Madcap Radio

​This episode’s question is from a woman who’s showing her 16-week-old puppy in the AKC’s 4-6 month Puppy competition. She’s worried because her puppy wants to put her paws up on the judge and lick the judge’s face. What kind of training should she do to stop this behavior? I’ve brought along many, many, puppies, and a 16-week-old puppy that is happy to see a judge is a very positive sign for that puppy’s show career. And I have enough experience to know that this is a behavior that will wane as the puppy grows to an adult and becomes habituated to the show experience. Sure, you need to gently mold the puppy over time, but by the 100th time a judge or handling instructor approaches them, they’ll be old enough and hungry enough to ignore that person. So it’s not like you really need to do any special training or program for this issue. It’s more about accepting it as normal. But puppy owners don’t always have that long view, and they seek ways to “fix” this perceived problem. And we have to honor the emotional needs of puppy owners and give them some training to do. Because if we don’t give them some positive training techniques, they’re liable to fall prey to aversive training for their wiggly puppies. So, in this episode, I talk about what you can do specifically to work on this behavior, what training programs we offer for this, and also the reasons why this is a self limiting problem IF you don’t do the wrong thing and create bad feeling for the puppy with ill-advised handling and corrections. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

​This episode is a big one on young puppies who guard their possessions from humans. The breeder is stumped. She’s never seen resource guarding or aggression in any of her puppies, and it’s understandably upsetting that she now has a 7 week old puppy that suddenly turned on the breeder when the breeder tried to take a chew object away from the puppy. I unpack the emotion around this phenomenon and why, if you do the right protocols with young puppies that display resource guarding behavior, your chances are very good for an excellent outcome - meaning zero resource guarding and a puppy that you can confidently place in any home. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

​This episode is inspired by a fan comment on Episode 51 - Teaching Show Puppies to Sit: Will The Real Show Stack Please Stand Up? "I have found that even thinking about sitting in a breed like mine (Lakelands) leads to a slight relaxation of the tail, which must be vertical or with a slight curve toward the head when baiting in the ring. It's a minor thing, but can make the difference between Winners and Reserve" What a great comment. She’s not wrong, if your puppy is thinking about sitting in the show ring, there’s going to be that bit of relaxation in the tail. But, why is your puppy thinking about sitting in the ring? Plot spoiler, it’s not because he has learned to sit on cue ;). Tune in for my recommendations for and analysis of the “ups and downs” of puppy tails. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

We’re continuing our conversation about why puppies get returned to breeders — and what we can do to help prevent that from happening. This episode is about the perspectives breeders shared in response to the original question. It’s a wide-ranging discussion covering topics from whether breeders should offer refunds when a puppy is returned, to unexpected connections between pure positive trainers and Prozac, to how to give puppy owners the benefit of our wisdom without making them feel we're overstepping our bounds. The breeder comments on this thread were thought-provoking and brought us to some slightly uncomfortable places, which I really enjoyed.  I think you’re going to enjoy listening to it just as much as I enjoyed recording it! Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.

Puppy returns are an unpleasant reality of being a breeder. At the end of the day, no matter how well you screen, you're going to get puppies back if you breed dogs. This week's episode is a response to a breeder who got a puppy back from a puppy owner who ignored the breeder’s explicit written instructions regarding training and veterinary care/medication, and disaster ensued. The puppy is going to be OK but the breeder is wondering, could she (the breeder) have done something differently? The people seemed so nice, how could the breeder have gotten this placement so wrong? In this episode I address this question, talk about what is an is not within our control as breeders, and share some resources for stacking the deck in your favor when it comes to puppy placements. Visit our website www.madcapradio.com for further reading.