the websites, somebody built it, nobody knows who or nobody has the login information anymore. Volunteers die or move on to other things. All these things happen. We've heard all these stories. We've got our roster in an Excel sheet, and you have one person who's in charge of the roster, but they have another person that's helping them with it. Now you have two copies of the roster.” For more on this great service, listen in to the entire episode!

Foundations for Success at the Dog Show: Shoes and Shapewear [caption id="attachment_12644" align="alignleft" width="306"] Veronica Wolfe, owner at Best in Show Clothes[/caption] Veronica Wolfe, owner of Best in Show Clothes, joins host Laura Reeves with professional advice on shoes, shapewear and other foundations for success at the dog show. “I've become passionate about good shoes,” Wofe said. “And I've been known, a couple handlers can attest to this, of grabbing people and going, you need to get out of those shoes because you will have hip and knee and back problems before you're 35 if you don't. So, yeah, it's important. “If you can find a small shoe store in your area that actually has a fit specialist … I would be go to one. I would run to one. But you also need to know a little bit about your own foot issues. Do you roll in? That's called pronating. Do you roll out? There are different things. Do you have high arches? Low arches? There are running stores now that you can go in and put your feet on things and it will show you your arch. There’s a couple things that you want. “You do want some cushioning. We're in concrete all day. I'm not running circles, but I'm standing in a booth. You know, we're in concrete all day. People are running all day. You need something with some good cushion. “You want to look for a non -slip sole. Some of the stores online now actually actually say non -slip. If you need an arch, you need a good arch. Arch supports. You can get them for $40, $50 at running stores. I've seen them in sections sometimes at like TJ Maxx and Ross. And the over -the -counter ones, I've been told by a shoe specialist, are as good as the custom $400 podiatrist ones. “It almost seems like there's more options for guys and you've got this balance, right? So you can get a nice leather shoe for an indoor show, but you're going to ruin that leather shoe at eight a.m. in the morning when there's dew outside. So, you've got some nicer looking skater shoes, but the problem with those is there's generally very little arch support. “I have a number of (women) clients who do not like the way their calves look, and they'll be in boots even in the summertime. I think they look quite attractive if you're wearing a skirt and a blazer or maybe if you want a denim skirt. I would just say try and keep a nice line between them so you have a skirt then you've got a gap and you've got your skirt. Maybe black hose or tights that make that transition seamless, so it's not like this distracting line there. But you've got some really comfortable boots out there that will have that arch support or it's easy to insert one in it. Pro tip from Laura: Pro tip from a handler perspective: have more than one pair of shoe for each day. Change shoes, because even if it's just changing the angle of your heel this much, it makes an enormous difference. Pat Rogers is the one who taught me that a million years ago as a handler, change your shoes at lunch, and it makes all the difference in the world. Pro tip from Veronica: don't let your shoes get run down. If you are an exhibitor that's going out every weekend, six months max, you need to toss those shoes. For more on the essentials of foundations under our clothing, listen in to the full episode.  

Canine Influenza Outbreak and How to Manage It with Dr. Marty Greer Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves to discuss the current Canine Influenza outbreak, how to manage it and how it became an overnight sensation in the public. “Well, partially it's media, partially it's misinformation, courtesy of the media,” Greer said. “And partially there was a lack of vaccine. The vaccine insufficient supply appears to have been corrected or is being corrected. “So, things are better. In 2004 when this first happened, we didn't have any vaccine and no dogs in any part of the world that we know had immunity to this. So Ron Schultz,the vaccine guru from University of Wisconsin, made a recommendation that all dogs should be vaccinated against this, that it should be considered a core vaccine because no dogs had natural immunity. “It was like when Parvo happened in the late 70s and early 80s came out of nowhere, there was no immunity and bada bing bada boom we've got dogs that are desperately sick and dying. “Influenza is a respiratory disease and it is classified in the CIRD, the canine infectious respiratory disease complex. So a lot of times that's either called CIRD or it's called kennel cough. There's a whole bucket of stuff that falls in the kennel cough bucket and it's not necessarily a diagnosis. It's a description. It's a collection of disorders, diseases, but it's not necessarily a diagnosis. “So we have had outbreaks of canine influenza (before). The first known outbreak was in 2004 in a colony of Greyhounds, I believe in Florida, and they think it was a mutation from the equine version of influenza. “And that was H3N8. There's now also an H3N2 that we have identified and can vaccinate against. “Like all respiratory diseases, it causes a cough, but in this particular case, influenza can cause disease severe enough to cause hemorrhagic pneumonia and the death of patients. And there have been patients that have died in this last outbreak that occurred this fall (at the Golden Retriever national in Albany, Oregon). “It had to get to the Golden Retriever National somehow. It's not like the Golden Retriever group invented it, just drummed up a new virus, but it appears that it reared its ugly head there. There were a number of dogs that were there that then went back to all over the U.S. “So, they were East Coast, Midwest, everywhere. And these dogs were coming back with respiratory disease and it was easy to just say, ‘Uh, it's kennel cough, here's some medication, you'll be fine.’ But one of my associates was involved with some of the Golden Retrievers that were at that show and I was in surgery the day she walked in and said, ‘You know, we've got these dogs that are coming back from the Golden National with a pretty bad cough.’ And I don't know why but the hair kind of stood up on the back of my neck and I said, ‘We need to get these dogs tested for what kind of virus or bacteria we have.’ “There was just something about, I don't know if it was her tone of voice or the number of dogs that were involved. There's something about that conversation that just said to me, 'We have problems.' “So, we swabbed the most recently started to cough dogs. We didn't want a dog that had already been coughing for a week by the time we did the sample collection and submitted that to our local diagnostic lab at the same time that a number of other people were submitting samples. “We weren't the only ones by any stretch of the imagination that felt we need a diagnosis on this. So, at our diagnostic lab in Wisconsin, they came back with influenza A. At some of the other diagnostic labs, they came back with influenza H3N2, I believe. Not that it makes that much of a difference if it's H3N2 or H3N8. It's influenza anyway. So, there were multiple labs with multiple dogs that had all been at the same event. “They were coming up with the same answer. And so, when I walked up to my front desk last week and on the computer screen in front of my receptionist, there was a message from the media that said, "Mystery disease." I was like, ‘It's really not this mysterious, folks.’ “And so, we need to start addressing it by getting more dogs vaccinated. So, it's time for us to not call it a mystery disease. It's time for us to make some decisions on whether this is a lifestyle vaccine or a core vaccine and get some of these dogs vaccinated that are at risk because this is a very serious illness. “No question that if the dogs don't have immunity, it's a very serious illness. Like I said, it causes hemorrhagic pneumonia. Some of these dogs are dying. Even if they've been put on ventilators and all the really high-powered stuff that they've been doing, sometimes we're still losing dogs to this. And it's really a shame to lose dogs to a disease that we can vaccinate against. “I don't care if you're doing agility or fly ball or competition with hunt test or field trials or confirmation. If you're going to the dog park, if your dogs are going to

