401 – How to Train 15 Tricks for a Virtual Trick Dog Title
How to Train 15 Tricks for a Virtual Trick Dog Novice Title
Kristin Sandstede, of Big Moose Dog Training, is back to give us a tutorial on training tricks for our dogs. Since the explosion of interest in AKC’s Virtual Trick Dog Novice title during the hiatus of dog events, people everywhere are training, or trying to train, Flopsy and Mopsy to do tricks.
This is a fun and interactive episode, with a YouTube video link here to help everyone achieve success with tricks.
Kristin describes luring and shaping as different training tools. And shows us how to successfully train all the tricks needed to earn your dog’s title. She even gives hints on the video submission!
“There is no age limit on the trick titles, so that is really awesome,” Kristin said. “There’s an age limit on the AKC star puppy certification, as far as you have to be under a year and regulations on your other sports.
“If you(r dog) has a CGC on file (with AKC), you only need 5 tricks. If you don’t, it’s perfectly OK, you need 10 tricks. you (know) probably 6 to 8 just from what we learned in basic obedience.
“I can teach the vast majority of my tricks using luring. Imagine two magnets and if you hold them really close together, they want to do jump out and touch. So, I think of my dog kibble or my dog treat as a dog magnet. Where the nose goes, the tail will follow. Novice trick titles allow luring/treats for the dog to perform the trick. All tricks on video or in person, must be performed twice.”
Tricks
- Sit/Down on Hand Signal
- Puppy Pushups (Sit to Down to Sit)
- Shake/High Five/Target
- Spin in a Circle
- Paws Up (two feet on an object)
- Jump Up (four feet on an object)
- In a Box (four feet IN an object)
- Kennel Up
- Walk the Plank
- Go Tunnel
- Find the Cookie
- Home Base
- Get Around
- Crawl
- On Your Pillow
400 – In the Midst of Chaos, a Whiff of Sanity
Episode 400 – In the Midst of Chaos, a Whiff of Sanity
Welcome to our annual summer tradition of noting this benchmark. Pure Dog Talk has been downloaded 700 THOUSAND times! Eek…
Plague, Protests, Locusts ….
It’s the end of the world as we know it… Or not. Or sort of.
The last couple years this “celebration” pod was all about getting ready for the summer shows. This year has been hard. A few shows are attempting to go forward, but statistically it’s a small number compared to the ones that are cancelled. I know far too many people who are struggling — mentally, emotionally, financially. I think it’s important to note that there were NO dog shows held for years during WWII… Our sport survived that and it will survive this. Perhaps it will look different.
Perhaps we’ll pick up new tools, new attitudes and new approaches, but our passion for purebred dogs, our friendships, our joy in the anticipation of a new litter, our love of the beauty, predictability and plain companionship of our dogs isn’t diminished by our current challenges.
And while the world seems completely unbound and our lives turned upside down at the blink of an eye, here’s my hope for us. That we can walk away from what divides us … that politics or socio-economic status or race, creed or religion will not be allowed to define us. That our common passion, our common decency and our common sense will prevail.
That the diverse, vibrant group that is OUR tribe can rise above, can transcend the rancor and division and roiling fear and bitterness that is sweeping the country and even the world. That we can overcome and improvise, gut it out and get up again, tap the deep well of passion and apply our staggering reserves of knowledge to moving forward.
In support of this mission, here’s what we’re doing here at Pure Dog Talk:
- Cyber Sweepstakes –
- PureDogTalk Fund,
- Videos available for everyone to watch as a learning tool,
- Critiques from judges, etc
- Shopping Tab on the website
- Archived episodes on the website
- Patrons –
- After Dark sessions,
- PDTU YouTube link
- Sponsors
Pollyanna thoughts, pondering observations and puppy reality checks
With that I leave you with these two “throwback Thursday” items… columns written in what feels like another world, another time and yet, timeless…
Because our TRIBE is family. And family IS what matters…
Blest Be The Ties That Bind
I’m sitting here in my office on a cold, grey Oregon morning while a GWP puppy slams her bone around on the concrete floor, jumping up and down off the blanket draped leather recliner.
