The Good Dog Pod

In this episode of the Good Dog Pod, host Laura Reeves is joined by Sally Hoyle, President of Dog Scouts of America. Hoyle tells us about the amazing ways that Dog Scouts can help you keep your dog happy and healthy. 

What is Dog Scouts of America? Dog Scouts are just like Boy or Girl Scouts, except your dog is the scout! These four-legged scouts learn anything and everything from swimming, to running agility courses, to painting with their paws. There are over a hundred different skills that dogs can be awarded badges for, and the best way for your dog to learn these skills is during Dog Scouts’ summer camps. 

What happens at Dog Scouts’ summer camps? Dog Scouts has its own campsite in Michigan, which encompasses 80 acres of trails, obstacle courses, lodging, and more. The camp typically lasts for 5 full days of instruction for both dog and owner, with multiple sessions during the season. Dog Scouts welcomes dogs of all ages, sizes, and breeds to participate in the camp. This summer, Dog Scouts will run both virtual and in-person camps. More information can be found on their website here: Dog Scouts Camp Information

What if I can’t travel to the Dog Scout campsite? Dog Scouts also has several smaller satellite campsites, as well as troops across the country. For more information on how to join a troop in your area, or start a new troop, please visit their website here: Dog Scouts Troops

Dog Scouts of America is proud to be celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. 

Will you be attending Westminster 2021? Join us for a Breeder Appreciation Party on Friday, June 11th. The event will be outdoors, at Hudson Anchor Rooftop in Tarrytown, NY. There will be free food, drinks, live music and giveaways. And better yet: dogs are welcome! Make sure to pre-register at: https://bit.ly/3f9fwGr and follow our Facebook Event for the latest updates!

This week on the Good Dog Pod, Laura Reeves is accompanied by Dr. Chris Zink, DVM. Dr. Zink is a canine sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist. 

What is a sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist? A veterinary specialist is someone who has done a three year residency specializing in learning about a very specific field. At the end of that three year period, the specialist has to pass a very complicated examination that requires months of studying. There also are many people who have attended rehabilitation training. Rehabilitation training often requires hundreds of hours of classroom and laboratory time, and oftentimes requires an internship. If we are talking about people who have a certification in rehabilitation, there are four main groups that offer these certifications. 

Four main groups that offer the certification:

• Canine Rehabilitation Institute
• Healing Oasis 
• Integrative Veterinary Medical Institute 
• Northeast Seminars

A person who is certified in rehabilitation therapy might be a veterinarian, or they may be a physical therapist, in which case they aren’t trained to do the veterinary component, but rather the rehabilitation component. They may in fact be a veterinary nurse who isn’t trained to make diagnoses either. If you find yourself with a dog who may have an orthopedic injury, first you want to go to your general practitioner veterinarian. They are familiar with your dog and they know you. Should you need a referral, Dr. Zink recommends not to go to a certified rehabilitation professional but rather to an orthopedic surgeon or a sports medicine specialist. Remember: veterinarian first!

How would your dog be treated? Some examples include laser therapy, therapeutic ultrasound, shockwave therapy, massage or other kinds of manipulation. 

For more information on dog rehabilitation, check out this week’s episode!

Will you be attending Westminster 2021? Join us for a Breeder Appreciation Party on Friday, June 11th. The event will be outdoors, at Hudson Anchor Rooftop in Tarrytown, NY. There will be free food, drinks, live music and giveaways. And better yet: dogs are welcome! Make sure to pre-register at: https://bit.ly/3f9fwGr and follow our Facebook Event for the latest updates!

John Honchariw is the founder and CEO of Companion, an automated dog training device. John introduces us to the inception of the product. He began by working on a robotics team at Google, where he had a realization: sensors can greatly help us understand the animals around us. A transition from robotics to animals? Pretty awesome. 

John saw an opportunity to use his prior experience in robotics to better understand canine movement. The movement and posture of a dog is very important, and can signal a lot about how dogs are feeling. More importantly, it is essential to see how that movement changes over time, and while it is difficult for us to remember how our dog moved 5 years ago, computers have perfect memories. John’s goal with this venture? To help dog owners maintain the essential human-animal bond throughout the dog’s life. 

Companion has worked on a limited number of dogs who suffer from separation anxiety, a relevant topic given the amount of pandemic puppies purchased during 2020. Companion steps in and gives dogs some more structure in their life - especially for dogs who now see their owners less because they are returning back to work. This device teaches your companion how to learn and keeps them occupied.