Critiques, Communication and Common Sense in Dog Shows [caption id="attachment_12561" align="alignleft" width="409"] Steve Dainard judging Spinoni back in the day, when Laura was still showing dogs.[/caption] Canadian Kennel Club judge Steve Dainard is back with host Laura Reeves for part two of a probing and thoughtful conversation about critiques, communication and common sense in dog shows. “So we know that every rule and regulation that came in probably had a foundation in someone doing something wrong,” Dainard notes. “Judges need to keep their interactions in the ring, not be too conversational in nature. Well, then all of a sudden you're going to get a whole population of judges who take us to the nth degree, and they're even afraid to have any type of communication, apart from instructions to the exhibitor. “So, I think there's a fine line between having this full on getting caught up in the ring, but also having, an opportunity to be able to share meaningful dialogue. And I think that we can do that. I think that maybe we're just not trained really well to do that. So maybe we need to have a discussion about what does that look like. “I get it, writing written critiques or an oral critique or whatever can be scary for many people. People don't like change, and whether it's not because you don't have the goods or you don't know whatever, maybe that's what the fear is based in. But I think culturally, you just hit the nail on the head, it's not encouraged to have that dialogue, that communication, that interaction. And what it does, it creates silos within our sport. And this is not what we need. We need to be able to have a mechanism in place so that it's okay to have a conversation. “And that conversation doesn't need to be precipitated by the fact that I'm pissed off because Laura didn’t put me up and I'm going to take a run at her after judging. And I got the rep coming with me because she crossed a line. “Having a written critique foundation in your toolkit as the basis for how you're trained to evaluate dogs creates a much easier conversation when that's the way you’re programmed and how you're picking your winners. “I think that the fear of error is like, (exhibitors are) judging me, right? So I can see why people would be afraid of that until you get really good at it. And you have the conviction to be able to say, this is my process. I think it could be a little bit of an overwhelming concept, but the only way we rip that bandaid off is by diving in and starting to practice it.” Listen to the full episode for insights on the role of judges in promoting responsible dog breeding and ownership and much more.

Dog Judging Process and Ethics with CKC Judge Steve Dainard Host Laura Reeves is joined by Canadian Kennel Club all-breeds judge Steve Dainard for part one of their conversation about the judging approval process, judging ethics and other hot button topics as we progress through “meat and potatoes” November! “So how do we help judges move into a place of thinking more about structure and less about the ‘paint job’,” Laura asks. “Some of the biggest challenge is, do (judges) have that breed specific knowledge,” Dainard replies. “And are we consistent in this application? Are we judging fairly and equitably and being consistent enough so that people that are watching, and in particular breeders, can follow and they can say, this person really knows my breed? “CKC judges get scrutiny from other non-Canadian judges about how we get there too quickly. and that maybe you know in your country, it takes it takes longer to get there. So, let's agree that maybe somewhere in the middle might be more ideal. “Organizing bodies do the best they can, given the current environment, to come up with a fair and equitable process. They don't always get it right and many times changes just are just so laborious, it takes so long and really, what is the right fit. So, I understand those challenges. “So, I think we need to work within the constraints of what we're handed with hopefully trying to make improvements along the way. Some of those challenges are making sure we have breed specific knowledge, that we're not missing the hallmark characteristics of a breed and just going for a more of a generic exhibit. “If you have to ask, ‘Is there a Rule against that’, what's happening is your moral guideline. Your compass is probably kicking in. I think you've already answered your question. If you have to question yourself like that, whether there's a rule or regulation specifically forbidding that is irrelevant. You've already answered your question. It should not happen. “We were raised in the sport. We spent decades in the sport. We know a lot of people. So now because we've chosen to change hats to now become judges, all of those relationships and those hotels we shared and vehicles we traveled in those don’t go away. “My interpretation is that when that’s said as the reason to justify a win, my gut goes to ‘Have you really evaluated everything. Did you fairly look at the dogs in competition.’ Many times, I don't think you're really did that. I think that the political excuse was the easy excuse for you to justify that in your mind and poo poo the credibility of the ethical issue around the judging process.”

Keeping Foxhounds Alive Into the 21st Century [caption id="attachment_12547" align="alignleft" width="432"] Brigette Bryson with one of her Foxhounds.[/caption] Brigette Bryson, second generation breeder of Foxhounds at Foxhunt Kennels in Australia, joins host Laura Reeves in a wide ranging conversation about English Foxhounds, preserving the history they represent and how she hopes to keep the breed alive into the 21st century. There are three breeders of English Foxhounds listed on the US National Club website. In 2022, the breed dropped to last place in numbers of dogs registered with AKC. Although the breed lives on in the packs around the globe, their popularity has certainly faded from their heyday when hunting fox was both useful and fashionable in much of the world. “I don't know if that's ever going to change dramatically,” Bryson said. “I have this conversation with people regularly. I don't know that you can ever make them mainstream. Their history is so deep. And it's entrenched in people's brains that this is a hunting and a working breed that's not gonna fit in my suburban backyard. “So I don't know if you can ever change that. My goal is just to see them survive. That will happen in the packs. There's many packs. You know, we're not gonna have a figure of how many dogs exist in those packs, but they're there. And I think that they will always be there through people like me that have maybe grown up in that pack and they're obsessed with the breed, so they'll keep it going. “What I would like to see is if we could have a few breeders in each country breeding them, that would be a success for me. It's enough to keep them alive and not let that piece of history die for me. I think I really enjoy the history of the breed. I love that almost every kennel club you visit around the world is gonna have a painting of Foxhounds hunting. I think it's important to maintain it for that reason. “I of course would love to see them become more popular with the general public. I just don't know if that's possible. The sizes of houses and properties and everything, it's gonna be the same problem for all large breeds. It's getting smaller. “And realistically, as much as you can raise them to live in a smaller environment, it's not ideal for them and people would have to put in a lot more effort to meeting their energy needs. My goal is just to get them out there with breeders around the world. That's what I'm trying to achieve now. “There's not a single registered breeder that has had a litter in the UK that I can think of in the last 10 years. We have one active registered breeder in New Zealand who's fantastic. And there's a few really healthy packs over there that have some dogs from us as well. "And in America, there's a handful if they even keep breeding, but they start aging out too. And that's what's happening here. There was four main breeders that we had, myself and my parents before me worked in with. One of those hasn't bred a litter for a decade. And the other two are at the point where they're saying to me, I don't know if I'll have any more just because they're getting a bit older. “And (Foxhounds) are incredibly healthy. Now that's another one that's complex. Foxhounds have been largely inbred since the beginning of time. But with that, only the strong survived. There is no hereditary diseases in the breed. “Part of that is that there hasn't been human intervention. So, all the debates that people have about inbreeding, and I have this debate with people regularly, because they'll say to me, you're gonna have to outcross. And I say, well, you need to outcross because you've got problems you need to fix. “But if I don't have any problems, why do I need to do that? A litter we had last year was from a six -year -old maiden bitch, 15 puppies. So, we're not having those issues that other people have. They're incredibly healthy. And people buying these dogs that they spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars trying to keep alive, I can sell you a Foxhound that will only have to go to the vet for its vaccinations.”