This puppy represents the sixth generation of a direct line back to my foundation bitch, who I co-owned with my mom. But more than that, she is the living embodiment of 30 years of friendship and partnership with Mom in breeding dogs. A lifestyle and journey represented for hundreds of us by the AKC Breeder of the Year Award given Sunday to mother-daughter team Gwen Demilta and Carissa Demilta Shimpeno.
I don’t know these women personally, but I expect their story is a lot like ours and so many others.
It was 3 a.m. on a miserable December morning in 1996. I was in Washington watching a bitch try to crash after a C-section — the first litter I’d whelped on my own. It was 6 a.m. in New Hampshire, where Mom had just lost a puppy from her umpteenth litter, and in a couple hours would send the babies’ great grandmother to the Rainbow Bridge.
I still get weepy remembering that horrible phone call. We were consoling each other, brainstorming solutions, crying and trying to laugh. Our final conclusion was that we should take up selling pencils on a street corner in Hawaii. That breeding dogs was just too hard.
That was 18 years ago, to the day. The intervening time has brought us to even darker low points, and to some brilliant, sparkling, spectacular highs. More than a dozen litters for each of us. Producing champions, Best in Show winners, top dogs, history making dogs. All done hand in hand, even when we were physically far apart.
At its core, this is what the sport means to me. Family. Friendship. A lifetime of passion.
For every one of the deservedly famous families in the spotlight, there are several dozen more working quietly in the wings and creating their own legacies. No matter how large or small in terms of the big stages of the sport, these folks are making an impact on their chosen breeds. And, more importantly, forging unbreakable bonds with the strength to keep going when it would seem impossible.
As our parents and mentors age, we watch with conflicting emotions of pride and exasperation as they continue breeding, doing work they shouldn’t and shouldn’t be able to do. And yet, for many of them, this — the dogs, the hopes, the dreams — is quite simply what keeps them getting out of bed each day.
Those of us fortunate enough to be given the gift of mentorship from these breeders are honor-bound to return to them the respect and the credit they have earned over decades of literal blood, sweat and tears. Their hands may not grip as well, their knees and backs might not be as strong, but their knowledge, imagination and experience flow through the veins of each animal in the pedigree.
Next week, I will spend yet another Christmas Eve whelping puppies with my mom. The gifts we share don’t have any ribbons or bows, wrapping paper or glitter, but they are far more precious than silver and gold.
And, so, a toast. To the families that ensure this sport endures. And the love that keeps it strong.
As always, this is JMHO.
As the Wheels Turn from December 2014….
Less than year after I wrote this, my mom passed away…
Treasure what you have each day. If this current disaster has taught us NOTHING ELSE, it should certainly have permanently ingrained in us gratitude for what we have today… because literally tomorrow it may be gone.
Peace out. Namaste.
BONUS TRACK: In a World Gone Mad….
399 – Breeders Part 2: Family, Friends and Mapping a Journey
Breeders Part 2: Family, Friends and Mapping a Journey
Top Breeders discuss building a family of dogs with small numbers and defined goals.
Wendy Paquette, Amanda Kelly and Chris Heartz return to finish their conversation about building a family of dogs, using the standard as a driver and mapping out a plan.
Wendy: “What I’ve done over the years is lease males from other breeders. I finished (the dogs) for them in Canada and kept them for about six months to a year. I bred 6-10 bitches to that same dog. So, what I did was, I could tell whether there was consistency or not. And I would keep one or two out of every litter and send the dog back home and go from there with the offspring.
“So then, I had a basis with one dog being dominant and if I felt that dominant dog was a great producer consistently, then I doubled on it. But if it wasn’t, oh well, I had bunch of pets that year.
