Pure Dog Talk

“God Loves a Terrier” with Vandra Huber [caption id="attachment_14655" align="alignleft" width="523"] Dr. Vandra Huber, McVan Scottish Terriers.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Terrier expert Vandra Huber for an overview of this plucky, feisty, fun group of dogs. Huber gave herself a Scottish Terrier as a college graduation present. Forty five years later her many claims to fame include co-ownership of Peggy Sue, Ch. Gaelforce Post Script, piloted by Maripi Wooldridge to Best in Show at Westminster Kennel Club in 1995. Ch. McVan's To Russia With Love, Knopa, won Best in Show at Crufts in 2015 handled by Rebecca Cross, who had been campaigning her in the United States. “Terrier comes from the word terra,” Huber noted. “So these are dogs that do have jobs, just like other groups of dogs, have specific jobs. And the work that terriers perform relates to earth functions. So we have everything from the short -legged terriers who have to be a bit tenacious, okay, maybe a lot tenacious, to go into burrows … think about if you went into a burrow or even saw a badger. If you drag that badger out with your teeth and get out of a burrow and bring it back. “Or then we have the smooth fox terrier whose job is to accompany individuals on the hunt and to be clever enough to round up that fox and alert the hunter as to where that fox is hiding. And yes, they are a little bit sly too. “And then we go to the larger terriers, coated terriers, I'll add, and their work is usually more above ground. So the shorter the legs the more into the earth they go. “You've got to think that most terriers come from the British Isles so you've got rocky terrain, you've got grass, you've got burrows to dig in and oh yes Scotties and these short -legged tears are extremely good as mousers and in digging up any tulips you might plant… “They are awesome squirrel hunters. So a terrier, when it is playing into its natural instincts, you also have to be a little tough because, like a cat, they're going to bring that dead prey to you very proudly. It could be a bunny. It could be a squirrel. So many of those types of creatures are fair game because most of the terriers believe they are bigger and stronger than almost anything else.”

Westminster KC 150th Anniversary with Don Sturz Host Laura Reeves is joined by WKC president Don Sturz to discuss the upcoming 150th anniversary of the iconic dog show. “Last year, we all kind of looked at this return to New York City, going into a new venue, the Javits Center, coming back to Madison Square Garden with new teams of people and spaces, we really kind of viewed that as a dress rehearsal and we were very open to it being like a learning experience. And I think what happened was it actually ended up being opening night,” Sturz said. From more sinks in the benching area to more bleachers around the rings, Sturz walks through the nitty gritty behind the scenes of the show venues. “In the Marketplace Hall, which is where the Westminster Merch store is, that hall is probably the one where we put the most effort into. In that one, there was so much more space there than what we thought we had. And so we've brought in more vendors,” Sturz said. “We're trying to have more activations in that room to engage spectators. There's going to be a historical and immersive installation in there, which will kind of take you through the history of Westminster and all the moments that will be really, really beautiful, I think. And I think with this addition of sponsors and vendors and activations and engagement and photo ops we’re kind of just taking it to another level. “We just shot a new Best of Breed winner video because that process is changing. (Previously) the Best of Breed winners filled out a card and took it to the Superintendent and got their MSG wristbands. “This year it's going to be different. Westminster will have our own best of breed table outside the superintendent’s office. So the card will be the same and you'll fill out the information, but you'll go to this desk, someone will be there to take that information and put it into a live doc that will be shared with MSG. You will get your credentials at the ramp at MSG because there was a lot of confusion for people, you know, as far as like who had the wristband. “We're really encouraging people to come as your team, come together, because you're all going to get your wristbands together. So that's a little different. And so this video will explain all of that.”

Junior Showmanship Regional Events Starting in 2026 Host Laura Reeves is joined by Mari-Beth O’Neill, vice president of sports services at the American Kennel Club, to discuss the planned Junior Showmanship Regional events for 2026. “I've always had that sort of dream that there would be something happening in each part of the country for the juniors,” O’Neill said. “And especially for the ones who may not be able to make it to Orlando, to the AKC National Championship or to Westminster. So, let's do something that's more local." Junior Criteria for Entry: The Junior must reside in the regionThe Junior will have earned three first place wins in an Open Class with competition in the prior 12 months ending 3 months prior to the date of the event Requirements for a club to host a Regional Junior Showmanship Event: Use of a SuperintendentShould there be an entry fee, it should not exceed the regular event feeThe Junior Regional must be held in conjunction with an all-breed eventAKC will offer $1,000 in Scholarship funds for Best Junior to be matched by the club Clubs are encouraged to take part in this exciting opportunity to support the next generation of exhibitors by hosting a Regional Junior Showmanship Event in conjunction with their all-breed show in 2026. To be considered, please submit a Request for Consideration Form by December 5, 2025, to juniors@akc.org.