Protecting Breeds Into the Future Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves to discuss AKC’s newest service for preservation breeders. Greer was actively involved in AKC’s development of the Purebred Preservation Bank, taking the idea from the Otterhound Club of America. We had the conversation with Joellen Gregory early on about the Otterhound’s semen bank, and AKC has taken this and developed it into something that's available for all parent clubs. “(PPB will allow) AKC to fund the long -term storage of semen that no longer has an owner that wants to manage it,” Greer said. “So, you don't necessarily have to have passed away for this to happen. If you're at the end of your breeding program and you're sitting there with six beautiful dogs that have semen frozen, and you're like, ‘Well, I don't have anybody I've really mentored and my kids don't want it, so where do I go with this?’ “That's when you go to the AKC website, you pull up the information on there, you sign the document that allows AKC to take ownership. And once you hand it off, you no longer are in control of that part of the semen. You may send all of your dog’s semen, you may send part of that dog’s semen, you may send all the semen that you have to the AKC, and AKC will then pay for the long -term storage. “Every breed club makes their own rules. Your parent club can put together their health committee, their genetics committee, a special committee for this. Your breed club will sit down and with some ideas from what other breed clubs have done, be able to say, ‘This is how we want the semen disseminated. Does the bitch have to have a CHIC number? Does she have to have these certain criteria? When is it appropriate to use? Has she had a litter before?’ All those kinds of things, your breed club can decide. “But as you release the semen, you can't say, ‘Well, I don't like Susie Smith." Susie Smith is never going to get to touch my semen ever, ever, as long as I live, over my dead body. Maybe it will be over your dead body because now it's no longer yours. “Fifty years from now and 100 years from now, that's what we're looking at. We're not looking at what happens next Tuesday when a bitch has to be bred. We're looking at 100 years from now. Is your dog still of value? You might say things like, ‘Well, styles of dogs change,’ and indeed they do. But sometimes those foundational dogs are structurally what you need. Sometimes those foundation dogs predate certain genetic disorders that have really worked their way deeply into the gene pool and could be very hard to breed your way out of. “AKC's role in this is to pay for the semen storage and to register the puppies. That's it. AKC is not there to start saying, ‘Well, we want you to do this with this and we want you to do that with that. And you have to have faith that 100 years from now, this mission, this vision is going to be held true. But it's not about Susie Smith. It's not about you. It's not about (any individual dog). It's about the overall health of the breed and where we can go with some of the genetics.”        

LIVE Debate: Should Professional Handlers Be Allowed in BPUP? Our final installation for Spicy October is a LIVE@5 debate between an owner handler and a professional handler regarding the hot topic of the rules around the BPUP, 4-6 months puppy competition. Natalie Thurman, owner handler: [caption id="attachment_12504" align="alignleft" width="351"] Natalie Thurman and Ares winning Owner Handled Group.[/caption] I do think that there are people who start out and it is intimidating to go up against the Laura’s and the Karyn's of the world because you just make it look so easy and then we try to go do it and then it's not as easy. Not even a little bit. I mean I know it’s why we have owner handled groups. But if you're not getting to the owner handled group either BPUP could be a good place to feel safe as a non-experienced dog show human. Karyn Cowdrey, professional handler: I believe everyone should have the opportunity, including breeder owner handlers, to show in BPUP. Why? Because the fact of reality of our life today is there are fewer and fewer handling classes people can get to. As handlers, often we're the ones teaching the handling class and we don't get to work our dogs in the environment. As a handler, it is important to me that my puppies that I own, that I bred, that I decided to keep, get the best experience they can in the [caption id="attachment_12503" align="alignright" width="377"] Karyn Cowdrey, BlackFyre Handling Services.[/caption] start of life in the ring. I shouldn't have to hand them off to a total stranger. Laura Reeves, host and moderator: The concept (of BPUP) is that the American Kennel Club wants to support the novice handlers and that the simple presence of someone more capable than they are, whether they be a professional or a breeder or what have you, is unnerving. And I don't know that that's a great solution. I think we all learn by being challenged, but I know it is something that is a thing. AKC gets banged a lot for not being encouraging and inviting and we as the representatives of the AKC get banged for the same thing. I sincerely believe that for people who think it is a big deal, they should get to do that. They should get to have that moment. Hope is what gets us and keeps us. And I guess that's what I would pin Best Puppy to. Is that baby inkling of hope. That tiny tingle of hope that the very new person gets when they get their first puppy. And they are so excited and they don't know what the hell they're doing. And their breeder’s probably shoving them in the ring. And they're really encouraging them to do this. It's hope. And I guess to me, when I judge it, when I see it, best puppy to me represents hope. It represents the hope that we as breeders have for those puppies that are in the ring. It represents the hope that those owners and handlers have for their new puppies. It's hope. BPUP represents the hope that those owners and handlers have for their new puppies. It's hope. The part of me that thinks that hope is important, thinks that owner handled being what is important and encouraging new people being what's important, I see the argument to make it a quote -unquote safe space from professionals. Join us for the full replay of this spicy hot topic.  

Creating Better Outcomes for ALL Dogs Host Laura Reeves is joined by the founders of For All Dogs -- Chris Fleming of Pinnacle Pet and Martha Boden of SPCA Tampa Bay. This unlikely partnership grew out of a mutual desire to create better outcomes for all dogs, including retired breeding dogs from commercial kennels and adoptable dogs in animal shelters. As we wrap up “spicy October,” this conversation about a powerful alliance of opposing forces stands as a testament to the positive outcomes when we work together for the good of ALL dogs, instead of tearing one another down. Fleming is a broker for commercial kennels who sell puppies through pet stores. Boden is the director SPCA Tampa Bay’s animal shelter. They describe their partnership and friendship as serendipitous. Their work is beyond groundbreaking. [caption id="attachment_12497" align="alignleft" width="329"] Chris Fleming, CEO Pinnacle Pet[/caption] In 2008, Fleming began working with his suppliers to improve their facilities and programs. After meeting Dr. Candace Croney in 2014, he started encouraging these breeders to come into compliance with the Canine Care Certified program she created. Listeners may remember the episode linked HERE where Laura spoke with Dr. Croney about this program. “So, the benefits from the Canine Care, it's data that has been just really kind of eye -opening for us,” Fleming said. “Looking at taking notes, breeders do everything from measuring humidity and air temperatures every day to stimulation or handling the pups that they deal with, really puts in a more hands -on approach. “What we're seeing is better socialized animals. We're seeing healthier moms. We're seeing when you're focused and attentive to what they're doing, the happier mom makes a happier pup, you're having lower vet bills and it feels weird saying this now because it feels like common sense but now it's, I can point to the science of this. So lower vet bills, happier healthier moms and puppies and being mindful of an appropriate retirement age. “You also have a kennel that you're getting moms out of the kennel retired at an earlier age. The puppies that they're producing, there's more of them. It's better litter counts, lower veterinary bills. So from a business standpoint, it's lower costs, increased profits. And so from an animal welfare standpoint, it's happier dogs and kennel owners that are reporting enjoying the time in their kennel more. “That leads into the For All Dogs program and it's a pilot program for us because we've ran a few of the retired adults from canine care certified kennels. But this For All Dogs program needs to offer up a trusted source for breeders that are looking for either canine care certification or at least achieve those standards and have a trusted retirement partner.” As Fleming and Boden talked after a chance meeting at an animal welfare event, they began to have more in depth conversations about their two disparate worlds. [caption id="attachment_12496" align="alignright" width="465"] Martha Boden, CEO SPCA Tampa Bay[/caption] “I started to get a feeling for what a puppy distributor did,” Boden said. “And then as we were having these conversations, Chris started talking to me about Canine Care Certification and I thought, ‘Wait a second. This is not something that my world has been talking about at all. Like why are we not aware of this amazing thing that's happening at one of the best veterinary colleges in the country?’ “And I realized again working through Chris and getting a chance to learn that it was still kind of in its early stages. And so I thought, okay, well, I want to understand more about it. I want to understand more about these standards. And I also want to understand, because Chris is bringing animals into my community, he knows something because he provides puppies to two of those six stores, he knows something about the world I live in. And I thought, if there's an opportunity to partner with somebody who's this closely involved with animals that are coming into my community, I should figure out what it is. “So Chris brought, I think his entire management team to Florida. And we talked very frankly about, would there be an opportunity to partner and how it needed to be something that was a win for both of our organizations, and all of the people that we touch. And we just started brainstorming about what that might look like. “And the first thing that came out of my COO's mouth that I think made us all kind of stop on our tracks was she said, ‘You keep talking about a good breeder. Well, I've never seen one, because I don't get called in when a breeder is doing a great job. My team gets called in when it's a disaster. So forget any marketing that somebody might be doing. I've been there, I have walked through, you know, overwhelming facilities where, you know, there's all kinds of horrific things happening all around us. That is all I know. So Chris and your team, you're going to have to help me u