“The Breeders that just breed to the dog next door or the dog in the next state or whatever don’t have a clue what they’re producing. They just keep the most pretty marked puppy that has an attitude then they wonder why they’re not getting anywhere. Well they don’t have any idea where those dogs came from to begin with. They have no foresight.
Health and welfare
Chris: “The health of the breed is everything if you want it to continue. We’re not preservation breeders if we say it doesn’t matter about the teeth (for example), they’re not mentioned in our standard. Well maybe it does matter. And so I think, just by seeing what is available in the rest of the world and how other breeders approach your breed and what they got to show for that is the best education in the world. And to just sit at home and say this is how we’ve always done it. It’s not good enough.”
All in the family
Amanda: “I loved Wendy’s discussion about building a breeding program and having the ability to try different things and having maybe a critical mass of dogs. One of the things I think a lot of people in today’s breeding world struggle with is not having the ability to have that many dogs. For whatever reasons they live in the suburbs or they just can’t keep that many dogs or whatever. Chris gave me some really helpful advice and she talked about working with other breeders in a family.
Chris: “What we really, really are passionate about is, if we can’t sell you a dog and we love this person because they have the same passion and the same commitment to the same type of dog that we have … these are people that dedicated their lives to breeding better dogs … we say we can’t sell you a dog but we can lease you a dog. So our males have way more miles on them than I do.
“All we can give as our gift is our dogs. (We) will share them … with like-minded people and the reason is selfish. Because those people will use that dog and those puppies will have puppies. (I)n the third generation we will see something we love. We then ask them to do the same thing for us and we borrow that dog back and we incorporate … into our breeding program and they just click.”
Developing a plan
Amanda: “It’s about having access to a larger gene pool and it’s about having access to a larger number of dogs. I think for newer breeders (it’s) about developing an eye. You know if you are in a breed where there’s lower numbers, or whatever the case may be, developing your eye can sometimes be a difficult thing. You just see the ones that are yours and maybe go (to) the national once a year, look at pictures on Facebook. But that’s not the same thing as looking at puppies and evaluating and sharing information about what worked and what didn’t work and the trial and error pieces of it that Wendy talked about. When you have great friends, you can share in their journey as well as in yours. And learn as much from what they’ve done and what’s worked for them.
Chris: “You can’t drive to Halifax unless you have a map if you’ve not been there before. It’s no different in breeding dogs. All you need is a plan. If all you see before you is what exists how can you go any further or breed any better.”
Wendy: “We all interpret the standard differently. I think what gets lost in the shuffle is breeders not recognizing quality in other people’s dogs. And that has to be a priority. We all take our own dogs home at night and we all love our dogs. We all have a plan. Whether or not it’s their plan is their problem not mine.”
398 – Getting Under the Skin: Demodex and other Mites
Getting Under the Skin: Demodex and other Mites
Dr. Marty Greer talks about Demodex, demodectic mange and other skin mites that can cause problems in dogs.
Slides of demodex mites from www.capcvet.org
“We can start with the history of Demodex, which used to be very serious. When a dog was diagnosed with Demodex back in the day, it was sometimes a death sentence,” Greer said.
“Over the years we’ve seen a huge change in the medications that we have as an option to treat Demodex with and it is no longer the scary, awful death sentence it once was. I still think we need to talk about Demodex as far as clinical signs and what that means for a breeding program and what it means for your dog’s health.
“We know that it is an autoimmune mediated disease. We believe it’s a B cell deficiency that the immune system doesn’t have actively functioning or well enough functioning B cells in some of these patients. Every single dog at birth is exposed to Demodex as soon as it’s exposed to his mother skin …. It is part of the normal flora, in very small numbers. Our immune system typically keeps it under control and if your immune system isn’t doing what it should be doing then that’s when the numbers are might increase to the point that you have lesions.
