Pure Dog Talk

Telemedicine for Pets Fills Need During Pandemic

Dr. Melissa Webster is a veterinarian at Tampa veterinary hospital and Highland pet hospital in Tampa FL. Webster shares invaluable information about telemedicine for our pets in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shelter in place orders across the country have pet owners worried about their animals’ health and veterinarians worried about their practices. Telemedicine offers the opportunity to get help with our pets and a potential source of income for veterinarians trying to stay afloat during this crisis.

Webster works with an ap called Airvet. Pet owners pay $30 and are connected to a licensed veterinarian who can help them assess their dog’s situation.

“I can't diagnose, treat or prescribe for your pet directly (if the dog isn’t a current patient of my brick and mortar clinic),” Webster said. “I can say ‘hey, there's green gunk in your dog’s eye’… I can ask you historical questions, when did it occur and is she bothered by it, and we can look at it and look at her eye and decide is it something where you need to go to the vet right now, a sort of triage situation, or is it something that can be looked at tomorrow and kind of see how we can fit this into your life and help your dog.”

In some situations, like Webster’s specialty reproduction practice, telemedicine offers peace of mind for her clients that she can actually see the puppies, the dam, offer insights or suggestions without any risk of exposure for herself, her staff or her clients.

While this isn’t a solution to every situation, obviously surgery and physical intervention in a medical situation will require in person clinical visits, it is an invaluable tool in today’s upside down world.

“I think it's a huge resource,” Webster said “and a way for us to support all the pet owners right away that's financially a lot more attainable for the pet owners … I'm really excited to see more veterinarians coming on board that were kind of thinking ‘yeah I might do this in the future’ well here we are now … the neat things about the service that I'm a part of is that if your veterinarian isn't available you will get a veterinarian.”

Learn more about Airvet here. Read the AVMA position statement on telemedicine here.

New Dog Breeders Offer Hope for the Future

Purebred dogs need more, new, young breeders. This is the consensus opinion of our top experts in the field. Preserving our breeds and encouraging more participation in our sports requires the energy and enthusiasm of youth.

So, I reached out to the Pure Dog Talk listener community to find some of these folks. This was my conversation with Sam and Curtis Brown about the breeding program they are developing in Bull Terriers (bonus, a teaser for our “rare breeds month” in April!).

This was an outstanding conversation that gave me hope for the future. Enjoy the podcast! A couple of excerpts are below.

Continue striving for better

Curtis: “I'm the one with the puppies all day and I'm the one doing multiple C-sections by myself, which I never would have seen myself doing, and delivering puppies. So, it's difficult in that aspect. But when it comes right down to why we continue to breed, for me there are two reasons.

“The joy on the faces of the families when we get to send companion puppies home with them has always been a remarkable thing. Companion puppies that people just love forever. Our Delicious bull terrier family of everybody to who we sent puppies follows us on Facebook and continuously posts pictures of their dogs as they grow and we get to kind of see them grow.

“You’re like ‘well maybe we should have kept that one in hindsight,’ maybe next time we’ll think of it differently before we put it in a pet home. But as we go on and as we continue to breed obviously we want to continue to breed better dogs … even if we have an amazing dog or an amazing bitch like the one who we just had win the grand futurity at our Silverwood show this past year … we still want to continue to strive to breed better dogs, not only for our breed but for the betterment of our breed. … preservation breeding, continuing to do things and enhance the breed the best that we can, not just in type but the temperaments and everything.

“So that's why I think when we continue to breed. Not just take … that one dog and then just run it until you win Westminster … or whatever the case may be. We have to continue to create the next best thing. … we go to the Silverwood specialty show and a lot of people are showing dogs that we've seen in the ring many, many years over and we're the ones there with all of these young puppies …”

Family affair

Sam: “It's an incredible journey … you're going to make some concessions in your personal life. Mostly sleep … but you're also going to go all over the world you're going to meet incredible people … we have friends that are closer than our extended family in dogs. … when you're breeding you know you're really doing something that's very special. It's not only special to you, but it's special for those families that are going to be getting dogs from you …

“…it's great for kids … we do everything as a family. We go to the shows as a family. We raise the puppies as a family. We do the chores as a family. It is something that a family can do, that's not in an agricultural area. You can raise a litter of puppies in the suburbs, it's not a big deal … it's something that you can sort of instill some of those 4H type lessons into your kids. We always advocate for responsible breeding … but I think it's a positive thing and it's definitely a family thing, at least for us, that everybody can be involved in. My kids, they've bottle-fed puppies and they clean up after dogs. I think that's really important stuff when it comes to our sport. I heard Pat Trotter say at one point ‘You know it's great to run around to get ribbons but someone's gotta be doing the cleaning up and the breeding’ and that's kind of where we're at with it.”