Purebred or Mixed Breed: Silken Windhounds Bridge the Divide [caption id="attachment_12486" align="alignleft" width="358"] Silken Windhounds descend from lurchers (believed to be Whippet x Sheltie) and Borzoi.[/caption] Ashlynn Hill joins host Laura Reeves for a discussion of the Silken Windhound. These dogs appear to bridge the divide between preservation purebred dog breeders and the "fad" mixed breeds that make many preservation breeders tear out their hair. A partial transcript of the conversation follows. Pure Dog Talk is the voice of purebred dogs. We talk to the legends of the sport and give you the tips and tools to create an awesome life with your purebred dog. From showing to preservation breeding, from competitive obedience to field work, from agility to therapy dogs, and all the fun in between, your passion is our purpose. - Welcome to Pure Dog Talk. I am your host, Laura Reeves, and we're having these conversations. We had a conversation last week about the American bullies and kind of this concept that so few of the breeds that we know today were, as I say, burst from the head of Zeus, right? Most of our dogs that we know were created somewhere along the way. Some of them are more recent and there's a conversation to be had about these created crosses, why they were created, what the goals are, what the history and the purpose of the crosses are, and how that progress is going into creating a whole new purebred dog. So I have with me Ashlyn Hill, who is involved in Silken Windhounds. She says she came through the herding breeds to Silken Windhound pipeline, which I think is adorable. Pure Dog Talk is proudly sponsored by Trupanion, medical insurance for the life of your pet. Trupanion can give you peace of mind knowing your pet is covered in the event of an unexpected accident or illness. Even better, Trupanion can pay your veterinarian directly and has no payout limits. So you'll never have to choose between what's best for your pet and what's best for your wallet. And if you're a breeder, you can join Trupanion's free breeder support program and get a special offer to share with your puppy buyers that waves all the waiting periods. So coverage goes into effect immediately. And so welcome Ashlyn. I'm really excited to have this conversation. We've reached episode 600 and we're kicking into the new era with all these spicy conversations. So I'm really excited about doing that. I think there is an interesting and worthwhile conversation to be had. Thank you so much for having me, Laura. And congratulations on your 600 episodes. I'm very thrilled to be here. This is pretty exciting. So talk to us about silken windhounds specifically. What is the history of this particular cross? What was the purpose? You know, why was this developed? [caption id="attachment_12485" align="alignright" width="495"] Kristull Amalie - LHW (1984) from Francie Stoll's A litter.[/caption] Yeah. So Silken Windhounds, we're going back to the very beginning. We're looking at around the 1980s. Our breed founder is Francie Stoll. She had a pretty extensive history in Borsoy before she decided to take on this project of making a new breed. So in the early 1980s, she actually got the first dogs that she would use to produce Silkens from Walter Wheeler. Walter Wheeler was well known in the Whippet community for having his long -haired Whippets. So Walter Wheeler claims that he had, you know, purebred long -haired Whippets. You know, whether that is really true, we don't really know. We, as Silken People, we say that they were lurchers. We very strongly believe that there were some Sheltie hiding back there because in Silken, we have CEA and MDR1, herding breed, you know. So that's what our suspicion is. We call them our lurchers.   So Francie got several of these long -haired Whippets from Walter Wheeler. Some of them were in Whelp, and she used those to start making her own thing. I mean, it wasn't until about 1985 that she says her first litter of Silken Windhounds were born. This was when she had added in some Borzoi and she finally created the vision of what she was looking for. And really what she was looking to produce with these lurchers and adding the Borzoi and the little bit of the whippet history is that she's looking for a medium -sized, very elegant, very easy sighthound. You know, just looking to fill that niche for something a little bit smaller, but not quite Italian greyhound sized. So that was really what she was just looking to produce. And the D litter, the Kristull D litter, is what she says was her first production of Silkens. She made it. This is what she's looking for. And she took that and continued to breed on from there. So this is fascinating to me. Is she doing inbreeding, linebreeding, and how is she accomplishing or how is the breed today accomplishing? What is this? 30 years later, the consistency that you expect to see from a purebred dog? Yes, there was a lot of linebreeding. Mostly there

Responsibly Developing New Breeds… What Does That Look Like? The facts are that all but a very, very limited handful of our breeds today have been created by mankind for some purpose. Companionship is a purpose. I would like to introduce you to the Toy Fox Terrier, for example. As society moves away from agrarian and hunter gatherer lives, companion breeds and even new companion breeds are more in demand than ever. Society changes. And I think that when we talk about purebred dogs being living history, in some cases that history is still being made and there are different needs in today's society than there were 100 or 200 years ago. [caption id="attachment_12482" align="alignleft" width="321"] DASH DNJ HOP UWP URO1 EGRCH SB Knightfall SPOT[/caption] Join me for a conversation with Nikki Holcomb about the American Bully. Recognized by the United Kennel Club in 2013, Holcomb is leading the push to responsibly develop this companion breed with health testing, temperament testing, breeding goals, a breed standard and more. “The American Bully is a companion breed,” Holcomb said. “A lot of people, when they see them, will immediately question that. They're like, ‘Are you sure these are dogs in the companion group?’ Even when we're at dog shows, we're standing ringside and they're like, ‘Are you sure at the right ring?’ And I'm like, ‘I'm absolutely positive.’ It's surprising to people, I think, to see a big bulky dog beside a little bichon or a little toy poodle or whatnot, and they're like, well, we just really don't understand. And that's valid. [caption id="attachment_12481" align="alignright" width="358"] MBIS/MRBIS TDBIS MSDBIS VBIS R1 STAR3 RACEN URO1 AP2 VPA UWPO UGWPCH IC-GRCH INT-BCH DGCH ArK9s Noschitt Sherlock DNA-VIP NTD SPOT-ON[/caption] “But I think that American Bullies fill a really important spot. There are people out there that want to have a bigger dog, a little bit bigger than medium size, that can do all of the really fun sports, but they really don't want a working dog. Or maybe they don't want the attitude of a terrier, or they don't want to deal with the baying of a scent hound or the quirks that come with the sight hound. You know, whatever it may be. But they want to sport dog. Or they want a dog that can go on three-mile hikes with them or go swimming at the lake and they're like, well, do I get a small dog or do I just go with some of the things I don't enjoy as much and I think American Bullies do fill that space really well. “They're very easy to train. They're incredibly handler oriented. They're absolutely in love with their people, to the point where they've never met a stranger. Protective is definitely not on their list. A lot of people will see them. They're like, oh, they're guardians. They're 100% not guardians. They're not going to protect you. That burglar coming in the house is their best friend. They're super outgoing, they're fun loving and they love to try everything you know, anything you could do. They're excited to do it.” “The official listing of founding breeds for the American Bully are the American Staffordshire Terrier, the American Pitbull Terrier, Old English Bulldog and English bulldog. [caption id="attachment_12480" align="alignleft" width="307"] Health testing for the American Bully. Infographic by Anissa Shotbolt.[/caption] “I think they really took traits from each of these breeds and really focused on making a dog that could be calm enough and low drive enough to be with a young family, with young kids, or even a first time pet owner. Removing a lot of the dog aggression to the point where we do not want to see any dog aggression in American Bullies at all. We don't want to see prey drive. You should be able to have your American Bully with anything and everything. They should be gentle with children. They should be biddable, easy companions. There shouldn't be anything that makes them difficult for first time pet owner. These are really important traits for this breed that I feel like the founding breeds maybe fell a little bit short on.”

