This week’s question is about whether doing Puppy Culture or any other early socialization program can guarantee good outcomes for puppies.

“…I was talking to a breeder about Puppy Culture and I told her that if she would just adopt the program, she would eliminate any temperament issues with her puppies.  Am I right about this?  Isn’t Puppy Culture a guarantee that puppies will have good outcomes?”

In this episode I tackle:

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This week’s question is about whether you’re supporting or interfering when you help mom with her neonate puppies:

“…I've noticed that you lay in the box with Velvet and provide significant assistance to her. Among many groups of breeders, there is a faction who strongly advise to essentially let Mom alone in the first days as she has instincts and knows what to do, and that the presence, participation, and assistance of humans may be bothersome to her.

So, I'm wondering if this is breed dependent? Or an individual preference?”

In this episode we talk about:

• The variability of maternal behavior

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This is part two of my podcast, answering many questions one of our fans sent in about raw feeding puppies.  

In this episode I cover:

• AAFCO’s “Complete and Balanced” designation and why it’s relevant to kibble but not relevant to you if you feed a varied raw diet.

Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading.

This week’s episode is a fan request on feeding puppies a raw diet:

My breeder uses and recommended Puppy Culture as a resource for my partner and I in preparation for our Toy Poodle pup that we'll be picking up in a week or so. We've completed your Puppy Owners Course, the Puppy Culture and Attention is the Mother films, and have started binging your podcast- love your stuff!

I'm wondering if you could make an episode on feeding dogs raw food. We plan to feed our pup raw (the breeder currently feeds raw) but it is a bit intimidating for people who are new to this diet! I'm wondering if you could cover a few things:

1. The science behind it / health benefits

I know a lot of this is google-able lol, but I've found that there is a lot of fear-mongering around feeding raw (from both owners and vets) so I wanted to reach out and see what your thoughts are!

There were too many great questions here to fit them all into one episode, so I’m doing this in two parts - In this episode, which is part one, I talk about:

• Why we feed raw to our dogs and our experience with feeding raw for the past 26 years

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This week’s conversation is the result of an interview that I did with Jean Donaldson a few weeks ago. In it, Jean mentioned that it’s now a “thing” not to offer puppy play groups for puppies. The thought is that allowing puppies to play will make them less likely to pay attention to their owners.

This raised a big discussion in the Puppy Culture Discussion Group, with many pet owners, breeders, and trainers coming down hard on the side of not taking puppies to puppy play groups. What I found through this exchange is that the theoretical truth and the practical truth do not always align…

In this episode, I discuss:

• The benefits and parameters for puppy play groups.

Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading.

This week’s question asks what the earliest is that breeders have observed consistent personality traits in a puppy:

“Out of curiosity, how early have you noticed personality traits developing in your litters that did stick around until the time they went to new homes or even beyond?

In this episode I discuss:

• Various breeders’ experiences with early personality traits.

Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading.

This week’s podcast is a fan request about the concerns one breeder has about the “corporate takeover” of veterinary medicine and how that is affecting her puppy owners:

“What information and resources do you use to help your puppy buyers, especially new/first time dog owners, screen and select a veterinarian?

In the past couple of years, and seems like more lately, I get these questions from my puppy buyers that their vet told them something that ranged from harmless but not really accurate to so aggressively incorrect it felt like a scam and even a danger to the puppy. I know stuff can get lost in translation, I know some medical professionals are better than others, and I know vets and their staff are stressed and overworked. But I also fear the rise in this issue is related to venture capital takeovers and it's going to get worse…

Since it feels like a trend, and especially because I have a breed suitable for first-time dog owners, I would like to be more organized and proactive in providing information on how to vet a vet. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and suggestions.

PS - maybe this would be a good podcast episode?”

In this episode I explore:‌

• How the corporatization of vet medicine affects puppy owners

Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading.

This week, my guest, Jean Donaldson, chats with us about how to be a smart dog training consumer.

We delve into both practical and ethical questions when it comes to finding a puppy class, and Jean shares the answers to her three questions you should ask any dog trainer:

• What exactly will happen if my dog gets it right?​

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This week’s podcast is about puppies and owners who can’t seem to bond with their owners. The original question is long, so here’s the gist of it:‌

“Functionally Mac is excellent. Crate/House training/Obedience excellent…He sleeps through the night. He is great at puppy classes...He is good with other people and dogs…He was good at the vets. No problems so far with loud noises or anything like that…The problem is that we have been unable to build a relationship with him. He doesn’t respond to affection at all. We find it hard to make his tail wag. He will briefly let us stroke him, but this usually ends with a bite. He is unwilling to let us pick him up. He will play enthusiastically with toys, but this will quickly progress to biting and frenzy…We have had rescue dogs before, we have had puppies before, but we have never experienced this lack of relationship…we have tried everything we can think of to improve the relationship... We fear that the situation will become worse”‌

In this episode I explore:‌

• The three most common causes of “non-bonding” between puppies and their owners

Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading.

This week’s topic is the significance of trainer certifications:

“Will knowing a trainer’s certification help you find the “Best” trainer?”

In this episode, I discuss:

• The significance of different training certifications

Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading.