667 — 2025 Kick Off and Looking for Potential
2025 Kick Off and Looking for Potential
As 2024 draws to a close, we’re left, as usual, staring into the abyss of a new year… upheaval nationally, internationally and even in our tadpole pond of purebred dogs has left all of us off balance at some level.
Poised precariously here on my rickety soap box, I hope you’ll join me on a journey of retrospection, through a few glimmers of hope and on to a couple new year’s resolutions.
Eight years ago this month, the first Pure Dog Talk episodes dropped just in time for the AKC National Championship shows. I racked up 10s of thousands of steps dropping flyers on every grooming table, interviewing treasures of our sport and gathering support for this novel way of sharing 20th century knowledge in a 21st century way.
Pure Dog Talk was the very first podcast dedicated to purebred dogs. Today we have a couple million downloads and have reached nearly 400 thousand listeners globally. Several major corporate sponsors and a couple hundred Patrons keep the lights on and the mp3s rolling so that YOU can stay on top of news, interviews, reviews, events and ideas.
We’ve shown up in the AKC Gazette (shoutout and thanks to the Gazette crew!) I just found myself quoted in a TikTok posted to a Reddit “millennials” thread fgs… I love hearing from all of you all the time. About how Pure Dog Talk “saved your life” or made it better or saved your dog’s life. PS We’ve added a page to the website where you can upload your stories complete with photos! Check it out on the Testimonials tab at pure dog talk dot com.
If you’d be so kind, indulge me while I take this opportunity for some shameless promotion. If you find Pure Dog Talk has helped you or someone you know, please consider joining our paid Patrons. This funding covers only overhead – website, audio editing and more – not me personally. When I launched the Patrons in 2018, I was paying for the podcast out of my pocket and eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches.
A lot has changed since then (although, I still eat a lot of pb&j). The crowdsourced funds from Patrons of the show have enabled the growth and professionalization of the website, continued the outstanding production values of the pod and made us able to keep growing this resource to reach new audiences.
Your Patrons membership adds value to the pod by initiating you into a devoted community of purebred dog enthusiasts including judges, handlers, owner handlers, newbies and master breeders. Patrons only After Dark gatherings each month let us hash out problems, share ideas, stand in community with one another and gain knowledge.
Visit https://puredogtalk.com/patron/ and select your Patron Package. You can join us for as little as $10/month or save 10% with an annual Patron membership. Come on over and join the best community in dogs.
Aaaaaand, Starting Jan. 3, our new Patrons Only pod, Unleashed, delivers “let your hair down” episodes on all the hot takes in purebred dogs. Mailbag topics, commentary and insight with your favorite guests. In our first episode of the new show, Amanda Kelly joins me with thoughts on “How Not to be a D*ck at the Dog Show”…. Patrons, BOLO an email with access deets!~
And, speaking of new stuff…..
We’re SUPER excited to announce that, after EIGHT years in the podcast universe, Pure Dog Talk is spinning off a new pod for you, your puppy buyers, and your sister-in-law’s cousin’s boyfriend.
Marty and I bring our own special brand of pet knowledge to the larger pet-loving public in The Marty & Laura Show, launching Jan. 1, 2025.
We are thrilled to share these unique, fun, fact-based conversations about pet health. From pro tips on selecting your new dog to what your cat’s cough means and what you should do about it, we’ll meet you wherever you are (in the car, on the treadmill, walking the dog) and bring you a good laugh, a great story and a bright idea every week.
Now that you’re all caught up on the Pure Dog Talk news, let’s get planning for the incoming year. Many, if not most of you, are driving right now, on your way to Palm Springs or Chicago, St. Paul or West Springfield or some other dog event entirely.
In just over a month we’ll all be converging on Manhattan and Madison Square Garden for the triumphant return of Westminster Kennel Club to the City (and ps benching!). Reminder! Join us Wednesday, January 8, 5pm pacific for our LIVE@5 podcast with Dr. Don giving us all the final to dos and 411s for the show.
Before you know it, the time will come to decide on Louisville or Crufts (or both if you’re slightly crazy). The spring nationals will kick off and then the summer death march circuits and before you know it, it’s back to school, fall national season and the AKC National Championship again… The way dog people organize our lives leaves those outside the tribe baffled and somewhat horrified.