Eye Health Testing Helps Breeders See Clearly

Dr. Adam King, veterinary ophthalmologist, is back to talk about the importance and implications of various eye health screening.

“What we're doing is we're just looking for any abnormalities for any of the structures around the eyes,” King said. “So with the globe itself, with eyelids, with a third eyelid and then kind of going inside of the eye, the cornea, the iris or the colored portion inside of the eye the lens, the vitreous, which is the jelly like stuff in the back part of the eye. And then back into the fundus with the retina and the optic nerve.

“And so what we're doing is just kind of scanning for any abnormality that we have there… some of those abnormalities may be inherited and some of those abnormalities may be congenital but not inherited, so something that they're born with but not something that we consider to be inherited. And in some of those abnormalities could just be acquired so something from like an infection or a trauma or something like that.

“When it comes to the inherited changes that we see, some of those can be either something that we're really concerned about, something that the animal will fail the exam for. Some of those things are something that we do consider inherited but we don't really care that much about, it's not something that's going to affect the vision or the comfort of the animal. We give those a breeder option. So they do pass their exams “normal” exam. That's just saying ‘hey there is probably nothing to worry about but just so you know this is there.’

“Some of the things we mark down, we consider kind of probably inherited but it doesn't even come up with a breeder option so it just still passes … they’re probably inherited just 'cause we do see them more frequently in some breeds than others but they don't progress and those are something that we don't really see as too concerning.”

To find out about the eye health of your breed, visit the OFA’s amazing collection of data at:

https://www.ofa.org/diseases/eye-certification/blue-book

 

Dog Breeding: We’re ALL in this Together

Patti Strand, the founder of the National Animal Interest Alliance, joins host Laura Reeves to talk about all dog breeders working together, raising the bar for the health and well-being of all dogs.

Strand provides an outstanding historical perspective on the question of dog breeding throughout the 20th century, commercial breeding operations to meet community demand for companion dogs, the programs put in place to monitor breeders and the confusion of outdated information.

“…there is a passion among commercial breeders today to do a better job and to learn how to do a better job,” Strand said. “One of our (NAIA) board members, Marty Greer, is a veterinarian. She gives a lot of seminars, a lot of health seminars … veterinary care-type seminars in the commercial dog breeding world. And she says she never had a more attentive audience. These people are taking notes and they’re asking questions. They're excited about breeding. They’re excited about husbandry. So just a ton of really positive changes have taken place.”

Strand, a Dalmatian breeder for decades, added, “I'm a hobby breeder. I love what I do. I try to do it well. But what I'm really working toward is trying to support people who try to conduct themselves in the best way possible with the information and education and materials that we have.”

As president of NAIA, Strand works on legislation that impacts all breeders. Including researching actual numbers of dogs in animal shelters around the US.

“I had this experience last year in working on some legislation,” Strand commented. “I had a situation where a woman who owned a pet store asked me to help her and she told me that she was doing everything right.

“(I told her) ‘if you can demonstrate to me what you're doing and you have a solid operation I will try to help you.’ So next morning I get up and I have like 150 documents from this woman. Every single puppy she bought from somebody whose USDA inspection reports were excellent. And not only that, every single puppy she bought had parents who were health tested for the very things that the hobby dog breeder world requires when you go to our AKC parent websites. The Breeders that were working with this particular distributor were all going to the AKC and the parent club websites and finding out what the requirements were for their breed and then duplicating it. So believe me, even 5 years ago you would not have seen that,” Strand observed.

“I think the reality is that we would all want pet stores or breeders, whether they’re hobby or commercial, who are doing things badly and where animals are being harmed not to be able to operate. I mean it's just that simple. So with us at NAIA, we’re just all about conduct rather than categorizing people by putting a particular marketing label on people and then saying this label is no good and that label is good.”

To Deduct or Not to Deduct: Tax Time for Dog People

Karen Bodeving, CPA joins host Laura Reeves for an important discussion about dogs, the IRS and your taxes. for hobby breeders, professional handlers, dog clubs and many of us involved in purebred dogs.

Dogs and Taxes... Who is affected

Karen Bodeving CPA, CGMA, Rogue Valley Financial

Hobby Breeders vs Breeding as a business

If you sell a puppy (or a litter) or take a stud fee, you still need to report it.

Hobby Breeders HAVE to show the income, but they cannot take the expenses.