Add Years to Your Dog’s Life with One Simple Step Dr. Marty Greer DVM joins host Laura Reeves to discuss how every pet owner can add years to their dog’s life with the simple step of avoiding obesity. “It's a difficult conversation,” Greer said. “It's difficult for veterinarians to bring it up. It's difficult for clients. So all the way around, it's a challenging process and we have to be very careful, as veterinarians, that we don't insult anybody because our role is not there to be body shaming their pet, but rather to be that advocate for their pet's best health. “We know that dogs that are ideal body condition live 2 years longer,” Greer noted. This is based on a laboratory study of littermate pairs. One group was free fed as much food as they wanted over their lifetimes. The other group was fed 25% less. The dogs fed less lived two years longer than their littermates. “We're not going to convince people that they're going to stop giving their dog treats,” Greer added. “I mean, that's just not a practical thing for us to talk people into because that is their love language. That is the way that they communicate with their pet in a lot of realms. It's easy to continue to give that love language of food to your pet, but to do it in a way that has lower calories. So instead of feeding them extra, you can do some simple things by changing the treats that you give.” Dr. Greer’s top tips for avoiding obesity in pets: Weigh your pet routinely. Use your hands to feel the pet’s body condition (HINT: Watch the YouTube video of this pod for Greer’s demo of how she explains proper weight for each pet!) Trade out fruits and vegetables for dog biscuits. Limit “people” food or reduce amount fed at meals to compensate. Spayed and neutered pets need 25% fewer calories immediately. Increase activity. Plain Cheerios and ice cubes are fun treats for dogs. Get creative and make healthy eating fun for you and your dog.

Mentors, Mentees and All the Love Welcome to Pure Dog Talk. I am your host Laura Reeves, and today is episode 600. Like holy podcast palooza Batman. There has been an awful lot of water under the bridge since November of 2016. If you haven't, you should make a point to watch the Live@Five episode with Mary Albee from this month, where we talk about the creation of pure Dog talk. Everything from what to name it to her dragging me kicking and screaming into the role as host. It's pretty epic conversation. And for everybody who's listening, just know that you can go to the website puredogtalk.com and the blog post will have links to a bunch of these things that I'm talking about today. I have lots of thoughts, but instead of droning on about how impactful this podcast actually is, which I know you know because I hear from you all on the daily, I want to dig into a topic that is front of mind for every single one of our listeners. Not a day goes by in one of the, I don't know, 9 million groups on dog book or in our own patrons group or somewhere. That there isn't commentary about mentors and mentees and the relationships they're in. I even touched on this in a conversation with Vicki Ronchette on her show Dog Prep School Facebook Live a few weeks back. The fact is, for me, the most moving and powerful moments of the last seven years have been when random strangers tell me that pure dog talk and the work that we do here has served as their mentors. That pure dog talk, me as the host and all of our amazing guests - shout out to every single one of y'all - that we're the reasons that they're breeding dogs or showing dogs or participating in a club. And that veterinary voice episodes with Marty Greer of literally saved their dog's life. That I, that I was their virtual mentor from afar, in a tiny, tinny voice over their smartphone. So I wanted to dive into the concept of mentorship more in this epic moment of episode 600. This day represents a truly mind-bending amount of time and energy. Learning, growing, succeeding, failing. And I guess I'd like to use that as an avatar for really a larger conversation. Growing up this podcast, this community, this ever blossoming dialogue is in many ways analogous to the effort involved as both mentor and mentee in any relationship. And as it turns out, the ability and willingness to share knowledge and accept the sharing of knowledge in a mentoring type relationship is not actually hardwired into the human brain. So I went searching for, you guessed it, some more insight and some more knowledge.

Norwegian Elkhounds: The OG GPS Tracking System [caption id="attachment_12454" align="alignleft" width="346"] Kamilla Engen with her dogs. In Norway, Grey and Black Norwegian Elkhounds are recognized as separate breeds.[/caption] Kamilla Engen, Norwegian Elkhound breeder, judge and moose hunter in Norway, joins host Laura Reeves for a Love the Breeds discussion of this ancient hunting breed. Engen judged the breed's US National Specialty in May. Per the Norwegian Elkhound Club of America, The Norwegian Elkhound is bold and energetic, a hardy gray hunting dog known for his lush silver-gray coat and dignified but friendly demeanor. In appearance, a typical northern dog of medium size and substance, square in profile, close coupled and balanced in proportions. The head is broad with prick ears, and the tail is tightly curled and carried over the back. The distinctive gray coat is dense and smooth lying. As a hunter, the Norwegian Elkhound has the courage, agility and stamina to hold moose and other big game at bay by barking and dodging attack, and the endurance to track for long hours in all weather over rough and varied terrain. The durable Elkhound is among Europe’s oldest dogs. They sailed with the Vikings and figure in Norse art and legend. You Get the Dog You Deserve “(These are) excellent family dogs,” Engen said. “We also enjoy our nature. And it's the perfect companionship if you are hiking, going in the mountain. I always walk my dogs and so they are good off leash. I always said that you get the dog that you deserve. If you want the dog to get back to you, you have to start with that. It's a training. Of course. But if you start early and make it positive to come back to you, yeah, of course (they come when called). Because the ability that makes it an enormously great hunter is the ability to cooperate with the hunter. “We have two kinds of forums of hunting that use these dogs. The one is the most usual is loose. You let the dog loose and you have a GPS tracker on it so you can see where it is and you can also see when it stands still and you can hear the barking. Then you have contact with a moose. [caption id="attachment_12455" align="alignright" width="391"] This Norwegian Elkhound tracked down a wounded moose that was hit by a car so it could be humanely dispatched.[/caption] “The other one is with a very long leash, 5-6 meters. And let me just explain a little bit why we do that in Norway. Norway is a tiny country compared to the United States and we have distinct areas that we are allowed to hunt. In these areas you can hunt a certain number of mooses. OK and these dogs? They run far. And the and a moose doesn't always stop (in the confined area). So, if you have small areas, it's very helpful to have a leash because then you can control it a lot more and you can search a whole area. “They locate the moose from a quite a long distance. They are incredible, their ability to do this. Then they located, they run over to it and hopefully they are able to get the moose to turn around towards them. To defend themselves. This is an old, old instinct that moose have from wolves and bears. And then the dog barks. From old times before the GPS trackers, the hunter hears that noise. And that was their GPS.”