Identifying Split Cycles and Silent Seasons Dr. Marty Greer joins host Laura Reeves to discuss split cycles and silent seasons in our bitches. Both are frustrating for breeders but they are not the same situation. “Silent heats and split seasons are not the same,” Greer said. “There are some bitches that fail to ovulate. They (likely) have a cystic ovary and that will cause them to have an initial indication that they look like they're in heat, but then they don't persist and they don't ovulate. “And then there are silent heats, which are kind of the opposite where the bitches come into heat, their ovaries do all the things they're supposed to do. Their hormones do all the things they're supposed to do, but they just don't tell you that they're in heat. They either keep themselves really, really clean or they just don't have much discharge. And there's really not a correlation between small amount of discharge and not having a normal ovulatory cycle. “So (a silent season) doesn't mean you have an infertile bitch. It doesn't mean that she can't get pregnant. It just means you have to be a little bit more strategic about how you manage her. And then we really have to talk about the nutrition. We have to talk about housing. You have to have at least 14 hours a day of full spectrum light. So if your dogs are in crates with crap stacked on top of it or they're in a room that doesn't have adequate lighting, they're not going to have normal cycles. If you're not feeding them the right kind of diets, they're not going to have normal cycles. If you've got them on weird supplements, they're not going to cycle normally. “Lots of things can cause a bitch to just pop out of season. And then four to six weeks later, she'll actually be back in season. The bloody discharge will go away and then it comes back. A dog that doesn't ovulate, the bloody discharge persists normally. If it's a split heat, normally the bloody discharge goes away, and then it comes back four to six weeks later, and then you go merrily on your way and breed her.”

Harnessing Youth to Build New Clubs [caption id="attachment_14619" align="alignleft" width="297"] Ellie Ovrom with her Drent and her All American dog.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Ellie Ovrom, Drentsche Patrijshond enthusiast, who has helped found two brand new clubs with just five years involved in the sport. “As I got more interested in purebred dogs and in performance sports,” Ovrom said, “I got involved with existing clubs and organizations around me, or in the case of the breed club, the national club, and as I was getting involved, I started to realize that some of the way that things were being done was not necessarily in alignment with my values and interests.  “And not only that, but I was making connections with other folks in those organizations who felt very similarly. And rather than lean into conflict, which is I think unfortunately what ends up happening a lot in dog clubs, we realized that there's space for all of us and we just want to enjoy the dogs.” A project manager by trade, Ovrom  noted that “a lot of the key skills of a project manager align really well with working in dog clubs or any volunteer organizations, frankly. It's a lot of managing process and managing people. So particularly in founding two new nonprofit organizations, we had to figure out OK, what is needed, in what order and how do we do this most efficiently and most effectively and try our best to get it right the first time. We don't always, but we try to get it right the first time, every time. “Nobody's getting paid for this. We're all doing it because we love it. And but people are busy. They have lives, they have families, they have their real jobs. How do you capitalize on people's skill sets and their passion without burning them out and building community at the same time?  “I think we've had things that have worked and things that have not worked, but recognizing that the intent of everybody is good is, I think the basic approach that I try to take is everyone's doing their best or wants to do their best. How can you help people achieve that is what I try to do.”

Adam Levy’s Secrets to Success of Top-Level Dual Dogs [caption id="attachment_14601" align="alignleft" width="322"] Adam Levy and Devon Kipp Levy work magic emphasizing the dual dog.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Adam Levy, breeder of Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, to talk dual dogs, retriever tests and what it takes to be successful at the top. Levy started in Chessies 16 years ago. In that time he has bred five BIS winners, including two with MH titles and field trial points. Working with his business partner Andrew Barbouche, Levy operates Next Generation Gundog Training in Minnesota. “Just because a dog is pretty or well put together or just because a dog has got a master hunter title, doesn't mean the dog should be bred, doesn't mean that it should really keep producing forward,” Levy said. “I don't mind a soft dog,” Levy noted. “I don't think that is a bad thing. As long as you have some grit behind you, I don't care if you have to kind of slow everything down and get them through the yard, as long as they have some good grit to them and they have that desire for themselves. “I won't take a quitter. A dog that wants to quit is just a big no-no for me and a dog that just doesn't look good doing the job that you've asked them to do. You know, we have to remember that the standard was meant to be able to have a dog that can last long. “I wanna be hunting with my 10-year-old dog. I don't want to be fighting through injuries because I've hunted this dog. I was just in Canada and we shot 1000 birds over a couple days. I want to be able to hunt that dog every day without it being sore or breaking down. So being able to be structurally sound and being able to have the brain to do the job that you asked them to do, those are must haves for me. [caption id="attachment_14602" align="alignright" width="348"] Levy focuses on dogs with the structure and the brains to work all day.[/caption] “And being able to have the willingness to “cut” a dog from a program because they're not that. And I think that's the hardest thing for breeders nowadays or people that can't have large numbers of dogs, they don't want to cut the one or two dogs that they have living in their house. And so I think that's where we kind of get stuck in mediocrity sometimes. Levy married Devon Kipp Levy in 2021. This powerhouse couple combines the field and show elements of their dual dogs in an enviable manner. “Devon is somebody that has such a great eye and is so talented hands on with a dog. I really get to see what a dog really looks like to their full potential with her. And I think it's definitely taken the breeding program to heights at a faster rate that I could have ever imagined. And it doesn't even have to do with the ribbons or winning. It's just being able to really see a dog move properly and watching a dog, you know, what they really look like. And being able to talk about those things. “Emotion needs to come out of breeding. And we should love our dogs and our dogs should be our pets and sleeping in our bed and love our dogs like they’re our own family. But when it comes to breeding, you need to take the emotion out of it. “You have to make the right decisions for your breeding program and for the breed. That's the hardest thing. (People think) “it's the best dog I ever had so I want to breed him.” Just because he's the best dog that you've ever had doesn't mean that it's going to help advance the breed.”