If it is a Hobby: You MUST claim the Income on your tax return. – This MUST be reported in your gross income.  Sell one puppy for $100 (or more)?  Must be shown on your tax return!

Hobby: Can you take deductions?

The TCJA (tax cuts and jobs act) suspended miscellaneous itemized deductions until 2026, removing the ability to deduct hobby activity expenses, other than cost of goods sold.

Before 2018 -If a taxpayer's activity is considered a hobby, he or she may deduct its expenses only up to the amount of the hobby income; therefore, a loss from a hobby cannot be deducted against other income. In addition, hobby expenses must be taken as miscellaneous itemized deductions; as such, they will be subject to the "two percent of adjusted gross income" floor, which will limit the amount of the deduction further.

This means even though you might have had $15,000 in expenses of showing etc it was not is NOT a direct offset.

Breeding as a Business means you TREAT it as a business.   The IRS really wants to disallow your expenses under section 183 of the Internal Revenue code . But they have set some tests up to see if you are a hobby or a business.

The first test is an “OBJECTIVE” Test.

First, if a taxpayer can show that he or she realized a profit from the activity in three out of the most recent five consecutive years including the current year, the service's objective test will be met and the activity will be considered as engaged in for profit. If the activities consist primarily of breeding, training, showing or racing horses, the presumption applies only if the activity produced a profit in 2 of the last 7 tax years, including the current year. You have a profit when the gross income from an activity is more than the deductions for it.

If your dog breeding activity passes this 3 year years-of-profit test, then it is presumed that it is carried on for profit. This means it will not come under the scrutiny and limits imposed on hobby losses. You can deduct all of your business deductions from the activity, even for the years that you have a loss. You can rely on this presumption; unless and until the IRS shows it is not valid.

The second test is the “SUBJECTIVE” test.

Do you operate your business in a business-like manner?  Do you have a budget? Do you have applicable permits?  Do you have a business plan? Do you have separate books and checking accounts? Can your business appreciate in value? Does it look like you gain personal pleasure from the activity (a business usually requires Work, a Hobby usually entails “Fun”).

The Tax Court has held that a couple was not entitled to deduct their net losses from a dog-breeding activity, finding that the activity was not engaged...

Protecting Ourselves and Our Dogs from Legal Jeopardy

In light of an increasing number of aggressive and questionable prosecutions of purebred dog hobbyists in local jurisdictions, Dale Martenson and host Laura Reeves discuss prevention and preparedness.

We maybe own the dogs, but the responsibility owns us back – Dale Martenson

“We are our brothers keepers in this,” Martenson said, “because every time we hear one of the salacious stories about somebody who is famous or a very successful longtime person ending up in trouble, that is when we as a community as a whole have failed because we need to be there in a little bit of a way, lifting each other up and kind of helping, maybe sometimes even saying something a little bit truthful…

Constructive Criticism is Good

“Embracing the inspections and licensing with open eyes and receiving criticism, constructive and otherwise, is a big plus when you are putting together your facility to keep the dogs. You really need to have a facility that fits your breed and your climate. Like my little 24 inch X pens for Japanese Chin probably would not work so well with your German wirehaired pointers…

“You really need to know what you need to keep your dogs, how you need to maintain them, how you need to keep them healthy and happy. Then also take that extra step. I enjoy signs and plants and stuff, so my kennel (has) a garden … I spend a lot of time in there.

An Ounce of Prevention

“If you're hiring help that you're not aware of, that you don't know, this is not someone that you know intimately … then perhaps you should take an extra moment and do a little bit of background check on them… some places actually have non-disclosure agreements and “accepting of liability statements” so if someone takes a picture of a dog that they're supposed to be caring for in your facility and then shares this in some sort of inhumane way that they are legally responsible for that as an employee.”

“I guess that the whole thing is to try not to break the rules … Just because we have ribbons from the dog show, does not exempt us from the rules. The rules are the rules and they don't care that your dog won the group in the Garden. If you have 35 dogs and you're only allowed to have five where you live (for example) you're putting your dogs at jeopardy.”

Bugs are Coming! Safe Products for Breeding Dogs + Coronavirus

Dr. Marty Greer brings her pragmatic Veterinary Voice to the topic of Coronavirus and what products are safe to use for flea, tick and heartworm prevention in breeding dogs.

COVID-19 is not currently believed to be communicable between humans and dogs. Coronavirus is a general term for a *shape* of a virus and encompasses a variety of viral infections in many species. For more information on recommendations regarding veterinary care during this outbreak, click here.