Basset Fauve de Bretagne: Old Breed is New to AKC Miscellaneous [caption id="attachment_12428" align="alignleft" width="289"] Nick Frost, AKC Judge and Hound Authority[/caption] Nick Frost, AKC judge and hound specialist, joins host Laura Reeves to talk about the charming Basset Fauve de Bretagne. Better known for his Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen breeding program, Frost was involved with the Fauve in England in the late 1970s. The Fauve, as the breed is commonly called, entered AKC’s Miscellaneous competition for the first time in July of this year. They have previously competed in Open Shows and participated in the Foundation Stock Service. According to the Basset Fauve de Bretagne Club of America, “The Basset Fauve de Bretagne is truly an old French Hound, tracing back to the 1500’s when Francois I had a pack of Breton hounds which he hunted regularly.”   [caption id="attachment_12430" align="alignright" width="248"] Frost with Merrick, Varon Aymeric at Dehra born in quarantine at Ryslip kennels.[/caption] Fauves, like many European breeds, were nearly lost due to the World Wars and had to be reconstructed from just a handful of breeding stock, Frost said. In France, the breed is a rabbit hunting hound and the French are very proud of the breed’s hunting ability. They are kept as pack hounds in their native land and as a result are very good with other dogs. “(The Fauves are) very sweet tempered,” Frost observed. “I found them more so even than the (PBGV). I never experienced a fight with my Fauves.” These short-legged hounds carry a short, hard, dense wire coat, less profusely furnished than the distant cousin the PBGV. Minimal, low maintenance grooming is required for Fauves with correct coats. “It’s a breed that needs activity,” Frost noted. “Like all pack hounds, they just need a companion. They are great with kids. The breed is a bit more people-focused than many scent hounds.” [caption id="attachment_12431" align="alignleft" width="308"] Fauves are generally biddable and people oriented.[/caption] “This is still a hound,” Frost said. “It still can be “deaf”, you can’t trust them to come when called every time. They are still being hunted and worked full time in Europe. So that prey drive is still close to the surface.”

Puppy Strangles, Pyoderma and Neonatal Ophthalmia Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves to discuss some of the weird and scary diseases that can affect our puppies, including puppy strangles, puppy pyoderma and neonatal opththalmia. Puppy Strangles “Essentially what it is, is it's an allergic reaction or an over immune reaction to bacteria that are normally found on the skin. So we normally see streps and staph on the skin of mammals. Puppies, humans, whatever. And in a small population of puppies, we see this allergic reaction. And the reason we call it strangles is because the lymph nodes in the neck become enlarged, hugely enlarged. And sometimes that's the first symptoms that are seen. Sometimes they're skin lesions that are noticed first. “They typically start on the lips, at the very front of the face, at the very front of the lips. And then they'll move back, and then they'll move to the eyelids and then they'll move to the ears. It's sort of like when you have an anaphylactic reaction and a dog, a vaccination or beesting. It starts at the very tip of the nose and then moves its way back. “They'll see open draining wounds and they'll be really sticky. There's a lot of serum that comes out of them, so they're really sticky. Gooey, messy things and fussy. Puppy Pyoderma “A fair number of puppies have (this), especially the little girls, right in front of their vulva on their tummies where there's not much hair. They get urine scalds, they develop something (more) serious. “(It’s) not a really serious condition. And anytime I can treat something topically just with cleaning it with wipes or with Chlorhexidine or a shampoo or applying a nice type of a cream or an ointment to it and get rid of it without using an oral antibiotic. I'm going to the same with vaginitis and balanoposthitis in the boys. Do not routinely put your little girls that have vaginitis or your little boys that have balanoposthitis, that green pussy stuff that comes out of the tip of the prepuce. They don't need to be on an antibiotic for that. It's not serious treat it locally. Be smart about it. Neonatal Opththalmia “Somehow bacteria got behind the sealed eyelids before they open their eyes. I've seen it happen with females that have had metritis. If you read the literature, it says that it's in unclean conditions. Well, in my experience it has been households that are incredibly clean. Like you could eat off their floors, but there's bacteria in the environment. Often from the bitch having metritis or mastitis something in the environment and the bacteria gets behind this sealed eyelids and turns into this little pocket of pus. It's quite disgusting. “This is a medical emergency. You need to come in immediately, get the eyelids open, get them on oral and topical antibiotics and you'll save their vision. And I have seen multiple puppies because it wasn't recognized, either the puppy didn't have enough swelling for the owner to recognize it or the eyelids didn't open on time. Or a variety of different things. And the puppies can be blind. I had one puppy that was blind in both eyes, so it's very serious and needs to be handled.”

Black and Tan Coonhounds with Kathy Corbett [caption id="attachment_12418" align="alignleft" width="282"] Kathy and Boomer, Ch. WyEast Why Not.[/caption] Pure Dog Talk’s Love the Breed series, focused on hound breeds, continues today with 50 years of knowledge about Black and Tan Coonhounds as breeder Kathy Corbett joins host Laura Reeves for this insightful conversation. Kathy and Jim Corbett acquired their first Black and Tan Coonhound sight unseen in 1971. They wanted a short coated dog of a size that was easy to reach for a pat on the head and was good with the family. The WyEast Black and Tan Coonhounds are legend, including Boomer, Am/Can/UKC Ch. WyEast Why Not. Am/Can Ch. WyEast Why Not was the all time top winning Black and Tan Coonhound in the history of the breed with a show record which includes 12 All-Breed Best in Shows, 64 Hound Group wins, and 201 Hound Group Placements. A grandson of National Specialty and Hound Group winning Ch. WyEast Wanderlust, Boomer was number one Black and Tan Coonhound in total dogs defeated for five successive years - 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991. He was also awarded Best of Breed at the National Specialty of the American Black and Tan Coonhound Club for the years 1990 and 1991. [caption id="attachment_12417" align="alignright" width="406"] Kathy and a typical Black and Tan Coonhound puppy.[/caption] “(Black and Tan Coonhounds) have a kind of a muddled history,” Corbett said. “We certainly go back to foxhounds. George Washington had fox hounds and he had dogs that happened to be black and tan in color. It was quite a while before the utilitarian dogs that would hunt for anything with fur that could run were divided essentially by coat color and a little bit by their style of hunting. “Five of the coonhound breeds generally were used to track and trail coons and other animals that would either go to ground or tree. The Plot hound is much more aggressive and was used primarily for bear because it takes a tough dog to take on a bear. “But in general, these were dogs that would chase anything with fur that would run and they were the dogs that put meat on the table. Some of the breeds, like Treeing Walkers, were a little faster. Black and Tans were the ones that weren't necessarily as fast, but would stay on a trail forever and had great endurance. And they're also wonderful dogs to have around. They were very reliable with other dogs and children. “We loved their temperament. We wanted a dog that would run all night if we wanted it to, or go hiking or camping or anything that the family wanted to do and then would come in the house and lie down and go to sleep. And that's exactly what we found. “When we place a puppy, we do try to impress upon the people that this is an on-leash breed. They are bred to hunt independently. They are bred to take off on their own. And they will. And it's your job to find them, to follow them. Their end of the bargain is that when they get something up a tree that they will yell their heads off so you can find them. But if that doesn't happen, for instance if they're after a deer, they usually just go and go and go. “So in general for hiking or anything else, they are on lead dogs and at home they need a fence. They'll range for 10 miles. If they remember where they came from, they'll come back. But they go, and it's not a matter of training. You're working against hundreds of years of instinct.”