“There’s basically two categories of Demodex. There’s localized Demodex and generalized. So localized is exactly what you describe: the baby puppy with a little hair loss under their eye, maybe a couple of patches someplace on their leg or their trunk. Just a little patch of hair loss. It’s not uncomfortable, it doesn’t look angry. It’s just this little patch that you don’t see hair, frequently around the eyes but not exclusively there. A lot of people come in and they’re like ‘Oh yeah well he’s just been fighting with his brother it’s no big deal’ and you do a skin scraping and you find 30 Demodex. Well guess what? You have Demodex, you don’t just have a puppy fighting with his brother. So the first thing we will always want to do when we see a skin lesion on a young dog is to do a skin scraping.
“I think it’s important that you have a diagnosis. Especially if you have a breeding program and you need to know whether you have Demodex in your life. So I think we shouldn’t blow off doing skin scrapings. Demodex show up pretty readily … there’s a number of different kinds of mites that we can see in dogs and cats and Demodex is one of the easiest ones to find on the skin scraping.
“Generalized demodex can happen in puppies but it can also happen in adult dogs. If they are immunosuppressed. If they’ve got an immune system disorder. If they’ve been on too much Prednisone or other kinds of cortisone. Is thier nutrition hasn’t been good. If they’ve been on chemotherapy. If they’ve recently been in heat, they have cancer, if they have diabetes.
“Localized Demodex, it appears, has a genetic component. We see it really commonly in dogs like with Chinese shar-pei. But we see no indication, there’s no good research that shows generalized Demodex is genetic.”
Find more information on demodex here.
397 — Planning Your “Family” of Dogs: Style and Health
Planning Your “Family” of Dogs: Style and Health
Our topic is breeding. With an emphasis on planning your family of dogs. The question: is consistency of style more important than consistency of health and/or quality? How do you get to your desired goals?
Today’s guests are Amanda Kelly, Wendy Paquette and Chris Heartz. This is part one of a two part series. Check back next week for part two!
Type to type
Wendy: “Coming from a background of Shih Tzu, that were only recognized in United States in 1969, I didn’t have much choice when I first started my breeding program. Living in northern Ontario, the only way I could buy a female was to import two from England ’cause they were just not available. Luckily I came across Luc Boileau in Montreal who was showing English imported dogs at the time. So I was able to take my English import and breed it to one of Luc’s dogs. But that left me sort of in a quandary because I had nowhere else to go after that. So I basically started out breeding type to type.
“Consistency of type was a goal, but health and welfare, to me, is a major factor. If you don’t have health and welfare you don’t have quality and type either.
“I have done inbreeding, outcrossing, line-breeding. I’ve done it all throughout the years. It’s easier to do stuff like that if you have quantity of dogs. So there was a point where I had up to 50 Shih Tzu. So I could pick and choose what direction I wanted to take each line.”
Health in a small gene pool
Amanda: “I think it depends on where your breed is. Every breed is going to be unique. How you approach setting up your own breeding program and also thinking about management of the population as a whole. So there’s a lot of things that come into play in that respect.
“As breeders, when we talk about getting consistency and cultivating aspects of breed type, we’re often talking about eliminating genetic material. In order to concentrate the genes so that we can get the head that we like or the coat that we like, we’re limiting the genes for the other things.
“(In) very small breeds, we have to not only think about what we want in our own breeding program, but also what is the best choices to make in order to cultivate the things that we think our breed needs now or may need in the future.
Cookie cutters
Chris: “I sometimes get upset when I put a dog on the table and somebody who I maybe don’t know looks at me and says ‘Another cookie cutter.’ And it drives me crazy because I think of how many disappointments, how many hurdles we had to cross (to get our) cookie cutter right.
“I was lucky enough that instead of a diamond, my husband gave me a dog as an engagement present. That dog was everything we wanted. He wasn’t perfect, but he was where we felt the breed needed to go. He had beautiful shoulders. He had reach and drive. He had a body shape that was not so common because he was actually short backed. We knew the blueprint but we made some mistakes and made some assumptions along the way.
“I have it in big bold letters: if you own a stud dog, he is not always the best breeding for your bitch. It took a long time to figure that out. I see people do it all the time. You have to know what clicks, what doesn’t click and what never to breed together.”
396 – “Doggedly” Pursuing Preservation of Purebred Dogs
“Doggedly” Pursuing Preservation of Purebred Dogs
Author, Editor, Breeder, Judge Denise Flaim.
Host Laura Reeves and Denise Flaim, author of “Doggedly: Musings on the Breeding, Judging and Preservation of Purebred Dogs,” cover a lot of ground in their own musings on these topics.
What do respect, breed standards, judging, cooking, jazz music, period furniture and museums have in common? Listen in to this wide-ranging and challenging discussion for the answers.
“I think the way you learn a new breed is a three part process: head, heart, gut,” Flaim said. “First you see the breed. You know it exists. You start to study it. You read the standard. You go to seminars. It’s in your head.
“You have all those pieces, but there has to be something that you connect with with that breed. Maybe you met one and just sort of fell in love. Maybe it’s closely related to the breed you started with or breed that you really like. There’s got to be something that moves that breed from your head into your heart so that you genuinely like it.
“Then you’ve got that motivation to learn more about it. Slowly, as you get more exposure and you get more depth, and you talk to breeders and you talk about the stuff that the standard doesn’t say but that you as a judge need to know, it goes into your gut.
“That’s, I think, a big part of judging that people don’t talk about is instinct. Your gut feeling. It’s not just like some muse descends on you from out of nowhere that gut feeling comes from the drip drip drip of knowledge that you’ve gotten an exposure and then suddenly you don’t have to think.”
“Doggedly” reading
“It’s a real kind of buffet of ideas about dogs,” Flaim said. “A lot of times we talk about individual dogs and a lot of times we talk about very specific surface things but not as often as I would like do we talk about the ideas and the thoughts behind them.
“The thing I really am most proud about this book is, if you’re somebody who really is into dogs in more than a surface way, Pat Trotter said that she read it, she’s up all night. So I think of it as the book that keeps Pat Trotter awake at night.”
“Doggedly” is available at www.revodanapublishing.com. Use the code PUREDOGTALK for $5 off on any book.
Learn more:
223 — Rhodesian Ridgeback: Power and Elegance | Pure Dog Talk
294 – Veterinary Voice: Brachycephalic Breeds’ Health and Legislation | Pure Dog Talk
395 – Is Your Dog an Introvert or an Extrovert?
Is Your Dog an Introvert or an Extrovert?
Kristin Sandstede from Big Moose Dog Training provides summer time training tips.
Kristin Sandstede from Big Moose Dog Training joins host Laura Reeves to talk about setting dogs up for success and having a plan before your guests arrive for summer gatherings. Recorded before the lockdowns began, this episode also provides valuable insight for introducing new dogs to new groups of people, proofing for a return to gatherings and setting your dog up for success.
Dog Training for Summer Fun
Here are four training steps that take a dog who’s not necessarily an extrovert and allow them to deal in an extrovert environment, while showing respect for the dog to let them shut down at the end of the day and have their quiet.
“How do I set it up so my dog and my guests have a good time is the biggest thing,” Sandstede said. “Some of our dogs can’t handle a 10 hour 4th of July gathering where people are coming and going for hours and hours on end. They mentally and visually get tired. Just like toddlers, when they get tired everything goes sideways. (Get) to know your dog and know what they can handle and what they can manage … giving them a polite reason to leave the party and maybe having some downtime if they need it before they have a nuclear meltdown.