Veterinarian and Author Joins Fight to Support Responsible Breeders [caption id="attachment_14594" align="alignleft" width="248"] Dr. Nancy Kay, veterinarian and author, encourages clients to source their new dog from responsible breeders.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by veterinarian and author Dr. Nancy Kay to discuss her fight to support responsible breeders. Kay said that when she’s talking to clients about how to find a responsible breeder, she advises them, “If you're speaking with a breeder over the phone or online, first and foremost, the breeder insists that you come visit. They want you there. It's not necessarily about looking at their dogs, but that breeder wants to size you up. “They're not willing to sell one of their puppies to just anyone. They'll have more questions for you than you actually have for them. So once you're there, the breeder will speak very highly about her breed. She’s passionate about the breed that she adores, and she wants to enhance the breed through future breeding. So, she'll tell you all about the breed. She'll talk to you about all the health issues that the breed is at risk for. They'll show you all the health clearances on parents, as well as probably the aunts and the uncles and the grandparents. She'll ask you to sign a contract and most responsible breeders, part of the contract is if you ever need to rehome this puppy, I'm the first you call. “When you sign on with a responsible breeder, you're kind of becoming part of her family. She's going to want to keep tabs on your pup. If your pup develops a health issue, she's going to want to be the first one to know about it, second in line to your veterinarian, because if there's a problem, she wants to know about it. I mean, it is such an important relationship, the breeder and the puppy buyer and the veterinarian, the puppy buyer’s veterinarian.” Check out Kay's book Speaking for Spot.

Breast Cancer Awareness for You AND Your Dog Host Laura Reeves is joined by Dr. Marty Greer for an important reminder about the risks of breast cancer in our dogs and how to prevent and treat it. October is Breast cancer awareness month: How does hearing the words “she’s got breast cancer” affect you? Bring tears to your eyes? Start a knot forming in the pit of your stomach? Make you want a second opinion? Create anger at being cheated? The diagnosis: We all know and have been affected by someone with this dreaded diagnosis. Maybe it is you, maybe someone you love: a wife, sister, daughter, girlfriend, mother, another family member or co-worker. We know it is a life-changing experience - pain, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, fear of a shortened life expectancy. For many women, they are fortunate that advances in early detection and medical therapy has made breast cancer a story of survival instead of a death sentence. But this is not the path for all those diagnosed. Some are diagnosed too late or with a very aggressive form of the disease. Some cannot afford the medical care that allow for an improved prognosis. Some deny themselves the care they need. But for those who are blessed with great diagnostics and treatment that allow for stories of happy endings, they owe their successes to the incredible research that led to this improved prognosis and outcome. Part of the success story is thanks to the similarity of breast cancer in women with mammary tumors our dogs also are affected by. The dog has served as a research model for the disease in humans. Many advancements in human medicine are directly linked to the information discovered by research on the disease in dogs. Sadly, our dogs have not benefitted as much as humans have. In human medicine, there are two keys to survival: early detection and successful treatment. Self-breast examinations and mammograms have been credited with changing survival by early detection. Many organizations have put their resources into educating us about the importance of these two important detection tools. New diagnostic tools are on the horizon for humans. Of course, mammograms are not available for our dogs. They rely on us to detect their lumps and to seek appropriate therapy for treatment. Treatment: But, treatment is a very different story. Despite the similarities between this human and canine disorder, there are no widely accepted successful chemotherapy and radiation therapy programs available for dogs. Surgical excision is the only treatment option widely available at this time for dogs. Prevention: In contrast to humans, mammary tumors in dogs are nearly 100% preventable if owners would take one simple step – to spay their female dogs prior to age 2 or younger. We all know that spaying (ovariohysterectomy or ovariectomy) prevents heat cycles and pregnancy. What we have not always done as well as we should have as veterinarians is to educate our clients that spaying under the age of 2 prevents most mammary tumors. Spaying before the first heat cycle protects nearly all dogs. In the veterinary profession, we have also not educated our clients of the risks of spaying our female dogs. While it is true that spaying prevents pregnancy, mammary tumors, and pyometras, there is research that supports increased risk of other disorders thought to be related to removing the hormonal influence of the ovaries. There is an increased risk of urinary incontinence and associated urinary tract infections, osteosarcoma, lymphosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma, mast cell tumors, and hypothyroidism. Each of these disorders has an associated health risk ranging from mild to severe affecting quality and length of life, as well as financial cost to the owner. Even when dogs with mammary tumors were included in the study, they still achieved greater longevity than their spayed female...