What does this device look like and how does it operate? Essentially, it is a device that includes a camera, a computer and a treat launcher. The goal is to train your dog that good things happen around the device through positive reinforcement. Once your dog is comfortable, the device starts looking for types of behaviors: sitting down, lying down or looking at the device. When these behaviors are recognized by the device, they are positively reinforced. 

When one acquires the device, you also gain access to a Companion coach. The coach is with you very intensively during the first month, to provide a white glove experience and make sure you become accustomed to the device. The app gives you direct access to your coach, where they are available for video chats during the first month. 

Interested in finding out more about the device? The website joincompanion.com demonstrates exactly how the device works and looks like. 

Will you be attending Westminster 2021? Join us for a Breeder Appreciation Party on Friday, June 11th. The event will be outdoors, at Hudson Anchor Rooftop in Tarrytown, NY. There will be free food, drinks, live music and giveaways. And better yet: dogs are welcome! Make sure to pre-register at: https://bit.ly/3f9fwGr and follow our Facebook Event for the latest updates!

Today on the Good Dog Pod Laura is joined by a very special guest: Dr. Chris Zink, DVM! Dr. Zink is a sports medicine specialist and many times author. Dr. Zink and Laura will talk about how to exercise your young dogs - a relevant topic given that many people have gotten dogs in the past year. 

Dogs are so incredibly varied in their shapes and sizes: all the way from a 3lb Chihuahua to a 150lb Great Dane. So, as our dogs grow, we have to be cognizant of their growth rate. Ultimately, we need to find the appropriate balance of exercise for our dogs that suits the dog’s size - which is a little bit different from humans, given that humans end up a lot more similar in size compared to canines. 

There are various exercises that dogs can engage in. The most common exercise that we think of for dogs are walks, but there are other forms of exercise to consider. These include balancing exercises, flexibility exercises, strength and endurance training. And lastly, there are the good for the soul exercises: getting out in nature, paddling through a creek, going through grass, or stepping through rocks. 

Let’s look at the appropriate exercise for an 8 week old puppy, as well as a 6 month old dog. 

8 week old puppy: Baby puppies are running, tumbling, playing with their owners. They are stretching and flexing their muscles. They are working both on their balance and flexibility. If a baby puppy is going on a walk, that walk should be a saunter. They should be on a long line (20 feet), it should be loose, and you should be following around as they smell their surroundings. The puppy should be walking you. 

6 month old: At around 6 months of age is the appropriate time to add any kind of strength training to puppies. Dr. Zink made the comparison that puppies, up until the age of 6 months old, are as similar to children up until the age of 10-12 years old. At 6 months of age, that starts to diverge, and larger dogs tend to mature more slowly than smaller dogs. 

Something that Dr. Zink noted which is important to consider is the difference in puberty between dogs who are neutered/spayed and those who aren’t. Any heavy exercise can be introduced to a dog who isn’t spayed/neutered after the age of 14 months, once the growth plates have closed. Now if the dog is spayed/neutered, that age is now shifted to 20 months, as growth plates now close at 20 months since puberty is delayed. 

When, why and how you should exercise your dogs? Listen to this week’s episodes for answers!

This week, Laura Reeves is at the Shetland Sheepdog Club of America National Specialty, in Albany, Oregon. Laura is joined by a group of Shetland Sheepdog lovers who spend the episode talking about the very fun breed. 

What makes a Shetland Sheepdog a great pet? Shelties are a beautiful breed, they are smart, intelligent, easy to clean and to train, and always willing to please. They are the perfect sized dog, and are fancy for their size. They are greatly adaptable: they can live in an apartment or in a farm - they are completely content with where you choose to put them. 

Who would not be a really good owner for a Shetland Sheepdog? If someone is interested in an extremely aggressive dog, or a guard dog, Shelties may not be the best fit. 

Shetland Sheepdogs are a vocal breed. They bark when they have a reason to bark. They aren’t recreational barkers, they bark for what they need to bark over and then they stop. 

Moving on to the health side of the breed. Shelties, comparatively, are healthy. There are not a ton of health issues, although they do have problems that can arise, just like all dogs. Eyes and heart are the primary health concerns. 

To find out more about this non-mainstream breed, head over to the episode!