Love the Breeds: Salukis with Caroline Coile [caption id="attachment_12406" align="alignleft" width="330"] Caroline Coile with her Saluki, Prophet.[/caption] Author and Saluki breeder Caroline Coile joins host Laura Reeves for the kick-off of our Love the Breeds feature. Some of Coile’s tongue-in-cheek descriptions of the ancient breed include “breathing furniture,” “arm candy” and “they don’t like to show their feelings.” “We have a lot of artwork that does indicate that there were saluki-like dogs … all over the Middle East,” Coile said. “But not just the Middle East, but everywhere the Silk Road went. We see them in China and obviously, it's pretty easy to take this dog and bring it with you to trade or hunt or whatever. “We know that some of the first Salukis that came to the western part of the world, to England, were there by the 1700s because there was a famous painting of Zilla … she was, if we can judge from this painting, a gorgeous black and tan, very refined, long feathering… she would have won in the show ring today. [caption id="attachment_12411" align="alignright" width="437"] Baha, Ch Srinagar Bhavant Bhairava CD LCM, Coile's first saluki, in 1975.[/caption] “I think that there were two different families (of Salukis), those that went with the Bedouin and they probably hunted hare and rabbit and helped fill their pot with that whatever they could catch. And then I think there were some that the royalty took out on the giant Gazelle Hunts, which would have been a great King Tut and all that sort of thing. A great sport, but probably not a cost efficient one in terms of, you know, calories per what you can bring back. “An advantage to the Saluki is how peaceful they are. When they're not going, they're peaceful and they're not fighting with each other. They're not fighters. They get along. This is the norm. They like to sleep in your bed. They won't stay off your furniture. They are climbers. I have one that can get on the refrigerator. Oh well, she doesn't just jump up from the floor, she gets on the counter beforehand and won't stay off that though so I put stuff on the refrigerator to keep it away from her. [caption id="attachment_12404" align="alignleft" width="405"] BIS BIF HIT GCh Khiva's Prophet of Baha, CD, FCh, SC, RA, JOR[/caption] “I know one of the things that I think is really important to get across to folks that want to live with what I sort of jokingly, to my friends, refer to as dog arm candy. They're really beautiful. (But) the important part to remember is they’re dogs and their long developed natural instincts are to chase and kill things and do that very independently. “The whole motto is that saying ‘if looks could kill’ … you look at their breed standard and that basically defines the saluki breed standard in four words. I get a lot of inquiries from new pet owners saying, ‘We're marathon runners and we heard that Salukis are long distance runners.’ And I have to say, ‘Yeah, they're long distance sprinters, if that makes any sense? They can run at full double suspension gallop longer than any other breed, but I guarantee you that if you try to trot with it for any length of time, it's like dragging an anchor behind you. They're not into that. They like to go full speed. “And then the other thing I would say is that I don't know about other breeds, but Salukis are the biggest complainers of the dog world. Oh, it's too hot. It's too cold. Because they act like they're royalty.”

Temperament Testing for Better Puppy Placements [caption id="attachment_12395" align="alignleft" width="235"] Hannah Crane, National Puppy Program Manager for Dogs for Better Lives.[/caption] Hannah Crane, National Puppy Program Manager for Dogs for Better Lives, joins host Laura Reeves to take a deep dive on temperament testing for better puppy placements for all breeders. While Crane uses the system to test puppies going in to service work for her organization and others, she discusses why all breeders can follow the protocol to help make the best possible matches for puppies and buyers. “Temperament tests are exactly how they sound,” Crane said. “They help us to assess and identify any temperaments that the puppies are showing us in a litter. Are we looking at a puppy who is confident and calm in any environment? Are we looking at a puppy who is maybe shy or reserved, unsure of their surroundings? It really helps give us a snapshot in time, what that litter is showing as well as the individual puppies. “We get to look at each puppy and the litter as a whole because that's great data for our breeders. We can see what's trending. The particular test that we use helps us to see how the puppy reacts to different environments and how it reacts to different people, different stimuli, novel objects and also different stressors. “Typically, you wanna do them between seven and eight weeks old. That's really the prime time to do it. If you're being really picky, 7 1/2 weeks old is prime. You're right at their sponge stage. They're really coming into their own behaviors in the litter, finding their social status as well as right before they go into their first fear period, too. And that's essential. “(Temperament testing is) great for private breeders as well. For you guys to be able to identify which puppies will be successful in a private home or a show dog home or a sport home, I mean our ultimate goal both of us, you know, whether you're a school or a private breeder, the ultimate goal is to set up these puppies for success, to set up our families and our clients for success. We want that puppy or dog to stay in that home for the rest of its life. This is how we do that.”    

Taking on the Taboos: Learn the Inside Story of Veterinary Procedures Dr. Marty Greer, DVM and host Laura Reeves take on the recently taboo subjects of veterinary procedures such as bark softening, tail docking, ear cropping and dewclaw removal. Greer covers the how, when and, importantly, WHY of these procedures. Debark Some people call it urban bark. Some people call it bark softening. It kind of gentrifies the term a little bit because you're really not taking away the bark. You really are softening it. And there's a lot of misconceptions about it. I've heard all kinds of stories about how cruel it is and how difficult the procedure is for the patient. And honestly, none of them are true. Dewclaws I don't see problems with the dewclaws coming off. I know there are people who feel that it weakens the carpal joint in the dog and I, to this day, have not seen a dog breakdown it's Carpus and have difficulty with its carpal joint related to a declaw removal. We do see dewclaws that get torn off during hunting, during other kind of activities …. I actually haven't seen any literature that suggests that they've got proof that (dewclaw removal) makes a difference. Tail Dock Nothing, nothing is more horrible than a broken, bleeding tail. Nothing. They crack them on the wall in the crate, in the kennel. And then they start to bleed. And then, oh my God, it looks like an axe murder happened in your house. It is unbelievable how much blood they can spray around from the end of their tail, and they're very hard to bandage. They don't heal very well, so they can be a real challenge. There's a lot of reasons that people do tails. It's not just about breed type, it is really about function as well. Watch Dr. Greer perform this simple procedure. Ear Crop Breed type is a big deal. If you don't crop the ears on a Doberman, it doesn't look like a Doberman. I think we have to be really honest with ourselves that it's about appearance, it's about breed type. It's primarily a cosmetic procedure and we have to be honest about it. But you have to decide what you're breeding for because again, ear set and ear leather has changed because people don't really pay attention to it. In Closing I will tell you that a lot of the procedures that (some folks) are telling people not to do are far less invasive and far more beneficial for the pet than spaying and neutering. Because why do we spay and neuter our dogs? Because we're too lazy to control their sexual behavior. It's not for their health. The American public has become complacent and will not (train) their dogs.

Prevent or Correct Coat Stains in White Dogs [caption id="attachment_12346" align="alignleft" width="330"] Allison Alexander working with a white poodle.[/caption] Allison Alexander returns to the podcast to discuss how to prevent or correct coat stains in white dogs. Allison and host Laura Reeves take a true deep dive into the details, tips, tricks and methods to manage unsightly staining for all coat types. “One of the things I'll say about white dogs,” Allison said, “is even if you haven't prevented it and you need your dog to be whiter, you need to follow some of the prevention protocols in order to keep them white. In my experience, once you start whitening a coat, even with something you might think is gentle, our dogs do tend to restain a little bit quicker. “Basically there are three of the more popular ways to keep our dogs white once they're stained. So, they are using a bluing shampoo, something that has some bluing in it. But what that is doing, it's really just changing the spectrum. They take something yellow, they put a purple filter over it and then our eye sees that as white and so the problem with that is you do that too often and then your eye starts to see the purple or Gray or something in between there. “And then the other popular one is an enzymatic cleaner. So those are super popular, but what those actually do is the enzyme is actually eating the stain, therefore eating some of the keratin that's in the hair and then that makes the hair actually quite weak after a while and it can not only go dingy, turn different color, (it) can actually snap off. So that's kind of scary. “Same with bleach. Bleach is doing the same thing. This is why prevention is so important, because as much as we like to whiten our dogs, you kind of want to do it as delicately or as less often as possible. And the more often you're doing it kind of the more damage you're doing, right? So, for me, it starts with prevention. “A lot of these shampoos, how they work, is think of a hair cuticle like scales on a fish, and we want those scales to be super tight and waterproof. Most shampoos that we use work by blowing the hair shaft open to suck the dirt out of the hair. Very few products seal it, so we want products that seal it so it doesn't restain as quickly and to me that's just part of the game. Wash, condition, prevent and dry because the damp part is causing (a lot of) the problems. “I (have) used a very old English recipe (to remove stains)… I use milk of magnesia, the 3% hydrogen peroxide, so the first aid kind, and basically enough cornstarch to bind the two together like a loose toothpaste. And I would literally smother (the dog) in it (after) last ex. And then I just put them to bed. If they're living in your house, they should sleep in a crate that night because it's messy. And I let it dry and it's like the milk of Magnesia helps draw the staining out naturally. Now this isn't something that's going to take a urine-stained dog to white overnight like this. (It takes) like 3 weeks, but it also didn't damage the coat. And I just kept reapplying and reapplying and reapplying and you know, some of those things do really work.” Listen to the full episode for more "secret menu" tips! And visit Allison's Leading Edge Dog Show Academy for complete grooming courses.