Queen of Cords: Alice Lawrence on 55 Years of Corded Breeds [caption id="attachment_14557" align="alignleft" width="373"] Alice Lawrence with BISS GRCHB Fuzzy Farm All Things Considered (aka Spaetzle, on the left) and YOLO (on the right) Moonshadow You Only Live Once At The Fuzzy Farm.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Alice Lawrence, breeder-owner-handler of Komondorok, Puli and Havanese, to discuss her beloved corded breeds. Lawrence, along with her husband Steve, first owned an Old English Sheepdog. “We were brushing our arms off,” she said. “In 1972, we acquired our first Komondor and there's no looking back. And no, we never had another Old English Sheepdog. We love the breed. But we would never go back to brushing a dog like an Old English Sheepdog when you can have a dog of equivalent size or somewhat larger and be able to cord it. While cording a coat can seem daunting, Lawrence said, “Well, compared to brushing, it is (much easier), but you have to understand what a cord is, why a coat cords, and how to maintain the cord. It's a different discipline. We think it's much easier than brushing, and it's a lifetime of being able to have your dog in a proper coat rather than brushing the dog, showing it and shaving it down because you can't keep up with brushing it.” A “curated mat” “We think of cords as being a protection, a protection from predators. And the coat is very important to the environment and to the work that they do. Komondor are protectors of the flock. They do guard against such things as wolves. A fully-corded Komondor, not necessarily the length of the coat, but the density of the coat, will prevent the wolf from biting the dog. “The other thing is that Komondor and Puli in their native Hungary deal with very, very difficult weather conditions, and the coat protects them both from the cold as well as from the heat. It's an insulator. So it's really a very natural coat for the dogs to have for their entire life. “To cord any breed you really need a coat that is a double texture, an undercoat and an outer coat, and the undercoat is a softer coat, it's more cottony. The outer coat is wavier and it takes the wave of the outer coat to wind its way around the softer undercoat to create the cord. “That's what's creating this, call it a mat. It's a mat and it's an elongated mat. The thickness of the mat, sometimes it's natural as to whether or not a dog has a thick cord or a thinner cord, but for the most part it's how you divide these mats that occur that will determine the thickness of the cord.”  

Changing Hearts and Minds, One Livestream at a Time Host Laura Reeves is joined by friend of the pod Bobby Brian (BB) Lewis to talk about how he was able to change the minds of random members of the public using his YouTube channel. Lewis started his YouTube channel primarily to share with his puppy families and show how the puppies are raised. He said he was shocked by the amount of negative feedback and outright hate toward dog breeders that he received. “The easiest thing would have been to remove them from the channel. I mean, I don't know if that would be the best thing to do, but that would have been an easy fix to this. But I was trying to explain to them this is what we do. We do all the health testing on our parents. They must be at least two years old and have all their health certs before we breed them. And normally we like to even have a title on all of them before we do this. “One of the comments I had gotten was you're adding to all these puppies being put into shelters. And I said, "No, if you buy a puppy for me and you have to surrender it or if you change ownership, I have a contract and that puppy comes to me. “There's no way one of my pups will wind up in a shelter, and (the commenter) just, he didn't know what to say that night. That guy was stunned. “My eyes opened up all of a sudden and I was shocked that people were trying to call me out. To some degree you're thinking you're doing, which I know I'm doing the right thing, but when people start calling you names and those type of things, and then you're like, whoa, wait a minute, something's wrong, we need to stand up a little bit.”