As spring brings the reemergence of various creepy, crawly parasites that affect our dogs, Greer provides in-depth information about which products are safe for use on dogs in our breeding programs, including brood bitches and stud dogs over the course of time, as well as bitches in whelp.

Greer said, “I think it's really appropriate for us to stick to the EPA and FDA approved drugs that we know have been tested and safe in breeding animals. So, for instance, Bravecto says there were no clinically relevant treatment-related effects on body weights, food consumption, reproductive performance, semen analysis, litter data, gross necropsy or Histology findings in adults and puppies. So we need to be looking for that kind of language on a label before we go slapping things on or popping things into our dogs … I just want to be perfectly clear for what products have or have not been tested.

"So there's three basic categories of flea and tick medications. There's the collar, there's the topical, the oil that goes over the back of the neck or down the back and there's the tablets or the chewables. So there are the three general categories and of those three there's no collar …. labeled for that use in breeding dogs … the topicals, some are definitely labeled and some are not definitely labeled. …if it says like Frontline says safe for breeding, pregnant and lactating dogs and cats, then it's safe. If it doesn't say that you shouldn't use it. It needs to be clear. And if we look at the oral there's …. three oral medications that are not labeled for use in breeding animals. Bravecto is labeled for use in breeding animals. So we need to be really, really clear that we're looking at the labels or reading the instructions and we're thinking at eight weeks of age, what is the this dog’s future, not just is she pregnant right now, but what is her future.”

Advantage Multi for Dogs

Imidacloprid and moidectin

Flea, louse, heartworm, hookworm, whipworm, roundworm and mange.  Topical every 30 days

7 weeks/3lbs

Safety not established.

Advantage Multi for Cats

Imidacloprid and moxidectin

Ear mites, flea, heartworm, hookworm and roundworm.  Topical every 30 days

9 weeks/2 lbs

Safety not established.

Heartgard Plus

Ivermectin,

Pyrantel pamoate

Heartworm, roundworms & hookworms Tablet every 30 days

6 weeks

Safe in pregnant or breeding bitches, stud

Pugs: Mischievous and Charming Companions CAN Work

Three long-time breeders join host Laura Reeves to talk about all things Pugs. Kim Langlands, Brenda Belmonte and Patti Kolesar Stoltz share the joy of Pug dogs, their companionship, their functionality, their snoring and their health.

Ancient history

[caption id="attachment_7742" align="alignleft" width="225"] Patti Kolesar Stoltz[/caption]

“The exact origin of our breed is actually lost in antiquity,” Kolesar Stoltz said. “What we do know is that the Pug is of Chinese origin … he was known in the Orient as early as 700 BC … the breed was developed as one of three short faced dogs bred in China for the Imperial court … it's believed that the Pug found his way to the western world via Dutch merchant traders … because when people from the Western world, at that time, would go to China and conquer, they would bring back presents for their Royals. Pugs were one of the presents that they brought back and they became the favored of monarchs throughout Europe. There is no doubt that the Royal patronage helped to establish the popularity of the breed. In fact, Pug dogs were twice the most popular breed in Europe, in the late 1600s and during the Victorian era… the wonderful thing about Pugs being so popular in the Victorian era is we can visually follow our breed through history because it was very often the favorite subject depicted in many forms of art -- early paintings, sculptures, porcelains, so we can follow his history … the breed has a wonderful temperament. They make ideal companions. We were admitted to the American Kennel Club in 1885. We are the largest of the toy breeds and we are one of the most mischievous, also the most fun. And we still remain dignified loving and trusting of everybody.”

Myth busting

[caption id="attachment_7745" align="alignright" width="242"] Brenda Belmonte[/caption]

It's a pervasive myth that these flat nose breeds can't breathe normally, Belmonte noted, therefore they can't do normal things.

“It's unfair to our breed to just assume that because it's a Pug it's unhealthy,” Belmonte added, noting her work with the breed in nosework, agility and obedience. “I think the general public needs to hear that and they need to see what our pugs can do so that we can combat this belief that, ‘Oh my gosh our pugs are unhealthy,’ that’s very, very far from the fact. As a

[caption id="attachment_7740" align="alignleft" width="300"] Belmonte's pug competing in nosework.[/caption]

breeder and somebody who's been in the breed a long time, I truly believe that good breeders have the best interest of their dog’s health at heart. So yes, it's about being a good, responsible breeder and it's about knowing that these dogs can breathe normally and they can do the things other dogs can do.”

Healthy habits

Langlands observed that, although the breed has evolved as time has gone on, the brachycephalic dogs were never intended to run marathons.