Breeding Basics LIVE with Laura from Pedigrees to Puppies Host Laura Reeves takes the LIVE audience through breeding basics, reading pedigrees, health testing, phenotype vs genotype and more. This journey through the theory side of breeding, covers important topics for breeders from novice and intermediate to advanced. Use the resources of older breeders who knew the dogs and they will also be able to talk about traits that genetic testing and COA does not give you. This is an art and a science, and part of the art is finding your mentors and being able and willing to talk to a lot of different people. Not just the same people all the time. Not everybody has all the answers. One of the things that makes purebred dogs purebred is a level of inbreeding. That's what makes it purebred. Having a higher or lower level and how you use that and the healthy genes that you're doubling up on or the unhealthy genes that you're doubling up on make an enormous difference in your breeding program going forward. We have to think about the process that we intend to follow and it's ideal if you can create a plan. Is your plan to do consistent inbreeding? Maybe that's not such a great idea. Consistent line breeding? That's probably pretty safe. Consistent outcrossing is really safe from a certain perspective. In terms of health, you're not as liable to double up on a particular recessive, but at the same time, I can tell you from personal experience every single time I go out to get one thing, I get three things I did not want. So, balancing those three breeding theories is absolutely critical to your mission in your breeding program and knowing what you will consider and what you want and how you plan to get where you're going when you start. We're trying to build on this concept of “I have a stated goal. I have written it down. I have cemented it in my brain.” And I have had a very careful evaluation of the bitch that I'm working with. My foundation bitch. I know what I want to improve upon in her. I know what I will not give on, what I will give on and what is not a concern. Those are the kinds of questions that need to be addressed as you're getting started deciding if and when to breed your dog, male or female. Genotype is the pedigree that's what talks about the actual genetic involvement in each individual dog. Phenotype is what does the dog look like? When you make breeding decisions, whether you breed on a pedigree or whether you breed on dogs that look alike, no matter what their genetics are, no matter what pedigree is behind them, is, in my opinion, sort of a personal decision. I personally am a genotype freak. I am a pedigree guru. I love it. I research it. I live and die by it. And yet I know there are lots and lots and lots and lots of people out there who breed on phenotype. I want a dog that looks like this. And this is what my dog looks like I think this is what the breed looks like I want another dog that looks just like this. Hear more of this insightful, targeted conversation by listening to the entire episode above.    

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Elliott Wentzel and the Patrons Book Club Today's episode is a very special excerpt from our Patrons' After Dark Book Club. The Patrons community is a fabulous place where folks from all levels of knowledge in the sport come together and form a supportive, open, safe space to discuss all things pure bred dogs. Amongst our favorite meetings are our book club conversations where one patron selects a read from the Pure Dog Talk bookshelf and we discuss. In this case, our youngest patron, 18 year old dog show savant Elliott Wenzel, leads the conversation about Pat Trotter's, iconic "Born to Win, Breed to Succeed" textbook. Required reading and, frankly, rereading for every purebred dog enthusiast, the book covers in intimate and informed detail a variety of topics central to our sport. If you two would like to join these uplifting and spirited discussions, join us by visiting Pure dogtalk.com and click the Become a Patron tab at the top of the page. I really hope you enjoyed this brief, fly on the wall, introduction to this very, very special community. "I had always loved dogs, loved dog shows and I had been watching (my) large collection of Westminster DVD's," Wentzel said. "I don't know, something has always just attracted me to Westminster, you know, with it being the show of shows and all that. And so how can you know Westminster without knowing Pat Trotter, who has won the group 11 times? She's a big part of it. So I found the book one day, just randomly scrolling through, and I bought it. "One of the first couple pages of the book (there) was just a quote that I thought spoke volumes about the responsible breeder and what they do in their day-to-day, which was 'The ethical breeder lives for his dogs, not off of his dogs.' "And I think that's just such a valuable statement because I feel like people who look in from the outside think that dogs show people just do it for money, which we all know is not true. I think it's just such a great statement because it speaks to our motives of why we're doing this and what we're doing it for. If we didn't love the dogs, none of us would be here today. "One of the other quotes I found from early in on in the book, she said breed specific knowledge must be added to your general knowledge of the dog's history and origin of your breed, understanding the purpose for which it was bred. "So when I am looking at dogs I want to know what that dog was bred to do. Because at the end of the day it's evaluating breeding stock and I just feel like if you don't know the history of the origin, the purpose of that dog, you're not gonna gain any of that information about why it's built the way it's built."

5 Simple Strategies for Improved Websites [caption id="attachment_12311" align="alignleft" width="314"] Jo Stern, ecommerce and technology specialist[/caption] Ecommerce and technology specialist Jo Stern joins host Laura Reeves with five simple strategies to improve your website, reach potential new homes and make the first page on Google. “Search engine optimization (SEO) is essentially what you are building into your website to make you more findable on the Internet when you are talking about thousands upon thousands of people searching for you as a breeder or your puppies,” Stern said. “Or they're just looking into information about breeds. You want to make sure that your website is easy to find, especially if you've got litters on the ground and you're trying to sell puppies, or you're trying to advertise your studs, or you know you want to connect with other people in the same breed. You want to get your name out there. “It's your ability to make yourself appear on the first page of Google. That's the end goal is when somebody searches your name, your breed, your state, you show up first, and that's the end goal of what you're doing. “(There’s) a little bit of reluctance because technology is scary. But I think it's also not exactly their fault because it's very difficult. It's very convoluted. Google makes it difficult on purpose because they don't want people to game the system. “There are different pieces of this puzzle that is SEO. It seems a lot of breeders are missing pieces of the puzzle because that technology is so hard and that education just really isn't out there. There's not a lot of layman's terms education on how to build your website effectively. How you get your name out there. So there's a lot of guesswork. But I think there's a lot of things, a lot of strategies that breeders can employ. “The first thing, is they need to Google themselves. They just need to pull their kennel name. Just go search yourself and see where you show up on Google. See how hard it is to find yourself in Google. If you can't type in your kennel name, your breed or your state and find yourself, that's a problem. “If you've got a website that you've built and you have not maintained, you haven't gotten any up-to-date content or you haven't made any changes, how people can find you? Google likes addresses, they like locations. “As a pet buyer, I'm not talking about show buyers and people who are very savvy, they're going to be searching their town, they're going to be searching their state, they're going to be searching literally “golden retrievers near me,” as that's a search function of Google. LINKS: Easy Website Builders: - Wix.com - Wordpress.com - Squarespace.com - Weebly.com Important Social Media Platforms: - Instagram - Facebook (Business Pages) - Pinterest - Twitter Listen to the full episode for more of Jo’s great suggestions. Or contact her at [email protected] for consultation.