This week on the Good Dog Pod, Laura is accompanied by a very good friend of hers, Susi Szeremy who is the founder of National Purebred Dog Day. Currently, there are 4 states across the US that have adopted National Purebred Dog Day as May 1st. 

Sushi Szeremy talks to us about the inception of National Purebred Dog Day: she wanted to create a day that would bring openness to the conversation of responsible dog ownership. Susi created a Facebook page and named it National Purebred Dog Day, but shortly forgot about it due to her deadlines in her writing career. When she returned to the page, it had gained traction within the online community, with over 5000 likes. 

Predictability is extremely important for many families. Whether you are looking to purchase a dog when starting a family and need an appropriate dog to be around young kids, or are looking to buy an older couple a dog who needs to be accommodative as they become more fragile. Purebred dogs offer the predictability that is often needed when purchasing a dog. 

Every year, Susi hosts a national photo contest, and this year Good Dog is sponsoring a prize for the contest. The theme? Who’s a Good Dog? There is no fee to enter the competition, the only requirements are that you either hand make or print out a sign that says National Purebred Dog Day or I Love My Purebred Dog to make sure that the photo was entered for this contest. Susi mentions how fun it is to see Purebred Dog lovers gather together and brag about their dogs. 

Owning a Purebred Dog comes with a sense of community. Once you purchase a Purebred dog, especially if you work with a breeder, you are immediately connected to a community of that breed where you can gather, learn from, and gain support from. Laura and Susi are passionate about Purebred dogs, and they dive deep into a conversation about the importance of Purebred dogs, the rarity of some purebred breeds and how purebred dogs have historically helped shape our perception of dogs.

We hope you all consider participating in the 2021 Who’s a Good Dog? Photo Challenge! For more information on past photo challenges head over to nationalpurebreddogday.com/photo-contest/.

On this episode of the Good Dog Pod, our host Laura Reeves is in Boise, Idaho at the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of American National Specialty. The scope of the episode is to talk about the German Shorthaired Pointers as pets, companions, showdogs, hunting dogs and more. Char, Bob, and Dave, our guests, all have immense experience with Shorthairs - over 30 years!

What’s it like to live with a shorthair? Shorthairs are described as energetic and athletic, they have high drive and are stubborn. They are full muscle, which is a good thing if you have room to burn that energy off. Once that energy is burned off (every day, not just on the weekends), they make as good of a couch potato as any dog. 

Dock diving, scent work and agility are popular activities to vent off the energy that Shorthairs have. The breed is designed for ultimate versatility - they are not only hunting dogs - you just have to give it a job. 

Char notes that they are an extremely people-oriented breed - it is the breed’s temperament and personality that hooked our three guests who are sitting in on this podcast. 

What is it like to go hunting with a Shorthair? It can be exciting and frustrating. They are a people-oriented dog and they want to please you - and as a hunting dog they will work with you. Being out in the field with a Shorthair is a beautiful thing, comments Char. 

Health Requirements and Issues in the breed? When you are looking for a puppy, the first thing you should do is look at what the AKC has done with the GSPCA and OFA (CHIC Program), which are the minimal health testing requirements recommended by the Breed Club. 

One problem in the breed is that Shorthairs have a reputation of being relatively clear of serious health issues. However, we have seen epilepsy pop up in the breed as well as cancers, cardiomyopathy and heart murmurs, among others. 

Laura concludes the episode by asking our guests what the very, very best thing about a German Shorthaired Pointer is. What is it that makes them incredible? Check out the episode to find out what our guests said!

This week on The Good Dog Pod, we are joined by our very own Cat Matloub, Esq. who is the Head of Partnerships at Good Dog. Cat is a trained attorney, and works with the rest of the Good Dog Legal Team on educating breeders about canine legislation around the country. 

Recent government overreach into the breeder’s home is a topic that continues to impact the average dog owner. Cat mentions that the legislation being passed does stem from having good intentions, but the individuals drafting those legislations are not informed on responsible breeding practices. The results are ultimately harmful to breeders who are engaging in responsible breeding practices, to the extent that many good breeders are pushed out of the system. When good breeders are exiting the system, and the bad actors become more prominent, we have less healthy dogs being bred. 

Laura emphasizes that there are indeed good breeders out there. 