How many of us have planned weddings, honeymoons and family vacations around the show or event calendar? Raise your hand. Come on, you know you have… I did, more than once! Have I ever told you the story of getting married on a Saturday and leaving Sunday with my client and my step-mother for the Clumber national? I mean, that’s professional level crazy right there… ;-/ (I might add that is now an EX husband… huh, go figure….)
One thing I’m going to offer as a suggestion as we all get ready to hop back on the crazy train…. Life is short, super expensive and often incredibly frustrating all by itself. Adding a hobby like ours to it can exaggerate how short, expensive and frustrating it is.
When, not if, you find yourself starting to snap – at friends or dogs or family – it’s probably a good time to take a little break. Maybe go play a different sport for a couple months. Maybe breed a litter and stay home huffing puppy breath for a while. Maybe just curl up with the dogs and loved ones and binge netflix for a weekend… I promise, life will not come to a screeching halt and your mental health will improve exponentially.
My second tidbit of advice is: money doesn’t grow on trees. Spend it wisely. Most of all, spend it on a good dog. If you are new to the sport and having a hard time in your search for just such a rare gem, you’ve come to the right place!
Giving you the tools, knowledge and community to succeed is literally why Pure Dog Talk exists.
My final nugget of insight for today is this. Be happy. Like literally, there’s a song about it and everything. Be happy with your dog. be happy for other people. be happy you enjoy the freedom, financial security and physical well being to participate in dog sports. Being mad about losing a 10 cent ribbon is the firstest of the first world problems I can imagine. We are literally not curing cancer or solving world peace here folks.
It’s been a few years since I trotted out the Pure Dog Talk 12-step program to a happier you in the dog world, so I’ll include a link to the full episode in the show notes. But a brief recap will not go amiss this year.
These steps apply to our dog world specifically, but can be generalized to daily life without much trouble in three simple rules. Just be nice. Get off your bleeping phone. Learn new things.
The 12 steps include a recommendation for each month of the year like offering congratulations and meaning it, watching and learning about other breeds, helping and volunteering, making new friends and more. Take a listen. This plan is proven to bring enhanced enjoyment, satisfaction, curiosity, knowledge, camaraderie and success to anyone’s dog show calendar.
In closing, I love this quote from Ellen Goodman
“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives … not looking for flaws but for potential.”
Just like judging the whole dog instead of fault judging, consider making 2025 the year you find the beauty in yourself, and in everyone else’s dog…..
Peace …
457 – Breaking the Sounds of Silence
Breaking the Sounds of Silence
Every single breeder I know has said at one point or another they want to “change the conversation.” To blunt the sledgehammer of the Animal Rights vs Animal Welfare message with John Q Public. To stand up for our legal rights. To champion the brutal hard work … the literal blood, sweat and tears shed… the labor of love we undertake in order to provide the gifts of companionship, beauty and living history to our communities.
And damn near every one of those people has turned around and bashed some other breeder of whom they disapprove for whatever reason. As a result, the “divided they fall” approach implemented by the AR playbook has been spectacularly successful.
Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
I’ve made my resolution for 2021. We’re going to break that sound of silence. I hope you’ll all join me in this goal. I’ve grabbed a megaphone, stepped outside the holy church of “Dogdom”… I’m using the voice you’ve all given me in a determined effort to *successfully* preach *beyond* the choir.
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
If you haven’t subscribed to the Good Dog Pod, now is the time. I’ve joined forces with Good Dog in a determined effort to leverage reach, resources, technical skills and insight of a team who already speaks a language many of us have never known or have long forgotten. Regular Joe. Dog lover. Perhaps even “fur mommy”…. For some of us, it’s like learning Swahili. Talking AT people who don’t understand your language and culture is frustrating and has caused a great deal of misery throughout history.
The Good Dog Pod and other educational initiatives sponsored by Good Dog are aimed specifically at meeting regular people where they are. Googling Golden Retriever. While we’re over here, hiding in the “church,” chipping away at our stone tablets.
The Good Dog Pod, along with a full suite of accessible resources, is also providing education and mentorship scaled to an enormous audience of new and wannabe breeders who want to do the right thing, but don’t know what it is. Or that there even IS a “right” thing. By applying standards to ALL breeders, by celebrating and promoting breeders, by providing access and support for health testing, in just the last year they are already changing the conversation within the larger dog breeding community.
