Episodes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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