[caption id="attachment_7743" align="alignright" width="300"] Kim Langlands[/caption]

“This is a breed (that is) more than capable of doing agility and other performance events and going out and being good little happy pets and going for walks,” Langlands said. “They’re as healthy as people want them to be and take care of them to be. If you take good care of...

How Judges Decide Placements: Conformation and Obedience

Part two of our panel discussion at the Regina Kennel and Obedience Club’s Prairie Christmas Dog Show with an international coterie of judges focuses on: the details of breed type and presentation, exercising patience, judging uncropped and undocked dogs, legislation and growing our sport.

From Sue-Ellyn Rempel on making a final placement:

“I guess for me general outline for starters and then movement is very breed specific for me. So I kind of go by that…. they have to scream German Shepherd … a lot of times we get … a class of 5 and they're all generic … they get from point A to point B really well they stack and their moderately angulated like the breed should be but they're not smooth, they don't flow in the correct way…. like the make and shape difference in the shape from a Great Dane to a whippet… whippets you want the beautiful soft gentle curves… that's gotta hit me right away… when I look at them, that they are the right shape and then when they take the steps, that puts the picture together for me.”

From Frances Smith on what she sees in the ring:

“I find it very important to reward the breed specific, unique characteristics because (there are) a lot of generic dogs, too many generic dogs, too many dogs that finished championships that really… shouldn't be … because supposedly a champion is a superior specimen of the breed. So it's up to us to keep the quality and to reward those breed specific points because without them we lose those identifying points of each breed. I want to add another thing that's very important, temperament, which is also one of the 6 points in type, … because the temperament has to belong to the breed …without the correct temperament I don't care if a dog is extremely showy, he's gotta have the breed’s temperament. I don't want just a fancy dancer in the ring … I don't want to see a dog jumping and doing things that aren't typical of his breed.”

From Diana McKenzie on changes she’s seen in her time in the sport:

“There's been a ton of changes over the years in obedience … even training methods OK these days are so different from what they were 20-30 years ago. … unfortunately a lot of people go into obedience and they think it's easy. OK rally is easy, yes. Obedience is not easy. It is not a given and it's something that you as a handler have to work with your dog to attain a nice working relationship with and train the behaviors. Rally is easy to me, I shouldn't say it's easy to everyone, but it's a wonderful venue to train with your dog and teach your dog in a positive way how to move its rear end and be aware of its rear end movement which a lot of people don't do. (That’s) just one small thing that you can think of to work with them. Fronts, finishes, drops, all of that are in rally obedience as well as the heeling, so when you see a team in rally obedience and they are true team it's wonderful. … in obedience … over the years training methods are changing. Corrections, harsh corrections, are becoming less and less used (people are) more into the purely positive methods. That's wonderful, if you know how to do it properly. A lot of people don't, therefore they get a brat in a dog that goes in (and says) “I don't have to 'cause there are no consequences…”

Judges Share View from the Center of the Ring

[caption id="attachment_7733" align="alignleft" width="240"] The Prairie Christmas Dog Show judging panel on "pajama day"...[/caption]

These judges share their 411 stories and their views from the center of the ring. This is part one of two from our panel discussion at the Prairie Christmas Dog Show in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Our panelists share common paths to involvement with purebred dogs. Frances Smith talks about family connections and, bonus, the story of transporting Yorkshire Terriers from England to Argentina by ship. Obedience competition that started with a mixed breed dog brought obedience judge Diana McKenzie to purebred dogs. Sue-Ellyn Rempel talks about coming to dogs from horses.

You only get one chance to make a first impression and these panelists agree it really is a critical piece to judging.

“I want to see type, quality, balance, and to know a dog is a dog, a bitch is a bitch,” Smith said. Rempel agreed, noting outline, angles and breed type are her first look.

McKenzie added that she wants to see that each handler-dog team to be a really a *team.*

Making the picture becomes a critical piece of success, as each judge has a picture in their mind of a “perfect” one of each breed.

Essentials of type

“Many people don’t exactly know what type is,” Smith observed. “Type is the essence of a breed. It’s what makes each breed unique and different from another.” Smith’s clear and concise definition of the six factors of type is magical.

The six elements that define each breed: head, color, size/measurement, temperament, coat, movement.

“Movement is breed specific. Temperament is type,” Smith said.

Applying breed type to obedience performances, McKenzie offered a fascinating perspective.

“With different breeds in obedience competition, you still have breed type,” McKenzie said. “Different dogs sit differently and at different speeds, for example. How straight they are affects score. Just because you’re fast doesn’t mean you’re going to be good. Sometimes slower workers are more precise workers.”