Laura mentions her powerful conversation with Patti Strand, who is the President of the National Animal Interest Alliance. A specific piece of legislation is taking form in California. In California, if you are selling more than 20 dogs a year, or having more than 3 litters, you are already regulated to a certain degree. Much of what this new bill does is duplicative, but extends it to people who might have only one dog or cat, and choose to breed that dog or cat. 

The bill is called the Pet Breeder Humane Care Act, but Patti dubbed it as the Humane Breeder Elimination Act or the Breed Extinction Act of 2021. There is already a shortage of dogs, so the need for this bill is non-existent. California receives most of the dogs from out of state or out of country, so the argument that the bill is making is extremely weak. 

We now shift gears back to Cat, who talks about Good Dog’s position with regards to the animal legislation taking place in California. Good Dog’s position is grounded on our mission to unite dog breeders around the country, and to educate the public about the importance of dog breeders. Good Dog does not support the California Assembly Bill 702 nor any of the other overreaching and anti-breeding legislation. 

We encourage anyone who is a dog lover, dog owner, dog breeder, past dog owner to reach out to your state representative if you are in California, or Georgia, and talk to them or send them a letter. In our Legal Resource Center, www.gooddog.com/good-breeder-legal-resource-center, we have sample talking points and letters that you can use, as well as other useful documents. We encourage you to spread the word, and speak up!

This week on the Good Dog Pod, Laura announces that April is officially Healthy Puppy Month! Good Dog has partnered with Revival Animal Health to support the Morris Animal Foundation with their Parvovirus Research Efforts.

Starting April 1st, 2021 you can visit HealthyPuppyMonth.com to learn more about Parvovirus, hear stories about Parvo survivors and join us in our mission to promote puppy health by signing the Healthy Puppy Pledge. For every signature, Good Dog and Revival will each donate $1 to the Morris Animal Foundation. 

Laura introduces us to our two guests, Dr. Kelly Diehl, the Senior Director of Science and Communications at the Morris Animal Foundation and Dr. Judi Stella, the Head of Health, Standards and Research at Good Dog.

The Morris Animal Foundation has been around since 1948 when it was founded by Dr. Morris. Kelly introduces us to some of the unique research the Foundation is currently pursuing, including a project on horse behavior as well as donkey pain. Additionally, Kelly discusses the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, which was conceived of as a cancer risk study. 3,044 Golden Retrievers were enrolled between the age of 2-6 years old. Every year, the veterinarian and owner of the enrolled dog’s fill out a questionnaire (which is over 100 pages!), as well as creating a hair, blood, feces, nails and urine bank every year. The cost of the study, you may ask? $32 million.

Shifting gears to Parvovirus. Parvovirus is a horrible disease, which grows in rapidly dividing cells. The disease affects the GI tract, as well as bone marrow. Common symptoms include smelly, bloody diarrhea (Laura emphasized just how smelly it is) and a low white cell count, which is usually used as a diagnosis. Additional tests are then used to confirm. Luckily, vaccines were developed to tackle Parvo, but it has not been entirely eliminated. 

This virus has mutated over time, which led to further research on Parvo. The Baker Institute at Cornell is looking deeper into the Parvo mutation, and whether the current vaccines can protect dogs against these new variants. At a higher level, this research will also help us understand more about canine immunity. And lastly, they are looking at what configuration of antibodies is the best to ultimately be a treatment, and whether these antibodies could be made in the lab.

We encourage you to join our efforts to tackle the Parvovirus by signing our Healthy Puppy Pledge at www.healthypuppymonth.com !

Laura Reeves is joined by a very special guest, Zach Silver, who is a doctoral student at Yale University. Zach conducts research on how non-humans learn from and about humans. In this episode, we learn about how dogs learn. 

Zach introduces us to the different types of cognition that have been identified in dogs. When we think about dogs broadly, they have two types of cognition that can be divided into two important categories: social cognition and physical cognition. Social cognition encompasses any time a dog is making inferences about the social world, such as a judgement about a person. Physical cognition is when dogs are operating on their own, without their human. 

Laura poses the question of the episode: which breed is the smartest dog? For Zach, that is a very complex question and comes down to the fact that all breeds have these differently adapted intelligences. Herding dogs are excellent problem solvers, while retrievers have this cooperative relationship which makes them awesome at following services cues. 

Zach uses this episode to explain a little bit about dog domestication, how they evolved from wolves and started interacting with humans more and more. Additionally, Zach discusses the impact that early-life socialization has on the agility of dogs in the long term. Head over to the episode to learn more about canine cognition!