The New and Aspiring Judge’s Journey with Channing Sheets “How you treat people is everything.” Host Laura Reeves is joined by German Shepherd Dog breeder and recently minted AKC judge Channing Sheets for a conversation about breeding dogs, the sport, judging and the honor of his first Westminster Kennel Club judging assignment. [caption id="attachment_14493" align="alignleft" width="550"] Channing Sheets with one of his GSD.[/caption] Sheets recounts his journey in dogs, starting with his dad’s bird dogs and hounds, through Keeshond and finally landing with his passion, the GSD. A member of the GSDCA Judges Education Committee, Sheets said the breed “has to be able to tend stock. You gotta do it all day long. You have to have good heart and lung function and then the secondary job is bite work. So you need to have a good bite, you need to have all your teeth and you need to have good occlusion. Now a button first premolar is a fault just because it's not a gripping tooth. Anything else I'm pretty much death on for that reason.” Like so many fanciers who are much more than just their dogs, Sheets works in high level occupational safety for the state of California. “I got recruited away to go to Cal OSHA and I was writing ebola guidelines and pandemic influenza guidelines. I do a lot of outbreak investigations, but I also specialize in workplace violence. So I deal with high profile active shooter cases.” “How you treat new people makes or breaks whether you get assignments, whether they want to show to you, or whether those individuals will continue to participate. “I really focus on puppy because I don't want them to have a bad experience,” Sheets said “and I don't want a new person to have a bad experience. Those are the two that we want to keep coming back. And if you do that, and they bring their friend, you'll grow exponentially, but you have to make positive experiences. Yeah. No one wants to go somewhere where they're going to have a negative experience."

[caption id="attachment_14468" align="alignleft" width="273"] Veronica Miller and a Portugese Podengo Medio.[/caption] Hot Topic: New Rules for FSS Breeds Host Laura Reeves is joined by Veronica Miller, Portugese Podengo Medio enthusiast, to discuss newly announced rules about FSS breeds. The August Board minutes launched a number of hot topics and discussions, including around limited registrations, but one of the hottest is taking place in the FSS community. The enthusiasts in this group are working with breeds progressing toward full AKC recognition. Many of these breeds are ancient and popular in other countries. “Since I came in initially,” Miller said, “we had to have 300 dogs registered. We met that. Then it was you had to have a minimum of 20 litters. We had hit that, but then they moved it to 20 liters within five years after moving to miscellaneous. We're about one litter away from meeting that and now it's 20 litters within three years. “And most of these changes have taken place since 2018. So, in a short number of years there have been a whole lot of changes. There has been no outreach to any of our breed clubs. We hear from AKC that they are a club of clubs, but changes are made for FSS and miscellaneous breeds without our input. And without any discussion or reasoning. “We want to make sure that we do have a healthy gene pool and good genetics within our breed. We also want to make sure that we have appropriate homes and forcing a set number of litters could potentially lead to people making poor decisions for the dogs. “And the other thing with this particular board decision that really, I think, pushed a lot of buttons is when things come before the board, it is brought before the board discussed and then they leave it until the next board meeting when it's been voted on, which allows for a feedback. And that did not happen. “A lot of this group is the under 40 crowd, which is not the usual. We have found breeds that we love and want to dedicate our lives to, and just because it's not the usual breed that's out there, it doesn't make them worth any less. We have the breeds that we have because they are special to us. And these folks are incredibly dedicated to these dogs. “We are really dedicated and want to do more with our dogs, which is the whole point here, but we’re being held back in so many ways. And unfortunately, that's going to turn these folks away from AKC and they may go to other venues or they may just stay at home with their dogs. And then we're losing a huge segment of people that could really grow our sport.”

Diagnosing the Limping Puppy: Pano, HOD, OCD and more… Host Laura Reeves is joined by Dr. Marty Greer for a deep dive on all the causes of a limping puppy. They cover when to have the puppy seen by a vet and what differentials are in play for the diagnosis. Panosteitis. Hypertrophic osteodystrophy. Osteochondritis Dissecans. These are long, scary names of disorders that can adversely impact our puppies while they are growing. From the relatively benign Pano to the frequently surgical solution for OCD, every time we see a limping puppy, our stomachs clench. Greer walks listeners through all of the various options and discusses the heritability of these disorders. “Make sure that you stay in good communication with both your veterinarian and the breeder,” Greer said, “because as an alliance, we can really make a big difference in how these puppies are diagnosed and treated. “Pano, I think growing pains is a pretty accurate description, and it's typically a young puppy usually at their most rapid growth phase, somewhere between 5 and 8 or 9 months of age. And they're usually but not always males. I know I've had it in females. The very worst case I. First Soft Piano was a female and it was not a heavily boned dog, but typically we think of them as heavy boned, like large bone dogs that have a lot of structure and typically boys because they typically have those thicker bones and more rapid growth than the things that boys do that girls don't. “HOD typically strikes when the puppy is younger. It’s going to show at the growth plates on an x -ray, they're going to show up as this widening, this weird kind of fuzzy look there. It is very painful, dogs have a fever and it's often associated with a vaccination. “OCD is generally noticed at 6-15 months. Cartilage in the joints peels off and difficult to diagnose in xray. Usually the shoulder, but not necessarily. “Fragmented Coronoid Process (FCP) and Ununited anconeal process (UAP) and Premature ulnar closure are growth disorders in the elbow related to elbow dysplasia. “Anytime you can say it's more common in this breed than another breed that means it's genetic.”