Up the payroll
“You always want your payroll to equal your workload. Having a bunch of people at your house that normally has zero people that don’t live there is a big workload. So high value treats (are critical)…
“We all have two parts of our brain. We have the hindbrain, which is the muscle memory, the reactionary, your lizard part of the brain, you’re fight or flight, that all lives there down by the spine. And then the front part of your brain, which is your linear thinking, problem solving, thinking part of your brain. So I wanted my dog in the front part of her brain where she was thinking and solving problems, not in the back where … there’s no thinking, it just happens. So I wanted her to know that ‘not only am I asking you to think, I’m gonna totally make it worth your while, ’cause look, hot dogs and chicken hot off the grill…’
Pillow talk
“I spend a lot of time teaching my dogs ‘on your pillow’ ….so I give my dog somewhere to be and something to do. Then it’s my job to strategically place the bed at a distance my dog can handle. So if I have a really shy dog or a nine month old dog who’s going through that second fear stage and maybe having some stranger danger, I’m going to put the pillow on the far side of the living room with all of my guests on the opposite side as my dog. We still have Direct Line of sight. I can sit next to my dog’s pillow for moral support. I can use my high value treats to reinforce staying on their bed. There’s no stress for my dog that somebody’s gonna come over and invade my personal space ’cause they’re all over there. ‘Oh, strangers aren’t so bad. I sit here and get hot dogs. Cool, I can do that.’ So I love ‘on your pillow.’
Stress relief
“Chewing is a great stress reliever. If you’re gonna ask your dog to make a public appearance and do great things, then in turn, give them an outlet to kind of relieve some of that stress. Chewing on whatever their favorite item is, a yummy Kong, an antler, a whatever it is that you already use in your house, it gives them an outlet to vent out some of that stress. All stress is not bad and all stress is not good. Let’s face it, when you host a dinner party there is a certain level of stress you feel as the Hostess. That’s not bad. That doesn’t mean don’t ever have a dinner party. It just means that it’s there. Why wouldn’t our dogs feel the same way?”
For more insight from Kristin, you can listen to previous episodes here and here.
394 — Chongqing Dogs: Saving a Primitive Breed from Extinction
Chongqing Dogs: Saving a Primitive Breed from Extinction
Brandi Miller and Chongqing Dogs
Chongqing Dog enthusiast Brandi Miller is working to save this ancient and primitive breed from extinction.
Dating back an estimated 2,000 years, and believed to be a progenitor of the Chow Chow and Shar Pei breeds, the Chongqing Dogs hail the from eponymous province in China, Miller noted.
Ancient history
“It’s up in the North middle of the country. It’s kind of an isolated area, although it does have one of the largest cities in China … they were used by the country people … they’re supposed to be over 2,000 years old. They’ve found pottery and stuff that resembles them … they’re starting to do a lot of research on the breed’s history. You look at DNA testing, they come back very ancient,” Miller added. “(Testing shows) they fall between the Asian wolves and Chow Chows and Shar Pei, as far as where they come in on the timeline of things.”
Athletic guard dogs
Existing in rural areas, the Chongqing Dogs were used “as guard dogs and for hunting,” Miller said. “They are very athletic dogs. People look at them and they get caught up on their face looks smashed up, they are brachycephalic, (but) they are very much an athletic dog. I can personally believe that they were used for hunting and little guard dogs. They’re not time barkers, they alert you when something strange is around. If you accept it, they settle right down. I’m sure that in times of need they used them for dinner.”
“They are a very, very confident dog. They are not a dog that backs down from a challenge (from another dog). They are not one to start stuff with other dogs, but they don’t put up with a lot of nonsense.
“They can be very aloof with people. I have one and she’s kind of like, ‘I really don’t care one way or another if I meet these people.’ My other two, they’ll come up and meet you but they aren’t like I need you to pet me and I want your attention. It’s kind of like they have their own agenda … they’re very cat-like, ‘I’ll come meet you but yeah whatever. Which is kind of disheartening for some people when they’re really curious about the breed and the dogs say ‘I don’t wanna see them and I really don’t care.’”
Low maintenance
“These dogs, being really athletic, I’ve taken mine for some serious, like 10 mile hikes. And they’re just go go go the whole time. They actually are fine to lay around in my house all day but it’s good to get him out for a run even, if it’s 10 minutes just to race around the yard or whatever to just burn off some energy. I think that they would do very well for people that have apartments … just to take him out for a couple walks each day. They are really low maintenance as far their coat is very, very sparse. You can see their skin through the fur. They’re supposed to have a strip of close to being hairless down there back and down the top of their tail and that’s part of their breed standard. So it does look like they’re balding … most dogs don’t have any hair on the insides of their legs, on the backs of their legs. It’s a coarser coat, usually about 3/4 of an inch long.