Because the reality check is, AKC and others estimate that dog owners in the US will seek roughly 9 million replacement dogs *each year*…. And that isn’t counting a pandemic. AKC breeders register something like 1 million of those dogs. So 8 million dogs are being produced with little to no access to meaningful resources. And owners are acquiring them because they CAN. Because someone answered their call and didn’t belittle them for not knowing the decoder ring secret password. Because someone spoke their language.
Education is the Answer. To Everything.
As you have heard me say time and again, education is the answer. To everything. And, if a little education is good, a LOT is definitely better.
The Good Dog Pod, with training insights, breeding, whelping and raising tips, legal advice and general dog knowledge, will continue to drop every Wednesday. You can subscribe anywhere you listen to Pure Dog Talk.
Speaking of which, YES, Pure Dog Talk IS going to continue. The Pure Dog Talk episodes will drop every Monday. Veterinary Voice, Love the Breeds, The Interviews and The Conversations will retain their focus on the world of competitive purebred dogs. The Voice of Purebred Dogs will mos def NOT be silenced.
In fact, we’re kicking off some super exciting news right here!!
Collections
FIRST, Pure Dog Talk Classic is a series of new collections, with RSS feeds of their very own, showcasing the first early episodes which currently are only available by keyword search on the website. They will also be available by specific category.
For example, currently available collections include:
https://feeds.captivate.fm/puredogtalk/the-interviews/
The Interviews
The masters, the legends and the larger than life people world wide who have influenced purebred dogs over the last 50-plus years. Preserving 20th century knowledge and presenting it in a 21st century format. Want to know about a dog show judge and what matters in their ring? Learn directly from the source. Want to build an incredible family of dogs? Learn from the giants in our tribe.
https://feeds.captivate.fm/puredogtalk/love-the-breeds/
Love the Breeds
Laura interviews the *experts* to learn about breeds from Azawakh to Xoloitzcuintli. Long-time breeders, respected authorities and devoted owners cover personality, activity levels, grooming requirements, health and longevity of their chosen breeds. Dive into the living history represented by dog breeds from around the world and across the ages.
https://feeds.captivate.fm/puredogtalk/breeding-and-whelping-hands-on/
Breeding and Whelping: Hands-On
Learn from veterinarians, master breeders, and experts about the critical nuances, best practices, and science of successfully breeding and whelping your next litter. From progesterone numbers to semen evaluation; from c-section, decisions to free whelp help; from troubleshooting to the celebration, you’ll find the answers here!
Coming in the near future: Masters in Breeding Theory, Show Ring Handling and Grooming, Performance Events, and anything else y’all want! If you have a collection request, just shoot me an email at laura@puredogtalk.com If fact, a HUGE shoutout to listener Jenna Vermette-Gerow for planting the seed of this idea in my brain!
Cyber Sweepstakes
SECOND, with the pandemic cancellations still decimating enormous swaths of our sport, particularly notable here on the west coast, where our HUGE January shows in California, Washington and Oregon are moved or removed from the calendar, we’re bringing back the Pure Dog Talk CyberSweepstakes presented by Trupanion!!
Debuted in March of this year after Louisville was shut down, with a variety of shows through the summer, I let it subside during the few months of actual dog shows that started back in Oklahoma. But I wanted to bring it back in solidarity with our local exhibitors. If you haven’t already, like the FB page of the same name for updates and details in the coming weeks.
Patrons!
THIRD, don’t forget the Pure Dog Talk Patrons! We’re hosting an event in March and another in August. These training days, seminars, and retreats are one of the major perks of joining the most supportive and welcoming circle within our tribe. For as little as $5/month, you can gain access to monthly After Dark conversations, events, insider tips and more.
Finally, join me in thanking and supporting Trupanion and Embark who elected to remain in partnership with Pure Dog Talk in providing GREAT content to the purebred dog community. And, join me in welcoming Good Dog to the family.
2020 tried to crush us. It took lives, friendships, and often sanity. It cost jobs and comfort zones. But if you’re listening to this, it means you won. You beat that bitch. You survived. You learned how strong you are. You discovered new ways, fell back on old ways, or invented whole new paths to keep moving forward. But you did it! And so did I.
So let’s all keep that momentum going into the new year. Break down the barriers. Break out of the ruts in your brain. Break the sound of silence.
Peace out …. Wishing you a blessed new year.