PennHIP for the Win on Reducing Incidence of Hip Dysplasia [caption id="attachment_14411" align="alignleft" width="399"] Dr. Karen Potter showing one of her German Wirehaired Pointers.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Dr. Karen Potter to discuss the value of PennHIP evaluations to reduce the incidence of hip dysplasia in a breeding program. “While yes, I do PennHIP my dogs,” Potter said, “I typically will go back and still get an OFA score on them. So I have both avenues to look at as I'm going through my breeding. With Penn Hip, we're able to have a number that I can use in order to then go forward with breeding and that gives me an idea of if I have a dog with a higher laxity score to then breed that to a dog with a lower laxity score to try to continue to bring the number down in the offspring trying to improve the quality. “What the PennHIP program has done is they determined the laxity score, which is how much the hip joint is able to luxate during movement. We all know the hip is a ball and socket joint and the laxity being how much the ball can come out of the socket. And so when that ball comes out of the socket, in each step, they found that those forces and each concussive force is what we then develop osteoarthritis from. “When we're looking at a PennHIP score, we're looking for a score that is smaller, lower numbers are better. So it's a distraction value saying this is how much we can passively distract the hip from the socket. And I say passively because we're doing this while the dogs are under heavy sedation or anesthesia.” Listen in to take a deep dive into the world of PennHIP scores, how the test works, what it tells breeders and how to use the scores in a breeding program. For additional information on the studies done on the efficacy of this testing method check out this LINK.

Episode 700: Re-imagining Dog Shows and Dog Breeding It’s become a tradition here at Pure Dog Talk to celebrate the important milestones. Episode 700 feels surreal to me! Since November of 2016, NINE years, I’ve been hopping in the van with you guys for your road trips, joining you on the treadmill and the lawnmower, at the grooming table and discussions around the dinner table. Crazy talk! But, here we are. This year we even kicked off a new adventure with the Marty and Laura Show, reaching out to the general public, your puppy buyers and your cousin’s uncle’s girlfriend with trusted, knowledgeable information on all things pet health. We’ve also developed the Pedigrees to Pups Seminar series and are actively in process of making those available as courses on demand. I’ve got a new audio book about to hit the shelves and a long list of really excellent conversations upcoming. So the future looks bright in podcastlandia. I’m just a little concerned I’m going to be talking to myself here eventually. As I watch the sport of dog shows dwindle, litter registrations drop off and dog breeders retire, age out, drop out and give up, it gives me pause for our future. I had a call recently from a long time judge who shared my concerns about the “future of the sport.” It’s not a new conversation. It’s been around for at least the last 25 years. And we’re still here chugging along. A little more spread thin with lots and lots and lots of small shows. A little greyer and gimpier. My friend discussed various initiatives from AKC that she thinks are to blame. But honestly I think it’s simple. Dog shows are expensive. Breeding dogs is ridiculously expensive. And really hard. You get the tremendous highs but those heartbreaking lows are really hard to take. Those of us who have dedicated our lives to this can’t understand why people don’t want to abuse their bodies, emotions and wallets for the chance at creating that one big winner. But a thing one of my guests said recently has really stuck with me. In his book Familiaris, David Wroblewski touches on a theme that I think we need to let roll around in our minds for a while. His fictional dog breeder character describes the importance of creating something lasting and beautiful in the world. The idea of pursuing one impossible thing. That dog breeding is something like a “great quest” and gives our lives purpose. So here’s my pitch. We need MORE dog breeders, not fewer. But we need more GOOD dog breeders. People who put the dogs not the profit margin first. Not saying making money is a sin. It isn’t. But when you center the dogs, the breed and the buyers, you might not retire a billionaire, but you won’t go broke either. We’ve spent a good bit of time this year on providing content that helps people understand HOW to do this and do it well. That’s a big part of why we created the Pedigrees to Pups seminars. We had Matt Stelter on to talk about website and content creation. We talked to my friend BB who started a YouTube channel with his Brittany litter. My challenge, dear listeners, is to extend your involvement. If you haven’t yet, consider working with your breeder to whelp and raise a litter under their guidance. Decide that ribbons get dusty, but building a strong family of dogs who will go on to bring joy to hundreds maybe even thousands of people over multiple decades is a vision worth having. It is a lifetime project that is WORTH your time, your effort, your investment, your blood, sweat and tears. Because I promise you, when you start walking toward the end of your path, and you look back at your “body of work” with pride and love and the extended family of puppy buyers going back decades, it IS worthy of your effort. Building something lasting doesn’t have to be a bridge out of concrete. It can be as real and as warm as the trusting gaze of an old friend looking out at you from the eyes of a new puppy. We don’t have to buy the...