“I have had them sunburn before, so if you lived in a really sunny hot area, you’d probably have to put sunscreen on … they do love to sunbathe. Their skin’s really easy upkeep. It’s not like a lot of other dogs. They don’t get acne. I haven’t had any real weird problems. I usually just bathe them maybe once or twice a month if they really need it. I rub him down with coconut oil after I bathe them.”
Miller invited inquiries to learn more via her email: Mtviewcanecorso@gmail.com
393 – Gayle Watkins on Educating Breeders AND Buyers
Gayle Watkins on Educating Breeders AND Buyers
Dr. Gayle Watkins of Avidog and host Laura Reeves talk about the importance of educating both breeders and puppy buyers.
“We have to take step back,” Watkins said, “and realize how complicated our world is and how UNobvious it is, to even smart people that aren’t engaged with us, and help people understand and honestly for us to distinguish what really is important and what isn’t important…
“Let’s say you would like a 50- to 60-pound active sporting breed. You don’t care about color and what pops up (in an online search)? Both the German Wirehaired Pointer and the Golden Retriever, which is so wrong,” Watkins said. “So, finding a way to guide people in a more sophisticated way, in a way that you understand and I understand, the buyer doesn’t understand. They don’t know because they think of (dogs) as cars. They just come in different colors … but those of us who breed know that those cars are very, very different. There’s a whole big difference between a Maserati and a Volkswagen Beetle. (Even though they are the) same color and about the same size and they can only carry two passengers.”
In order to facilitate outreach and education of both ends of the dog purchase, breeders and buyers, Watkins has joined forces with Good Dog, a young company focused on educating the public and supporting dog breeders.
“We need people breeding dogs,” Watkins added. “So, if we have people who are interested in breeding dogs and doing it perhaps not to the level we would like to see, what’s better? Run them out or raise them up?
“We have to find a way to engage people more in producing quality pet dogs. The hobby breeders are going to continue in their sport and they’re going to continue to get championships and things like that, but we need more people who are trying to produce lovely pets…”
With an estimated 8-9 million replacement dogs needed just in the U.S. annually, as previous guests on Pure Dog Talk have noted, hobby breeders simply cannot meet the demand.
“How do we find those breeders, develop those breeders, lift those breeders up so we can keep playing the games that we love to play,” Watkins asks? “Because we’re not going to be able to, in my opinion, if we don’t change something. The laws, the legislatures, the government… the animal rights activists, they’re pretty successful now with adopt, don’t shop. We have got to find a way to fight them.
“I strongly believe we cannot fight animal rights if we divide each other. And boy we’re good at dividing. There’s got to be a bigger voice and I think that voice needs to be young, technologically sophisticated, and able to make enough money to fight for us. In the world that we live in, in purebred dogs, making money is anathema… and that has not gotten us to a very good place in defending our right to breed.
“I think what we did when we were attacked by the animal rights people is we said ‘oh we don’t make money doing this.’ That became our defense. That became our value. In doing that, it sets us up for failure on so many levels. It costs a lot of money to raise good puppies. If we don’t have the money to do our job well, now we’re opening ourselves up to attack from that perspective. (I think) we didn’t have the confidence or we didn’t have the backing or we didn’t have the organization to say ‘hey, you know, Mercedes makes a really nice car.’ It’s not that you can’t make money and do a great job. You can do both of those things. But if you make a puppy into a commodity, where one is the same as the other, right now you’re going to run into a problem. So, I think that value is one we have to overcome and then we have got to figure out a way to open our eyes to what’s changed in the world.”
Amongst the very first episodes on Pure Dog Talk were interviews with Watkins on puppy whelping and raising. These remain some of our most popular episodes.