Jake Bartells on NAVHDA, Epagneul Breton and Dog Clubs Host Laura Reeves is joined by Jake Bartells, a member of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) and breeder of Epagneul Breton. Their wide-ranging conversation about the inherent challenges of dog clubs is applicable to any club, of any type, anywhere. About NAVHDA “NAVHDA is an organization of about 10,000 members,” Bartells said. “It's mainly a testing organization that gathers data in a registry and that's where it houses the data is through the registry. All of the tests are done per a standard. So you're judged against the standard and each dog tested and each member has both a handler record and then the testing record for the dog. That data in an ideal world is used by breeders to then continue and better the breeds that we recognize and it's super useful.” About Dog Clubs “(It’s important) to have a complete transparent communication with (the membership). I think they deserve to know exactly where the organization's at at all times and not have to ask for it, have it be provided and put out there. I wanna see financial strength in the organization, having money gives you resources that allows you to do more, and then just absolutely upholding our mission, mission first by all stretch. I think that's done through building teams of great people. Nobody has to do the job alone.  For a living, I project manage and I can't build a house or build a casino or build anything else without teams and upon teams of great talented people. And with 10,000 members, we have an unbelievable amount of very talented people in very specific fields and most of which are willing to do it for the organization. About Epagneul Breton vs Brittany “It's one of those things where on paper, it doesn't look that different. When you bring two dogs out, it doesn't take a trained eye to start picking them out at a separate dogs very quickly and especially in the way they run. You know, the French say that they should run like a pig. They should have a shorter, choppier stride that comes from being, "cobby.” They’re as tall at the withers as they are long. And so they should move in that manner that's a bit different. “We can have orange and white, liver and white, liver, tri-color, and then orange tri-color, and black and white. The easy distinction is they're gonna have black nose, black lips, black eyelids, and they can have black on their heads, black toenails. So even the orange and whites are going to have black nose, black eyelids. It's never going to look like the pink nose of an American Brittany.”

Three Words That Strike Fear in Vets and Owners Host Laura Reeves is joined by Dr. Marty Greer talking about the three words that strike fear in both veterinarians and owners. “These three things are what can take a normal, easy, lovely day at the veterinary clinic and turn it upside down and cause clients to have to wait and then swear at their veterinary team because they don't understand why they have to wait because they had an appointment,” Greer said. Those three words, according to Greer, are GDV (bloat), Pyo (pyometra) and HBC (hit by car). Refresher on these three critical care situations: Pyometra is a uterine infection. “Fevers are almost never seen with pyometras,” Greer said. “And it's a hard thing to understand how you can have a uterus full of pus and not run a fever. But apparently the uterus is a privileged organ and it allows for foreign things to happen in it. That could be a pyometra. That could be a puppy. “So unfortunately, they almost never run a fever, so don't rely on that to be a symptom. If you were waiting for a fever to happen, it means that the uterus probably just ruptured and the dog now has a belly full of puss instead of just a uterus full of puss. And when your belly is full of puss, you're in big trouble. And so, if you're waiting for a temperature, you're decreasing your dog's odds of survival. “If your dog was recently in heat, they aren't feeling well, they're not eating well, they're perhaps drinking buckets and buckets of water, maybe vomiting, maybe have a vaginal discharge, maybe not. Do not wait for a fever (to take the dog to the vet).” GDV (gastric dilatation and volvulus) is bloat, where a dog’s stomach fills with air and may twist, causing a very rapid cascade of life-threatening events in the dog’s system. HBC (hit by car) and other trauma is covered in our K9 911 First Aid seminar series linked here.

Dog Breeding as a Vision Quest Host Laura Reeves is joined by NYT best-selling author David Wroblewski discussing dog breeding as a vision quest. Wroblewski is the author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and Familiaris both based on the life and history of fictional dog breeder Edgar Sawtelle and his family. “This sort of primal connection that we have with dogs, to me fundamentally is about how to live a larger, better life in a really broad sense,” Wroblewski said. “One of the things that you mentioned, kind of like in the theme of the novels, is the importance of creating something lasting and beautiful in the world. The idea that you're pursuing one impossible thing,” Reeves said. “And let me tell you, as somebody who has been breeding dogs since I was a child with my family and still am today, that basically defines our life. So talk to us a little bit about how you came to that and how you incorporated that into your novels.” “I think that there's only a couple of things that are worth writing about in the larger sense and one of them is love,” Wroblewski said. “And so I would hope that everything that I write is at some level and hopefully multiple levels a love story. But one of those love stories is the love of what you're trying to do in the world with your life. “I mean, we all need to pay the bills. There are plenty of things that are just functional things about day-to-day living, but there's also the larger meaning of what you're doing with your life. And I've been lucky to have to work with people in a number of different realms that are lucky enough to be able to say I'm not just trying to pay the mortgage. I'm trying to do something bigger than just me. “And one of the things that readers of Familiaris will run across partway through the book is a sort of accounting of this couple, John and Mary Sawtell. Familiaris is about this history of this kennel where everything takes place later for the Story of Edgar Sawtelle. But just an accounting of how all the work that they've done over the course of 40 years of raising dogs and placing them in the world, how that has accumulated and what the net effect across all human society has been. I feel like every time a dog gets placed with a thoughtful owner, that person's life has been changed forever.”

Swedish Lapphund and the Genetics of the Arctic Spitz Breeds [caption id="attachment_14251" align="alignleft" width="540"] Desiree Ramirez with one of her Swedish Lapphunds.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Desiree Ramirez to discuss the Swedish Lapphund and the genetics of the arctic spitz “archetype” that developed into landrace dogs and then different breeds over centuries. Swedish Lapphunds are not Finnish Laphunds or Finnish Spitz or Norwegian Buhunds or Norwegian Elkhounds or Samoyeds or Karelian Bear Dogs. Currently registered by AKC in the FSS, there are only about 40 dogs in the US. They are their own unique breed developed in the same region of the Scandinavian countries by the Sami people of Lappland (northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia). But these breeds all developed in the same basic region of the world. “We have archeological evidence of these lap -ish dogs going back four to 8 ,000 years,” Ramirez said. “Like some of the first dogs in Scandinavia and Europe. They were the landrace archetype. “And these dogs all are in haplogroup D and specifically when we talk about genetics specifically subclade group D1. Now haplogroup D is the most recent haplogroup in dog genetics that has the most recent wolf ancestry, barring any, you know, modern wolf mixes that we have. It is the most recent dog breed, dog type with wolf ancestry. [caption id="attachment_14250" align="alignright" width="536"] Swedish Lapphund puppy.[/caption] “That's why a lot of these dogs are these spitzy. That's why they looked so wolfy, they have a lot of those holdover traits because they're so close. Subclade Group D is specific to these Scandinavian breeds. So you're Finnish Lapphund, your Swedish Lapphund, Lapponian herders, all the elk hounds, they're all coming from that one subclade D. “(One) thing that makes them really different (from the Finnish Lapphund). This is where they really shine between the two of them is their temperament. OK, Swedish Lapphunds are a little bit more drivey. The first comparison I ever heard between the two of them was it's like comparing a V6 and a V8 engine. “The Swedish Lapphund is just going to drive and push and they really want to work, but they're the ones that will turn around and look at you in the yard and be like, OK, what are we doing next that? The handler focus that they have is extreme. They're always looking for you for that next thing that you want to do. “The Swedish Lapphund or the Lappish dogs were from the Sami people. And these dogs had to be versatile. They had to do everything. So hunting, herding, guarding, keeping the people warm, they had to do it all. There was no ability to specialize, right, if the owner needed it, that dog was doing it. “And to this day they still like to have a variety within the litter. So you might have a dog that's really good at hunting, which we still have dogs hunting and you might have one that herds and you might have one that is really just a great couch potato and they love that. They love that versatility and variety of temperament within the breed.”

The Tiny but Mighty Chihuahua with Kristi Green [caption id="attachment_14231" align="alignleft" width="416"] Kristi Green with BIS MBISS GCHG CH Knockout Pretty Little Liar.[/caption] Host Laura Reeves is joined by Kristi Green, talking about the tiny but mighty Chihuahua. From their slightly mysterious origins to best practices on finding and raising a well-bred dog, Green shares pro tips from her own successes and struggles. “I think that the biggest part about living with a Chihuahua is that they can be as good of a dog as you want them to be or as bad of a dog as you let them be,” Green said. “There's a lot of user error and really successful users, for lack of a better word, I hear people say that you know, they're truly trying to bite somebody and I think ‘mine don't do that.’ “I've had a lot of Chihuahuas come and go throughout my process. And, and how you handle them in certain situations really, really has a lot to do with the dog that you have. What you put in is what you get out. But just day-to-day life with them, they're wonderful dogs. You've got this little dog that thinks you hung the moon and the stars, whether you barely got out of bed that day or you solved World Peace. They love you no matter what. And that really is part of their charm. “It really has become the gold standard in Chihuahuas now that you do health test the dogs. That really has changed over the last 15 years since I started, and I think that that's important. Look for a breeder that's not just ohh, my dogs are healthy, they've been health tested, but that they're putting those dogs in the database because it says they care about the big picture, not just selling puppies, but they care about what happens in 15 years when somebody wants to learn about a pedigree. “A Chihuahua that's going to be a good pet really has been home raised. You know, they've been raised in your house. They've been raised under foot. They've been exposed to just life in a house. They also have been socialized. I think it's a good idea to ask the question of, you know, what do you do to socialize the puppies? How are the puppies potty trained? I mean, are you doing anything as far as those things go, because that early framework really does make a big difference as far as how the dog handles life for the next 15 years.” Read more in our 2018 blog post interview with Green HERE.