Early Pure Dog Talk interviews with Gayle Watkins:
https://puredogtalk.com/11-dr-gayle-watkins-nutrition-dam-canine-nomographs/
https://puredogtalk.com/podcast/14-dr-gayle-watkins-2-breeders-guide-to-neonatal-puppies-2/
https://puredogtalk.com/14-friday-fun-dr-gayle-watkins-2-breeders-guide-neonatal-period-puppies/
https://puredogtalk.com/podcast/17-dr-gayle-watkins-transition-period-in-puppies-part-3-2/
https://puredogtalk.com/17-dr-gayle-watkins-transition-period-stimulation-puppies-part-3/
https://puredogtalk.com/podcast/20-bomb-proof-your-puppy-dr-gayle-watkins-4-2/
https://puredogtalk.com/20-gayle-watkins-bombproof-puppy-sensitive-period/
392 – Access to COVID Relief Funds for Dog Professionals
Access to COVID Relief Funds for Dog Professionals
D’Arcy Downs-Vollbracht, corporate attorney and Border Terrier fancier.
D’Arcy Downs-Vollbracht, Concierge Legal Group, joins me to provide critical and timely information for members of our tribe impacted by the shutdown of events and travel and businesses due to the COVID global pandemic response. As a corporate attorney, she is in regular contact with businesses dealing with the situation on a large scale.
“I realized at some point … I wonder if my friends in the dog show world are having the same issues,” said Downs-Vollbracht, a Border Terrier fancier. “But maybe they don’t have a lawyer or they don’t have an aggressive financial planner to help get them through it. And maybe they don’t even know or think they’re eligible for it because some of them are not set up in some of the more traditional business entity structures. That’s how I got into (assisting dog folks in her free time) and I got very passionate about it pretty quickly.”
The unique niche comprised of professional handlers, superintendents, photographers, judges, groomers, trainers, boarding kennel operators, even veterinarians, has been drastically impacted by the nationwide shutdowns.
Downs-Vollbracht has already helped dozens of our Tribe with her advice and agreed to share her knowledge and experience with us.
“When dog shows come back, we need people to come back with them,” Downs-Vollbracht said. In order to help ensure that happens, she strongly encourages folks to make use of the resources that are available.
Her top recommendations, links and advice:
IRS Stimulus Funds
IRS Non Filer – to ensure $1200 stimulus payment. If you have less than $12,200 in reportable income you are not required to file. If you haven’t filed for last year and don’t plan on filing this year, use this to let the IRS know where to send your check. You can also link your bank account for a direct deposit if you need the money right away.
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here
IRS – Get My Payment Tool for people who filed taxes last year or this year and are trying to obtain their stimulus payment. Note- if you are currently on a payment plan with the IRS or owe back taxes you will still receive the stimulus payment. The stimulus will not be used to offset money owed to the IRS or to student loans. The exception to this are certain child support commitments, if you are a dependent, don’t have a valid social security number or other limited circumstances. If your income exceeds a certain threshold amount, you will receive a reduced payment or if your adjusted gross income is over a certain threshold. However, most Americans will receive the payment.
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments
SBA Links to Disaster Relief / PPP
https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options
Links to Lenders – Self Employed, Independent Contractor, Gig Workers, LLC, PLLC, Corporation/ S-Corp, etc..
*Remember, using a small local bank or a non-traditional lender like those listed below will often result in a quicker decision and faster funding.
Kabbage
https://www.kabbage.com/paycheck-protection-program-loans/
Bluevine
Lendio
Fundera
PayPal PPP
https://www.loanbuilder.com/ppp-loan-support
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
Department of Labor State Office Lookup
https://www.dol.gov/coronavirus/unemployment-insurance#fact-sheets
Interactive Map to Find State PUA Resources
https://www.nar.realtor/political-advocacy/pandemic-unemployment-assistance-pua-by-state
Also, people should check for private funding. Most counties and states have local funds available. The chamber of commerce in many smaller communities is a good resource for smaller grants.